Transhumant pastoralism has played a central role in shaping and managing Mediterranean mountain landscapes. Together with specialized agricultural and sylvicultural practices it has played a pivotal role in transforming the ecology of environmental systems over time: from plant and animal populations, up to the physical-chemical properties and structural characteristics of the soils. This contribution aims to identify and characterize agro-sylvo-pastoral practices and related environmental effects at Monte Mongioie (SW Alps, Italy), a summer pastureland historically affected by transhumant livestock from the Tyrrhenian coast and the Po valley. High-resolution, multi-proxy research is presented, combining pedoanthracology, palynology, archaeobotany, archaeoentomology, malacology, biomolecular analysis, soil micromorphology, and chemistry with radiocarbon dating and historical ecology observations. This evidence has been cross-checked with documentary and iconographic sources (i.e. historical texts and maps) to unravel the complex historical practices related to the use and management of grazing resources. The integrated analysis revealed a well-preserved Roman to Medieval paleosol with high organic content, rapidly buried by a Late Medieval colluvial event that sealed the underlying features. The analyzed assemblages document persistent open grassland landscapes from the Roman period onward, maintained through sheep/goat grazing, temporary cultivation, and controlled fire use for vegetation management within a commons regime system. Progressive woodland encroachment from the 19th–20th centuries reflects the gradual abandonment of historical agro-sylvo-pastoral practices. This research highlights the high potential of dry off-sites as archeological and environmental archives when analyzed through a multi-proxy approach and a regressive, high-resolution analysis of all the different evidence unearthed.
Pescini et al. (Wed,) studied this question.