This books explores the bias that is introduced by erosion and
sedimentation on the distribution of archaeological materials in
Mediterranean landscapes. It describes innovative and interdisciplinary
work that led to the formulation of a broad range of geo-archeological
approaches that are applied to two Italian areas, studied intensively by
the Groningen Institute of Archaeology: the Pontine Region in South
Lazio, and the Raganello Basin in North Calabria. The approaches deal
with geological biases affecting the study of protohistoric remains in
the sedimentary part of the Pontine plain; the development of a detailed
landscape classification approach to predict and test site location
preferences and survey biases in the uplands of both study areas; and
the development and evaluation of an innovative computerised landscape
evolution model for a test area in the Raganello Basin uplands.
In addition to the presented case study, this book also shows how the
three geo-archaeological approaches can be applied in a wider context to
quantitatively understand how erosion and sedimentation bias our
understanding of archaeological records.