Page 9 - valerio agnesi - geographical-phisical aspect Sicily

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field mouse still diffused in Southern Italy, wants on one hand, underline the degraded
environment, and on the other, mark a certain temperate valence of the climate

2.3 From Holocene to Present (from 10,000 BP to present time)

The sea level rise, due to the fusion of huge glaciers ending right after the beginning of
the Holocene, causes in Sicily a drastic reduction of coastal plains that used to welcome
human settlements and were favoured habitats for great open space mammals as aurochs
and asses. Such event deeply changes the geography of the west and south coasts causing
again the isolation of some topographically prominent areas that go back to insularity
(Favignana, Levanzo and Maltese islands). The eustatic rise in the sea level following the
acme of the Upper Pleniglacial seems to have happened through at least four phases, as
shown by depth contour morphology around the Aegadi Islands (Agnesi & al. 1993); such
step took place around 6,500 years B.P. (Antonioli & al. 1994).

At the same time the climate changes significantly and so does the landscape creating a
greater arboreous covering which during glacial acme must have been prevailingly on
mountain valleys, both towards mountain peaks and low altitude areas.

This climatic change is connected with the diffusion of the Mesolithic culture on the
Island dating back to ca 10,000 years B.P. in the Grotta dell’Uzzo. Mammals association in
this location prove a climatic improvement in Sicily, with diffusion of arboreous covering. It
may be deduced from the dominance of remainders of deer and wild pigs among the animals
hunted by the Mesolithic and First Neolithic population, and from the presence of water vole
(Arvicola), living in humid environments and today extinct in Sicily. The field mouse is still
present in the stratigraphical succession of Grotta dell’Uzzo at least until the first cultural
phase of the Lower Neolithic (dated ca. 6,700 years B.P.), but seems to be absent in the hori-
zons referring to the Middle Neolithic. Similar indications reach us from the remains of the
field mouse and dormouse coming from the Neolithic site “Fossato trincea” (ditch) in
Partanna (Trapani), dating ca. 5,700-6,600 years B.P.). The presence of the dormouse, a
strictly arboricolous rodent which today lives only in Sicily’s wood areas (Etna, Nebrodi),
tells us that, in those times, the arboreous covering reached the lower Belice region, area at
present deforested, giving us a further hint of a more humid climate than today’s.

Throughout following climatic phases, in the southern regions of the Italian peninsula,
there is a rainfall increase and a slight rounding of seasons contrast (Indeed during these
phases, the north-African climate affects Sicily with its apparent tendency to climatic arid-
ity, especially in the south and south-east area of the island, almost coinciding with the new
expansion of desert zones towards the coastal sector of north Africa.

Minor climatic variations characterize the historic period too, as shown by alternating
soils and aeolian deposits (cool-humid and hot-dry phases, respectively), that mantle
archaeological vestiges in numerous sites of the Mediterranean area, as for example in
Selinunte.

References

Abazzi, L., Delgado, huertas, A., Lacumin, P., Longinelli, A., Ficcarelli, G., Masini, F. Torre, D.
1996: Mammal changes and isotopic biochemestry. An interdisciplinar approach to paleocli-