Human occupation and abandonment of a fluvio-lacustrine environment: a multidisciplinary analysis of the archaeological site of Santa Gada (Pollino Geopark, southern Italy)

A recent archaeological campaign discovered a large settlement (i.e.: the Santa Gada site) dated to 6th-3rd centuries BCE. in the Pollino Geopark, southern Italy. The study area is located in a Middle Pleistocene tectonic basin of the axial zone of the southern Apennines, Italy, filled by a thick fluvio-lacustrine succession. The landscape is featured by different orders of SSO-dipping low-angle surfaces that are separated by rectilinear scarps of variable height. Strict relationships among fluvial landforms, active faulting, and settlement evolution have been investigated by the integration of geological, geomorphological, and geophysical data. The morphogenesis of landform elements, the role of major faults as seismogenic sources, and the relationships between landscape and settlement location were discussed in the context of the long-term landscape evolution of the study area. The settlement was built on the top of a fluvial terrace and is bounded northward by a morphological scarp. Archaeological data revealed a sudden abandonment of a wide residential complex at the end of the 3rd century BCE. Radiocarbon dating of a human skull involved in the collapse of a building confirms the archaeological age attribution, thus providing the first archaeoseismological evidence of a strong historical earthquake in the Pollino area. Our investigations suggest a fluvial origin of the morphological scarp of the study area and a possible role of important seismogenic sources of the Pollino area for the sudden abandonment of the site.