The Ancient City and Nature’s Economy in Magna Graecia and Sicily

The panel offered archaeological landscape studies and paleoenvironmental reconstructions, thus shedding light on human-environment interactions. Archaeological research combined with Earth Sciences made different patterns of these interactions visible at several sites in Magna Graecia and Sicily. Approaches combined archaeological methods with Geoarchaeology, Palynology, Zooarchaeology, and Climate History. The case studies covered a long period, reaching back to the early phases of Greek settlement on Sicily. Moreover, shifts in settlement dynamics between Roman and Greek times were observed and hypotheses created by taking a paleoenvironmental perspective. At the same time, economic and social implications and their effects on the data were considered. Examples originated from survey archaeology as well as from samples gained during excavations.