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The study of Prehistory includes basic research areas in the reconstruction
of the environments and in the chronological placing of settlements.
Geomorphology, sedimentology, pedology, palaeontology, archaeozoology,
archaeobotany and dating methods, in cooperation with several
Institutes, concur to supply a complete paleoenvironmental picture
through the contribution of specific data and their essential
comparison.
The Sezione di Ecologia Preistorica studies bone remains recovered
in archaeological contexts. Most are bone fragments derived from
hunting, breeding and butchery worked by prehistoric man. From
the study of these remains paleoenvironmental and cultural data
derive.
At the base of archaeozoological studies there is the specific
recognition of bone remains by means of comparison with modern
bones. The collection available in the Sezione di Ecologia Preistorica,
is directed towards the study of large and medium sized mammals
widespread in Italy during Pleistocene and Olocene. Bones belonging
to several individuals of the same species, of different size,
age and sex, allow to separate the morphological specific diversity
from the individual ones. The study of the faunal associations
aims to reconstruct the environment and to analyse the local climatic
variations during the Quaternary. In this research, data and knowledge
of modern mammals ecology are employed. The evaluations of the
quantitative presence of taxa is based on the assumption that
the osteological sample, produced by hunting activities, reflects
the presence of the species though the several phases of frequentation
of the sites. Bones analysis and measurement offer also information
on the evolution of the taxa and their adapting to the environmental
changes.
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