Collapse or Survival

Micro-dynamics of crisis and endurance in the ancient central Mediterranean

Elisa Perego, Rafael Scopacasa, Silvia Amicone

• Publisher: Oxbow Books
• Year: 2019
• ISBN:
  9781789251012
• Topic: History
• Subtopic: Ancient History
• Index: History

In the present-day world order, political disintegration, the faltering of economic systems, the controversial yet dramatic consequences of global warming and pollution, and the spread of poverty and social disruption in Western countries have rendered 'collapse' one of the hottest topics in the humanities and social sciences. In the frenetic run for identifying the global causes and large-scale consequences of collapse, however, instances of crisis taking place at the micro-scale are not always explored by scholars addressing these issues in present and past societies, while the 'voices' of the marginal/non-élite subjects that might be the main victims of collapse are often silenced in ancient history and archaeology.
Within this framework Collapse or Survival explores localized phenomena of crisis, unrest, and survival in the ancient Mediterranean with a focus on the first millennium BC. In a time span characterized by unprecedented high levels of dynamism, mobility, and social change throughout that region, the area selected for analysis represents a unique convergence point where states rise and fall, long-distance trade networks develop and disintegrate, and patterns of human mobility catalyze cultural change at different rates. The central Mediterranean also comprises a wealth of recently excavated and highly contextualized material evidence, casting new light on the agency of individuals and groups who endeavored to cope with crisis situations in different geographical and temporal settings.
Contributors provide novel definitions of 'collapse' and reconsider notions of crisis and social change by taking a broader perspective that is not necessarily centred on élites. Individual chapters analyze how both high-status and non-élite social agents responded to socio-political rupture, unrest, depopulation, economic crisis, the disintegration of kinship systems, interruption in long-term trade networks, and destruction in war.

Chapter 1

Micro-dynamics of crisis following disaster events in late Bronze and Iron Age northern Italy

Elisa Perego and Rafael Scopacasa

Introduction

This chapter concentrates on selected instances of crisis following occurrences of natural disaster. It addresses the consequences of disaster episodes on the daily lives of people as expressed through ritual practice. Our study area is northeast Italy, where a wealth of highly contextualized material and environmental evidence allows us to explore the impact of disasters in view of micro-dynamics of community daily life (Fig. 1.1). We will discuss instances of flooding that were not destructive enough to threaten survival and inhabitation, but still affected the development of the sites involved, and left proxies in the archaeological record. An apparent succession of flooding episodes in central Veneto around 625–575 BC (e.g. Balista 1998a; 1998b, 245; also Balista et al. 1992, 18) was concomitant with a phase of accelerated socio-political transformation and potential instability.1 Innovation in ritual, technology, settlement organization, trade links and consumption patterns, seems to be accompanied by an increase in social inequality and evidence of violence potentially directed against marginal subjects (Perego 2016). Our focus is on the settlements of Este and Padua, which were periodically affected by devastating flooding episodes, or by the unpredictable developments of riverine landscapes over time (e.g. Balista 1998a; 1998b; Balista and Rinaldi 2005). We explore the intersection between environmental and social change, alongside an investigation of socio-ritual practices of resilience identifiable at the micro-scale. Our analysis suggests both the élite’s concern for ancestral burial sites damaged by the floods, and the development of ritual forms of abuse, including potentially human sacrifice, which might have been a response to social and environmental strain. Such instability may have been connected with intense social competition as well as changing environmental conditions. We discuss this evidence by adopting an agent-focused approach that explores the possible connections between social practice and environmental factors in determining social change (cf. Perego and Scopacasa 2018).

Figure 1.1. Map of Italy with main sites mentioned in the chapter (drawn by Elisa Perego and Lars Heinze; base map courtesy of the Ancient World Mapping Center).

This chapter is an outcome of our long-term work on collapse and climate events in the ancient central Mediterranean (c. 2300 BC–AD 25). Of special interest are the long- and short-term consequences of crisis on social agents that operated in the affected systems and fought to cope and survive (Perego and Scopacasa 2018; on collapse cf. also e.g. Weiss et al. 1993; Diamond 2005; Kneisel et al. 2012; Stevens and Fuller 2012; Shennan et al. 2013). As regards natural disasters, our aim is to examine how such events may have determined or influenced different trajectories of sociopolitical development and the creation of different identities. We are also interested in the different coping strategies that people adopted to survive and adapt to either abrupt or long-term environmental transformations. Micro-scale analysis allows for high-resolution evaluation of the consequences of disaster and climate-related events. It also affords a re-evaluation of causative factors, while exploring crisis and its consequences on potentially vulnerable social segments, such as women, children and low-status individuals. Ultimately, this analysis will contribute towards a framework for the archaeological study of collapse and crisis, and their connection with inequality – while also addressing potential limitations in evidence and methods.

Background

Our research on collapse and crisis events is a multiphase initiative exploring different levels of scale (cf. also Perego and Scopacasa this volume). We achieve this by moving between the macro-and the micro-scale, both in a temporal and a spatial sense. Our work to date has employed different analytical methods to explore the nature of collapse and crisis episodes in late prehistoric and early Roman Italy (cf. Perego and Scopacasa 2018 on Daunia). We focus on a selection of micro-regions that underwent different types of crisis episodes (e.g. Roman expansion and climate change) in the second and first millennia BC. To date, the sampled data mainly include information collated from available publications, comprising osteological evidence, climate proxy data, and archaeological remains.

The information collected so far is allowing us to individuate diverse types of crisis episodes, according to factors such as the intensity, rate, and direction of change. It is also allowing us to investigate people’s responses to natural disasters, climate oscillation, and/or accelerated socio-political change (e.g. below, Daunia and Frattesina; cf. Perego and Scopacasa 2018; this volume). We are examining the effects of such phenomena on the marginalized people that represent a key focus of our research.

Research carried out starting in 2013–14 has focused on instances of flooding and abnormalities in hydrological regimes in northeast Italy between c. 1500–200 BC. The study area has been selected for the wealth of archaeological and environmental data available. It also yielded a rich funerary record which allows for an exploration of ritual practices of coping and survival at the micro-scale. The study area has provided significant evidence of abnormal mortuary behaviour and ritual violence (cf. more recently Perego 2016; Gamba and Voltolini 2018; Tamorri this volume). Such data have allowed us to investigate the potential consequences of crisis events on individuals who might have been marginalized or exploited to different degrees by the community.

The macro-scale

Northeast Italy is characterized by a complex geomorphology and is prone to extreme hydrological events (Bondesan et al. 1995, 1355–6). Especially in antiquity, water was a dominant feature of the regional landscape. Classical authors such as Livy (10.5), Pliny (3.119–121, 126–131), Strabo (5.1.5) and Vitruvius (1.4.11) recall the plain studded with marshes, the coastal lagoons flushed by the tide, and the impressive drainage works undertaken by the Romans to reclaim the region (Capuis 1993, 12–9). Among the long and now navigable watercourses that run from the Alps to the Adriatic are the Po, Adige, Brenta, Piave, Tagliamento and Isonzo Rivers (Capuis 1993, 13–9). Today, the Adriatic coast adjacent to the Po and Veneto-Friuli plains consists of more than 300 km of low sedimentary shores, with present-day Monfalcone and Cattolica on the two tips of the crescent formed on the sea, and the Po Delta projecting eastward at the center.

In the Veneto region, both catastrophic floods and minor flooding episodes have been documented in prehistoric and historical times up until the present. For example, recurrent flooding is documented at the key late Bronze Age trade and production hub of Frattesina, in connection to the paleoriver known as Po di Adria (cf. e.g. De Guio et al. 2009; Di Anastasio 2010; Perego and Scopacasa this volume). Flooding is also attested at the main Iron Age settlements of Este and Padua, which we discuss below, in connection to the Adige and Brenta/Bacchiglione paleorivers (e.g. Balista 1998a; 2005; for flooding in historical times cf. for instance the Polesine floods in 1882 and 1951; on flooding episodes connected to minor watercourses cf. for instance the case of the Agno River in 1795 and 1882: Visona 2014, 5). Flooding has been attributed to a variety of causes, sometimes operating in conjunction, including climate change (Balista 1998b, 245; 2005, 20; cf. below), rainstorms, and human error in river and land management (e.g. Botta 1977; Bondesan et al. 1995). For the late Bronze Age and the Iron Age period, attention has been paid to climate change potentially connected to the Göschenen cold phase I and the Subboreal/Subatlantic transition (e.g. Balista 1998b, 245; De Guio et al. 2009, 134; Peretto 2010, 17; cf. also Balista 2005, 20; and below for further discussion). In the coastal area, flooding events have been connected to sea surges in addition to river overflow (Bondesan et al. 1995, 1360). Episodes of marine ingression and regression are also documented and may have been responsible for paleoenvironmental change and recurrent crisis in the settlement organization on the ancient coast (e.g. Bianchin Citton 1994).

The study of historically documented floods in Veneto can help shed new light on the consequences of disaster episodes for human communities. These episodes also provide insights into the complex causative factors that might be responsible for crisis and social change at different levels of scale, in both modern and ancient times (on flooding in modern times: Botta 1977; Cibotto 1991; Lugaresi 2001 [1951]). For example, the major flood that occurred in the Polesine in September 1882 was followed by famine and contributed to social upheavals in the region (the so-called Boje movement) and the migration of approximately 63,000 people to South America by the early twentieth century (cf. below for further discussion).

The meso-scale

Flooding

We now zoom into a more specific area and period – namely central Veneto during the early Iron Age (first half of the first millennium BC). In particular, recent research has suggested that in central Veneto, the period c. 625–575 BC was characterized by both unrest and socio-technological innovation (Perego 2016). The seventh and sixth centuries BC are also noted to be concomitant with instability in hydrological regimes (cf. Balista et al. 1992, 18; Balista 1998a; 1998b; Balista and Rinaldi 2005; Gamba et al. 2014). Evidence of flooding is largely documented at the main settlements of Este and Padua. In a stratigraphic sequence obtained from the site of the Este Ricovero cemetery, the period under consideration is marked by a significant flooding episode from the Adige which has been dated to around the mid- or late seventh century BC (named flood FL 66b by the excavators: cf. Balista 1998a). This flood, which is discussed in this chapter, was soon followed by others that are documented in the same stratigraphic sequence.

At Padua, the seventh and sixth centuries BC were also a time of significant instability of the local riverine system, which, however, does not appear to have affected the entire settlement to the same extent. It is unclear which of the two main local rivers (Bacchiglione or Brenta) ran through Padua in the period under consideration, given that both river courses have changed over the millennia (Mozzi et al. 2017, 2 cited in Gamba and Voltolini 2018). Flooding is certainly documented in phases predating the period in question (Gamba et al. 2014). However, an increment in fluvial activity around the seventh century is suggested by the stratigraphic sequence obtained in 1990–1 from the Via Tiepolo burial site which we discuss below (Balista et al. 1992, 18; Balista and Rinaldi 2005, 18). A significant flooding episode dating to around 675 BC interrupted funerary activities in the cemetery segment adjacent to the paleoriver. This was followed by a rebuilding of the local tumuli, which were now delimited by low kerbs and wooden fences (Gamba et al. 2014, 127; this flood has been named US 3622=572).

Another major flooding episode that occurred at the end of the seventh century, or at the very beginning of the sixth, is apparently connected to the foundation of a large burial structure (Tumulus A) which we examine below (Balista et al. 1992, 19). At least five flooding episodes dating to the sixth century were identified during another archaeological investigation of the Via Tiepolo cemetery in 1988 (Ruta Serafini 1990). In view of the available evidence, this segment of the Via Tiepolo cemetery began to be used around 600 BC, when the earliest known tombs were constructed. These earliest tombs were dug into a substantial alluvial deposit that was at least one meter thick (Ruta Serafini et al. 1989, 14–5). The effects of at least two major flooding episodes are also documented in the settlement, in the site occupied today by Via S. Fermo (Balista 2005, 18). These two floods date to the late seventh or first half of the sixth century BC, and around the mid-sixth century, respectively. In the sixth century, a palisade was also built in the settlement area corresponding to present-day Via S. Pietro 143, to protect the productive and habitation area located nearby.2

Social change

The period under discussion (c. 625–575 BC) is also marked by archaeological proxies of both innovation and instability:

1. New forms of spatia...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title
• Copyright
• Contents
• List of figures
• List of tables
• List of contributors
• Preface and acknowledgments
• Introduction. Collapse or survival? Crisis and social change inancient central Mediterranean: Elisa Perego, Rafael Scopacasa and Silvia Amicone
• 1. Micro-dynamics of crisis following disaster events in late Bronze and Iron Age northern Italy: Contents
• 2. Taphonomic approaches to funerary evidence in times of collapse and crisis: Veronica Tamorri
• 3. Back to Manfria: Continuity or disruption in the countryside of Gela in the fourth century BC: Claudia Lambrugo, Lars Heinze and Silvia Amicone
• 4. Beyond the graves: Crisis and continuity in the Hellenistic funerary contexts from the Calvario cemetery (Tarquinia): Vera Zanoni
• 5. Crisis and decline in Morgantina under Roman rule: A reassessment : Monika Trümper
• 6. ‘What on earth became of them all?’ Continuity and change in Macedonian society after the Roman conquest: Frank Daubner
• Finale. Micro-collapse and marginality: Looking to the future: Elisa Perego and Rafael Scopacasa