Résumés Session III

- Session III : Archéologie, histoire et éruptions volcaniques. Le devenir des sites et des territoires après les éruptions volcaniques. La conscience du risque volcanique : modalités de la compréhension et de la transmission des informations relatives aux catastrophes, leur impact sur la vie socio-économique des communautés, stratégies éventuelles d’adaptation sur la longue durée : (animateur de la session : Patrick Nunn, University of the Sunshine Coast, Australie)

De Simone Girolamo Ferdinando, Accademia di Belle Arti di Napoli, Vesuvio 79 d.C.: il giorno dopo l’eruzione

Abstract

Inevitabili, insaziabili, causa di distruzione di interi Stati. Così, e a buon diritto, sono descritte le catastrofi naturali non solo da Seneca, ma dalla maggior parte dei narratori di ogni tempo. Tale quadro pessimistico, che trova il suo campione principale nell’eruzione vesuviana del 79 d.C., tende ad influenzare anche l’ambito scientifico e quindi ad oscurare indagini più articolate e meno polarizzate sui danni causati all’ambiente antropico ed alle dinamiche di recupero.

Il presente contributo si propone di controbilanciare tali narrazioni, prendendo a campione proprio l’eruzione pompeiana, fornendo un quadro sintetico dei danni apportati dall’evento vulcanico e descrivendone le risposte politiche ed insediative.

In particolare, nella prima parte saranno descritti gli effetti dell’eruzione pliniana, analizzando e plottando singolarmente ogni elemento (flusso piroclastico, bradisismo, etc.), per poi creare una pianta sintetica delle aree affette e dei tempi di recupero. Tale quadro mostrerà come l’areale perivulcanico sia stato affetto in modo diverso a seconda del quadrante e della distanza dall’epicentro, creando per alcune porzioni danni marginali e rapidamente recuperabili.

Nella seconda parte saranno riassunti gli interventi messi in essere dall’Imperatore Tito per il recupero dei sopravvissuti, degli insediamenti e delle coltivazioni. Ciò sarà utile per capire non solo in che modo e misura l’Impero fosse in grado di rispondere, ma fornirà anche elementi per comprendere la complessità dello scenario nel quale gli altri attori, sopravvissuti e nuovi investitori, andarono ad operare.

In ultimo sarà offerto un quadro dei tempi e degli areali affetti dal reinsediamento post-eruttivo, sottolineando le differenze fra i vari versanti del Vesuvio. Ciò metterà in evidenza il contrasto fra lo scenario positivisticamente ottimale di reinsediamento e la reale risposta culturale data all’eruzione, fornendo spunti utili a spiegarne le divergenze.

Falco Giulia, Parco archeologico e paesaggistico di Catania e della valle dell’Aci , Terremoti ed eruzioni a Catania tra antichità ed età moderna: testimonianze archeologiche, epigrafiche e letterarie

Abstract

Il contributo illustrerà la docurnentazione archeologica e letteraria relativa ai fenorneni tellurici ed eruttivi che investirono a più riprese Catania e hinterland nell'antichità e nell'era moderna, con particolare riguardo alle testimonianze restituite da recenti scavi urbani inerenti alla pioggia di cenere caduta sulla città nel 122 a.C., tanto intensa, come attesta Orosio (Historiae adversus paganos, V, 13, 3), da determinare il crollo dei tetti e l'intervento del senato rornano a supporto dei catanesi, sgravati dal pagamento delle tasse per dieci anni. Verranno inoltre esaminate le tecniche costruttive impiegate nei principali monumenti della città per contenere gli effetti dei terrernoti - in particolare la tecnica a telaio - e la loro persistenza attraverso il tempo. Infine, si evidenzierà il ruolo delle eruzioni nell'immaginario collettivo riflesso nella leggenda dei Pii fratres, Arnphinornos e Anapias, i due fratelli catanesi assurti in età ellenistica, e non solo in ambito occidentale, a esempio di pietà filiale per aver salvato i genitori dall'incalzare di una eruzione dell'Etna. Ai due fratelli, divenuti oggetto di culto, fu dedicato in città un gruppo scultoreo documentato da reperti numismatici di età ellenistica e romano-repubblicana e che, divenuto simbolo della città stessa, ancora nella tarda antichità era esposto nel teatro e oggetto di restauro, come comprovato dall'epigrafe commemorativa rinvenuta nella cavea dell'edificio.

Nunn Patrick, University of the Sunshine Coast (Australia), Loredana Lancini, Le Mans Université (France, Rita Compatangelo-Soussignan, Le Mans Université (France), Stories of Catastrophe: Volcanic Risk Management in Oral Societies

Abstract

Many oral cultures have stories about cataclysmic events which occurred long ago.  Most of these stories have been treated as cultural artefacts with no value to science-based explanations of geological phenomena.  Today it is clear that many such stories are not only based on eyewitness accounts of such phenomena but often contain information about which modern/science is ignorant.

Using examples of volcano stories from Australia, Colombia, Italy, New Zealand, Russia, and the United States, this paper proposes that these stories were intentionally created and passed on orally to warn subsequent generations about the threat of volcanic eruption.  The stories were not intended as history without purpose.  These stories represent a type of risk management comparable to that which is common in most places that are today periodically threatened by volcanic activity.

It is concluded that in oral (pre-literate) societies, the imperative for effective risk management was felt as keenly as it is in modern societies.  The implications of this work are that such ancient stories can be considered as the remnants of ‘disaster risk manuals’ that articulate societal policies and reflect cultural attitudes towards volcanic risk.  If this is correct, then these stories can be interrogated to better understand the worldviews of people in deep history.

Papazoi Elli, University of Graz, Waiting for the catastrophe... The interaction between man and nature in Akrotiri on the island of Thera.

Abstract

The prehistoric settlement of Akrotiri at Thera developed itself in the 3rd and 2nd millennium BC and was the cosmopolitan centre at the heart of the Aegean. The settlement was destroyed after a huge earthquake in the late Cycladic I (around 1550 BC) period. Although this catastrophe did not break the spirit of its inhabitants and they soon started to rebuild their houses with an architecture that witnesses an unprecedented technological level. Multi-level residences, public toilets and marvelous frescoes inside private buildings show us how developed and wealthy the society was compared to other cultural centres of Eastern Mediterranean. The later eruption of the volcano of Thera completely destroyed the city of Akrotiri and preserved it for centuries. Therefore the island is also known as the ‘Pompeii of the Aegean’, but in comparison to its famous counterpart from the Italian peninsula, not a single buried corpse could be found inside the collapsed buildings and city streets. Together with the limited number of small finds, Akrotiri appears to be thoroughly ‘evacuated’ and cleared before the catastrophe. Changes in the architectural structure of the buildings in the final years before the eruption can be interpreted as some kind of early warning mechanism and maybe helped the islanders to elude imminent danger. Therefore all archaeological observations on Thera can not only help us reconstruct the daily life of its former inhabitants but also reveal a glimpse into the interaction between single individuals and the might of their surrounding natural environment.

Franks Leigh¹, Handley Heather², Karoly Nemeth³, The integration of Australasian oral traditions and scientific knowledge to advance our understanding of pre-historic volcanic activity and hazards.

¹School of Social Sciences, University of the Sunshine Coast, Australia

²Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences, Macquarie University, Sydney, NSW 2109, Australia.

³School of Agriculture and Environment, Massey University, New Zealand

Abstract:

Volcanic eruptions have been witnessed by humans for millennia and have had significant influence and impact on societies past and present. In prehistoric and preliterate societies knowledge of volcanism and its environmental and societal impacts were communicated orally, embedded in culture through myth, lore and ceremony and passed down through generations. Despite the value of traditional knowledge in developing a full understanding of volcanic histories and their impacts on society and the environment, along with effective communication of volcanic hazards, oral traditions and cultural activities that appreciate geological phenomena like volcanism have been generally overlooked or weighted in minimum in the currently dominant ‘western’ scientific approach.

Unlike the Mediterranean, which has a long history of migration and population exchange, Australasia, defined here as the region including Australia, New Zealand, New Guinea and the Oceania regions of Polynesia, Melanesia and Micronesia, remained relatively isolated and hosts some of the oldest living indigenous cultures with strong pre-literate oral traditions. Indigenous knowledge of eruptions at short-lived volcanoes in Australia is shown to have survived for tens of thousands of years.

Quaternary volcanic activity in eastern Australia is considered to still be active. The simultaneous occupation of the McBride and Atherton Basalt Provinces (ABP) by humans and evidence of recent eruptions presents the likelihood that indigenous societies were directly impacted by volcanism. The Gugu Badhun of the Kinrara volcano in northern Queensland possesses stories that remember catastrophic eruptions of lava flows. These lava flows have been dated approximately to have ceased by 7,000 (± 2,000) years ago. Other stories have survived that recount the violent phreatomagmatic formation of maar crater lakes, in the nearby Atherton Tableland. These eruptions have been described, along with the environment within which they occurred in, and handed down as oral traditions for possibly 230±70 generations. Some oral traditions are plausibly humankind’s earliest environmental observations. Paleoenvironmental research has corroborated the prevalence of the type of vegetation that once existed and was described by these oral traditions. This study discusses the qualities of transgenerational communication (via oral traditions) that demonstrate the ability for detailed stories to endure through ‘deep time’. Emerging awareness among academics and the public of globally distributed cultures that similarly demonstrate the ability to communicate detailed memories through ‘geological time’ is discussed. Oral traditions in Australian Aboriginal culture and also on a global scale are at risk of being lost, and it is hoped this study will contribute to the growing awareness of the need to preserve and celebrate ancient stories of geological change and human adaptation.