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Although the amount of data on the Italian Copper Age has increased significantly in the last decades, little is known about the relationship between humans and the environment. Material culture su...

This paper presents a preliminary assessment of the prehistoric and protohistoric periods investigated by the Udine University in collaboration with the Sapienza University of Rome and the Duhok Directorate of Antiquities in the region of Northern Kurdistan (Iraq). The investigated area features different geographical units, such as mountains, piedmont areas, intermontane basins and valleys, and the alluvial plains of the Tigris River and its tributaries, each of which has different types of vegetation, soils and natural resources. Despite this very rich and variegated landscape, the region has been thus far little explored: except for an initial phase of groundbreaking research in the mid-twentieth century, archaeological projects have been limited to spatially circumscribed surveys and rescue excavations. Attention has been given to the historical periods, while the most ancient phases of human occupation of the area have been little investigated. In this paper, we aim to fill this gap with a preliminary summary of seven years of archaeological survey (2012-2018) that allows us to outline the principal chrono-cultural aspects and settlement strategies that characterised this region from the Lower Palaeolithic to the Ninevite 5 period. Cet article présente une synthèse des recherches sur les périodes préhistorique et protohistorique effectuées par l’université d’Udine en collaboration avec l’université Sapienza de Rome et la direction des Antiquités de Duhok dans la région du Kurdistan septentrional (Iraq). La zone étudiée comprend différentes unités géographiques, telles que des montagnes, des zones de piémont, des bassins, des vallées intercalées entre les reliefs montagneux et les plaines alluviales du Tigre et de ses affluents – chacune présentant différents types de végétation, de sols et de ressources naturelles. En dépit de ce paysage très riche et varié, la région a jusqu’à présent été peu explorée : à l’exception d’une phase initiale de recherche au milieu du xxe siècle, seuls des prospections assez limitées et des fouilles de sauvetage ont été effectuées. De plus, ces recherches ont concerné surtout les périodes historiques, alors que les phases les plus anciennes de l’occupation humaine de la région ont été peu explorées. Dans cet article, nous comblons cette lacune en présentant le bilan synthétique des connaissances issues des programmes de prospections géo-archéologiques effectuées entre 2012 et 2018 qui nous ont permis de retracer les principaux aspects chronoculturels et les stratégies de peuplement ayant caractérisé cette région du Paléolithique inférieur à la période Ninevite 5.

Climate, environment and man interactions in the Holocene evolution of the Tiber delta: palaeobotanical and archaeological data.The integration of palaeobotanical and archaeological data from recent studies carried out in the Tiber delta allows reconstructing the Holocene landscape evolution of the coastal area near Rome, revealing a long history of climate, environment and man interactions (Manfredini, 2002; D'Ambrogi et alii, 2009; Di Rita et alii, 2010; Bellotti et alii, 2011).The geomorphological, sedimentological, palaeobotanical and archaeological data from sites located in the northern and southern sides of the Tiber delta clearly document major environmental changes, including eustatic sea-level variations, geomorphologic processes, groundwater fluctuations, desiccation events and micro-climatic processes, which have produced dramatic and repeated landscape transformations, with inevitable repercussions on the local plant biodiversity and human communities.Human activity, documented in the area since the Neolithic and characterized by significant Eneolithic and Bronze Age settlements, appears to have had a marginal role in the landscape evolution. Only the Etruscan and Roman exploitation of the area for salt extraction produced an important impact on the landscape, becoming a major factor for environmental instability.When considered within the last thousands of years, the modern environmental situation appears a snap-shot, destined to new, abrupt and dramatic future changes.