Insediamenti umani in un paesaggio in evoluzione: interazione uomo-ambiente nella Piana di Sibari (Calabria ionica)

Abstract

P. Bellotti, et al., Human settlement in an evolving landscape. Man-environment interaction in the Sibari Plain (Ionian
Calabria). (IT ISSN 0394-3356, 2009).
The Sybaris Plain faces the Ionian coast of Calabria in an area characterised by a complex and active tectonics. The landscape evolution has been driven by the rates of glacio-eustatic sea level rise, by subsidence and bed-load fluvial discharge mainly of the Crati and
Coscile rivers. During Holocene – through several progradation phases – the area switched from a wide embayment into a
coastal/delta plain with growth of lagoon/marsh areas, whose persistence due to by high subsidence rates caused by sediment compaction. The present delta plain of the Crati River appears cuspate and double-winged. Morphological evidences observed show that the southern wing was built mainly by repeated and notable floods of the Crati River responsible for burial of beach ridges and filling of coastal ponds. Conversely, the northern wing, bordered at its inner edge by the wide Torrente Raganello alluvial fan, grew mainly by the action of the Coscile River filling large barrier-lagoon systems.
Already during the early Neolithic (about 7000 BP) settlements at Favella della Corte a settlement was placed on the top of a terrace
whose scarps formed a cliff, at its foot bordered by a beach. The Crati River flowed into the sea at about 5-6 km more to the east of
the present shoreline and about 2 km more to the south of the present course. The mouth area prograded more than the northern one fed by the Coscile River characterised by a reduced solid discharge. The Favella della Corte village, about 40000 m2 large, was inhabited during the early and recent Neolithic, with an abandonment period during middle Neolithic when some caves of the surroundings
started being used. Entering the Eneolithic, the village was completely abandoned. Up to Archaic times settlements close to the coast
are lacking.
The scenery changed considerably during the Archaic Age. Between the Crati and Coscile rivers the town of Sybaris was built on a NS trending beach ridge, which was bordering a lagoon area. The Crati River slowly migrated northwards for nearly 3 km debouching
temporarily into the Sybaris lagoon. Also because of changes towards cool-moist climatic conditions, the Crati River flooded considerably and repeatedly. Moreover, the strong fluvial activity allowed the progradation of the mouth for 2 km at least. Peopling concentrated mainly in the big Achaean metropolis. From a hydraulic viewpoint, the Crati plain became object of an impressive reorganisation work with land reclamation and river management. In 510 BC a war with Krotonians caused the destruction of the town and the end of main villages. The following sixty years are lacking in archaeological evidences of peopling in the plain.
From 2400 to 1400 BP the landscape changed again. A period of climatic improvement leading to the warm Roman stage, might have
reduced flood events caused a slow and small progradation of the Crati River mouth, and originated new and closer-drawn beach ridges. In 444/443 BC a new town (Thurii) was built, partly over the former Sybaris. This shows how, even though the climatic situation
wasn’t turned favourable yet, that area covered by recent floods, and the whole Sybaris Plain were safe again. Peopling distributed in a
centre and in a series of farms spread over the whole region, thanks to the Romanization process, started during the 2nd century BC.
This process also changed the town of Thurii into the colony of Copia. During the Punic wars all settlements of the Sybaris Plain suffered a backslash and the urban area underwent a narrowing. About 1800 BP the new climatic deterioration might have increased flood events favouring a gradual filling up of the lagoon already partly used as a harbour. At the end of this period the town gradually entered in the middle of a crisis. Government intervention decreased and about 1400 BP Copia was abandoned. Peopling consolidated on the easier-to-defend hills and terraced areas, and so the territorial control of the plain ceased.
The climatic deterioration of the Early Middle Ages and mainly of the Renaissance brought the area to become marshy and inhabitable.
The mouths of Crati and Coscile rivers underwent frequent changes, in turns dividing and joining again; this shows the high hydraulic
disorder, which affected for a long while the region. Starting from the Early Middle Ages the plain didn’t had important centres; some
evidence of few presence for agricultural purpose existed until the 12th century but, coinciding with the Little Ice Age, this presence
stopped. Still in the 19th century the Sybaris Plain was described as a malarial land, marshy and subject to hydraulic disorder. The
hydraulic land rehabilitation started in 1882 and developed after 1930. Today the northern wing of the Crati River shows several settlements, while these are very scarce along the southern one.
The history of the Sybaris Plain shows how geomorphologic and peopling evolution are strictly correlated. Therefore it turns out how a
very dynamic environment becomes habitable and controlled by man during epochs of relative political and economic stability. This
occurs also when a central authority exists, able to co-ordinate efforts in sight of the realisation and following maintenance of infrastructures for reclamation and hydraulic control.