Liminal historical landscapes in southern Tuscany: a multidisciplinary approach for a new narrative

The archaeological reconstruction of alluvial and coastal plains presents challenges due to the profound transformations caused by the evolution of unstable fluvial and coastal environments and the anthropic modifications conducted in modern times to reclaim territories for agricultural purposes. To enhance the existing narrative for the lower Val di Cornia in central Italy, recent analyses undertaken by the ERC nEU-Med project have significantly strengthened environmental studies, providing a solid foundation for archaeological research that has been ongoing since the 1980s. This contribution presents the results of a newly revisited landscape reconstruction with a diachronic perspective aimed at unravelling the complex relationships between humans and the environment over time. The multidisciplinary approach, combined with integrating various proxies alongside traditional archaeological sources like surveys, historical documents and maps, significantly enriches the interpretation of data. This approach enables a more comprehensive evaluation of the human role in responding to environmental variability, mainly depending on fluctuations in lagoonal extension and the diversion of the fluvial system. The findings reveal that a liminal territory such as the lower Val di Cornia was indeed central from both social and economic perspectives for local communities, which exploited the natural resources of this distinctive environment, overcoming challenges associated with its dynamic nature.