A historical context for rural landscapes: The contribution of environmental resources archaeology (ERA) (NW Italy)

Since 1995 the Laboratory of Environmental Archaeology and History (LASA) has carried out several projects aimed at characterizing environmental management systems and their effects on ecosystems developing the Environmental Resource Archaeology (ERA) approach. ERA adopts the perspective opened by the historical ecology and the geographic-historical micro analysis, employing in a multidisciplinary framework a wide range of analytical tools. Sources coming from Environmental Archaeology, Archaeobotany, Rural Archaeology, Botany, Historical Ecology, History and Historical Geography make it possible to re-interpret rural landscapes in a more precise and complex historical, social and cultural dimension. Adopting ERA and related historical and geographical contributions it becomes possible to replace generic but diffused concepts concerning the relationship between people and their environment such as 'anthropic disturbance' or 'anthropic exploitation' with more precise and useful historical contents, chronologically and topographically identified. In addition, ERA supports research projects applied to the historical characterization for the management of individual rural landscapes (inside Natural Parks, Sites of Community Importance, etc.) and connected local agricultural products. Aiming at illustrating ERA methods and strategies, some case studies in Liguria (NW Italy) will be presented.