Nuevas publicaciones de Angelo Castrorao Barba en revistas de alto impacto

Angelo Castrorao Barba (EEA, CSIC) participa en dos publicaciones interdisciplinarias, en revistas de alto impacto (“Landscape Research” Q2/CiteScore 1.72/ImpactFactor 1.902; “Sustainability” Q2/CiteScore 3.08/ImpactFactor 2.592), sobre el tema de arqueología e historia de los paisajes en los Monti Sicani en Sicilia occidental.

• Bazan G, CASTRORAO BARBA A.*, Rotolo A., Marino P. (2020) Vegetation series as a marker of interactions between rural settlements and landscape: new insights from the archaeological record in Western Sicily, «Landscape Research», 45:4, 484-502,  https://doi.org/10.1080/01426397.2020.1730774
  * corresponding author

Resumen:
Plant communities are complex and dynamic elements of the landscape, intertwined with both natural factors and human activities. Vegetation series reflect the environmental characteristics of the landscape, but also the anthropic impact, one of the exogenous forces that most profoundly affects the landscape formation process. This paper aims to investigate the interactions between long-term human settlement catchment areas and vegetation series. The case study area of the Sicani Mountains (Central-Western Sicily) proved to be an ideal place to perform GIS-based spatial analysis in order to compare a data set of rural archaeological sites and land units created through the mapping of vegetation series. The existence of a causal link between vegetation series and human settlement patterns allows us, as well as future researchers, to find new explanations for the formation of the multifaceted Mediterranean rural landscape.

• Bazan G., Speciale C., CASTRORAO BARBA A.*, Cambria S., Miccichè R., Marino P. (2020) Historical Suitability and Sustainability of Sicani Mountains Landscape (Western Sicily): An Integrated Approach of Phytosociology and Archaeobotany, «Sustainability», 12(8), 3201.
  https://doi.org/10.3390/su12083201
  * corresponding author

Resumen:
Since 2015, the ongoing project “Harvesting Memories” has been focused on long-term landscape dynamics in Sicani Mountains (Western Sicily). Archaeological excavations in the case study site of Contrada Castro (Corleone) have investigated a settlement which was mainly occupied during
the Early Middle Ages (late 8th–11th century AD). This paper aims to understand the historical suitability and sustainability of this area analysing the correlation between the current dynamics of plant communities and the historical use of woods detected by the archaeobotanical record. An
integrated approach between phytosociology and archaeobotany has been applied. The vegetation series of the study area has been used as a model to understand the ecological meaning and spatial distribution of archaeobotanical data on charcoals from the Medieval layers of the Contrada Castro site. The intersection between the frequency data of the archaeobotanical record and the phytosociological analysis have confirmed the maintenance of the same plant communities during the last millennium due to the sustainable exploitation of wood resources. An integrated comparison between the structure and composition of current phytocoenoses with archaeobotanical data allowed us to confirm that this landscape is High Nature Value (HNV) farmland and to interpret the historical vegetation dynamics linked to the activities and economy of a rural community.