Edward M. Schoolman pitää keskiviikkona 11.12. Tieteiden talolla (Kirkkokatu 6, sali 404) klo 18.00 esitelmän englanniksi otsikolla ”Transforming the Italian Landscape in the Middle Ages: Humans, Climate, and Crisis”. Tilaisuus on kaikille avoin – tervetuloa kuuntelemaan ja keskustelemaan!
Abstrakti:
Edward M. Schoolman (University of Nevada, Reno):
“Transforming the Italian Landscape in the Middle Ages: Humans, Climate, and Crisis”
Over the course of 1000 years, the Italian peninsula underwent dramatic social, political, and cultural transitions, as did its landscapes. Human factors, such as new political alignments and shifting economic priorities, along with local environmental changes and broader climatic shifts, could complete transform the regions varied ecological zones. Until recent advances in recovering past climatological and paleoecological records, and renewed focus on archaeological data and documentary sources, much about the resilience and vulnerability of the land and its people were based on the readings of just a handful of narratives. Now, richer stories about how the interactions between humans and climate played out on the landscapes of Italy can be told, especially at local and regional levels, where the highest and clearest resolution of documents and paleoecological records from lake sediment can be fixed.
Among these new histories, this presentation will examine three in particular that highlight multidisciplinary approaches: the clashes between the wild landscape, agriculture, and silvo-pastoralism from the fifth to the ninth centuries in central Italy; the selective and managed reforestation of southern Italy during the period of Norman rule, and the “re-wilding” of the landscape across the peninsula following the arrival of the plague in the fourteenth century. Together, these examples demonstrate the continuous interplay and effects of humans and climate across Italy during the Middle Ages, offering new insights on how we should understand its “historical” landscapes and to the changes to our own.
The talk is organized jointly by Glossa ry. and the project SCISMA, funded by the Academy of Finland. The talk is open for all, welcome!