Visible Mesolithic landscapes in the Italian Alps. Inferring Mesolithic settlement dynamics from multifaceted evidence

In this paper issues concerning landscape research in mountainous areas are discussed starting from the analysis of some Early Holocene case-studies in the Southern Alps. These case-studies along with others show that our present knowledge of past landscapes in high mountainous environments is mainly related to two main factors: low sedimentation processes and research strategies. Particularly, several consequences can be connected to the first aspect: a) the archaeological record is mostly preserved directly under the grass cover and it is easily subject to erosion; thus when it is preserved its visibility becomes high; b) in most cases, organic materials are completely dissolved along with possible features; the main exception to this situation is represented by the sites located under rock-shelters - especially large boulders - which are both better protected from erosion processes and characterised by the formation of stratigraphic series; c) high altitude mountainous landscapes have undergone only slight changes over the last 10,000 years, also thanks to the scarce following human intervention; therefore they appear practically unchanged since the early Holocene. As far as research strategies are concerned in most cases these have been guided and encouraged by the first accidental discoveries. As a consequence on the one side most known sites are located in some recurrent positions and on the other their distribution reflects a typical spot of a leopard pattern. Nevertheless more recent systematic researches have shown higher complexity patterns of occupation that previously supposed. We thus wonder to what extent our current reconstruction of Early Holocene landscapes is real and/or biased by the higher visibility of the evidence in certain areas and/or in relation to specific local morphologies.