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The Troina Project:

The sediment dating programme

[Survey in progress] Background. In 1998, the Troina Project initiated a geoarchaeological study of the Fiume di Sotto di Troina Valley with the collaboration of Dr C. French and G. Ayala of the University of Cambridge. This study seeks to document landscape development and define land use practices from the later prehistoric periods to the modern period, through a programme of geomorphological mapping augmented by a suite of sedimentological and micromorphological studies in correlation with a focused archaeological survey and site specific investigations.

 

Proposed Luminescence Dating Programme. The geoarchaeological investigation was able to identify three episodes of intensified hillslope activity and is currently in the process of dating these episodes through both a relative and Optically Stimulated Luminescence (OSL) dating programme. The fine-grained sediments composing the Unit 2 depositional phase of the river terraces have been sampled (Figures 1, 2 &3) for a suite of sediment analyses (micromorphology, PSA, magnetic susceptibility, EC, pH and loss on ignition) as well as OSL dating. In order to tie in the hillslope processes with the alluvial sequence, a parallel investigation of the pedological history of the river valley was undertaken. Palaeosols as well as buried surfaces from archaeological sites have been sampled for the same analyses. Pilot project. This method was chosen following the successful completion of a pilot project in which the Copper Age site of Casa Sollima was systematically sampled and dated (Bailey and Rhodes 2001). In this way, past erosional sequences were discovered from the 4th millennia BC through the successful OSL dating of the hillwash. OSL Samples Collected:
  • L1&L2 = Profile L (Precise location) samples of fine laminations of Unit 2
  • T1&T2= Profile T (Precise location) samples of fine laminations of Unit 2
  • KK1&KK2= Profile KK (Precise location) samples of a buried palaeosol
  • Site 1134= sample of a palaeosol in association with an Early Bronze Age Site (Malpasso), taken from a test pit (at a depth of 40 cm from the surface)
  • Site 1135= sample of a palaeosol in association with an Early Bronze Age Site (Malpasso), taken from a test pit (at a depth of 50 cm from the surface)
  • Site 1099= sample of a palaeosol in association with a multiphase site (Later Prehistory--Late Medieval), taken from a test pit (at a depth of 35 cm from the surface)
  • Site 713 = sample of a palaeosol in association with a Roman Site, taken from an exposed profile (depth of 20 cm from the surface)
The geoarchaeological project has been undertaken as part of Gianna Ayala's PhD research: Landscape/land use change in north-central Sicily: a geoarchaeological approach. Please contact her for any questions or clarifications ga215@cam.ac.uk.

     
© University of Cambridge 2002. Troina Project: ss16@cam.ac.uk. Webmaster: dir21@cam.ac.uk. Acknowledgements. Server Stats.