On the ecology of ancient and recent woodlands: the role of historical approach

This chapter presents several Italian case studies to interpret and discuss the concept of ancient forests by means of methods and sources used by historical ecology. The historical approach adopted by the Laboratory of Environmental Archaeology and History (LASA) of the University of Genoa involves the use of multiple sources (textual, geographic, archaeological, ethnologic, oral, environmental), a regressive method and strong spatial and social contextualization. In fact, the methods of British historical ecology have been developed by reworking and comparing contents of British local history with those proposed by the Italian microhistory. The sedimentary and observational sources generally related to woodland environmental archaeology are now more generally produced and analysed as part of an archaeology of environmental resources. The strengths and weaknesses of this approach is illustrated through two selected case studies concerning the history of Mediterranean multi-use systems of woodland resources (agrosilvopastoral). The first case study pertains to a mountain area (Upper Trebbia-Aveto Basin) while the second is on the coast of western Liguria (Merula Valley, north-west Italy.