Developing a Synthetic Index of Land Vulnerability to Drought and Desertification

This paper develops an index of the vulnerability of land to drought and desertification (LVI) for Italy. The index takes into account changes in climate, land use, vegetation cover, soil properties, and population during the period 1990–2000. The LVI was built up through a multivariate approach aimed at assessing the importance of the various indicators included in the synthetic index. Increasing land vulnerability was observed during this time, especially in dry areas of the southern regions. This is interpreted as a consequence of land management practices, agricultural intensification, population pressure, and bio-physical degradation. The LVI can be used in an integrated, decision-support system to evaluate the impact of mitigation policies in rural environments.     

Herds for the Gods? Selection Criteria and Herd Management at the Mass Sacrifice Site of Huanchaquito-Las Llamas During the Chimú Period,Northern Coast of Peru

ABSTRACT

The discovery of the sacrificial remains of 140 children and 206 camelids sacrificed at the site of Huanchaquito-Las Llamas, on the northern coast of Peru, has provided new data on mass sacrifice practices during the Chimú period. The exceptional state of preservation of the camelids, including the presence of coats and hides, opens new research perspectives on the utilisation of animals in ritual contexts. This article will focus on the results of the zooarchaeological analysis, particularly of mortality profiles and coat colour, to address the criteria used to select the sacrificial victims. Young individuals were exclusively selected, and while there is a majority of brown coats, three colours that are present in modern herds are absent at Huanchaquito. This reveals the preferential choice made by the Chimú officiants for this sacrifice. A spatial analysis did not reveal preferences in the organisation of the deposits. The killing of the youngest cohort of the livestock probably had an impact on the whole livestock. This suggests the existence of large herds that were controlled by the Chimú empire. Our results provide additional insights into the management of camelid herds and show the complexity of pastoralism on the pacific coast during pre-Hispanic times.     

Saints,rulers and communities in Southern Italy: the Vitae of the Italo-Greek saints (tenth to eleventh centuries) and their audiences

Relations between saints and secular rulers as presented in the Vitae of the Italo-Greek saints in Southern Italy in the tenth and eleventh centuries have been treated in terms of identity and difference, namely to measure the degree to which the Italo-Greeks identified themselves with the Byzantine people, thus differentiating themselves from the Latins. In this way, however, the mediating function of the saint, the narrative strategies of the hagiographers and the interaction between the texts and their audiences are ignored. Taking its cue from the frontier character of Southern Italy and the local context of the cults, this paper examines the narrative representations of these relations in order to understand how local communities gathered around a cult to find support and how they perceived the political powers acting in their region. It is argued that in this frontier society multiple local frameworks of power relations rather than identities are represented in the saints' Lives.     

意大利环境管理与可持续发展体系的特点及启示

意大利环境管理和可持续发展体系具有政策务实、执法严格、层次化管理、市场化运作、全民参与、注重科技进步和科技创新等特点,这些成功经验为我国提供了很多可资借鉴的范例,值得我们认真思考和学习。     

Wild Birds of the Italian Middle Ages: Diet,Environment and Society

ABSTRACT

Wild birds are intrinsically associated with our perception of the Middle Ages. They often feature in heraldic designs, paintings, and books of hours; few human activities typify the medieval period better than falconry. Prominent in medieval iconography, wild birds feature less frequently in written sources (as they were rarely the subject of trade transactions or legal documents) but they can be abundant in archaeological sites. In this paper we highlight the nature of wild bird exploitation in Italian medieval societies, ranging from their role as food items to their status and symbolic importance. A survey of 13 Italian medieval sites corresponding to 19 ‘period sites’, dated from the fifth to the fifteenth centuries, reveals the occurrence of more than 100 species (certainly an under-estimate of the actual number). Anseriformes and Columbiformes played a prominent role in the mid- and late medieval Italian diet, though Passeriformes and wild Galliformes were also important. In the late Middle Ages, there is an increase in species diversity and in the role of hunting as an important marker of social status.     

Commissioning and Use of Charts Made in Majorca c.1400: New Evidence from a Tuscan Merchant’s Archive

The Datini Archive in Prato, Italy, a remarkable collection of a late fourteenth–early fifteenth century merchant’s business correspondence, includes a number of orders for charts from Majorca, one of the major chart-making centres in the Mediterranean in the Middle Ages. The letters give information on prices, the length of time it took to make a chart, and its destination. The archive also contains unpublished information on how the charts were packed and transported. From these sources we conclude that the charts appear to have served not only to prepare business trips, but also to embody the memory of these trips.