Conference Agenda

In southern Italy, many small villages are deeply affected by the demographic crisis and are in danger of disappearing due to population abandonment. For different reasons, this happened in 1980 to the old village of Tocco Caudio (BN). It was built on a structural terrace modelled on the Ignimbrite Campana (39,000 yrs B.P.). This pyroclastic product is considered the result of the largest volcanic explosion in Europe in the last 200,000 years. It covered a large part of the Campania region with significant thickness. This tuffaceous cover, incised by the hydrographic network, has modelled a terrace that, since its very ancient origins (probably 4th century B.C.), has constituted a strategic position and the backdrop for sieges and important battles. These events led to various reconstructions and repopulations. as evidenced by the different architectural superimpositions. These latter are still clearly visible among the ruined buildings. Natural causes, which have hit this village hard, include earthquakes. Historical documents describe the effects of numerous strong tremors since 1125, while for the more recent ones (e.g. 1962 and 1980), the media and residents tell the story in great detail. The stratigraphic and structural layout also favours erosive processes that attack the cliff formed by Ignimbrite and the surrounding areas where sandstones and clays (upper Miocene) outcrop. In the former, collapses are very frequent, also capable of affecting the settlement above, while in the latter, the deepening of the hydrographic network has triggered flows and outflows. These processes also disrupted the access road network. These conditions caused the number of inhabitants to decline rather rapidly, and thus forced them to find a better living situation. What remains of the village has a strong narrative power and could represent one of the geological sites to be protected within the neighbouring regionally protected nature area. Of course, any full reconstructive intervention would change the state of the place, making it lose its descriptive power. This force could be channelled into a ‘city’ path with illustrative panels and reconstructions in a GIS environment, in which the interference between historical events and geological and geomorphological phenomena could be narrated.

Fossil remains are a key tool for studying Earth’s past environments, allowing us to understand climate changes affecting a territory and its consequent evolution. Furthermore, people need to become aware of the uniqueness of fossil remains and how they can become a resource for a territory, being direct evidence of its history. We present multidisciplinary data from a composite section sampled near San Giuliano Lake (Matera, Southern Italy). The study site is situated between the Apulia Foreland and the Bradanic Trough domains of the Southern Apennines. The choice of the study area is motivated by an exceptional discovery, in 2006, of a relatively complete skeleton of a fossil whale, currently housed at the National Ridola Museum of Matera (Basilicata, Italy). This whale, named “Giuliana”, has been classified as the species Balaenoptera cf. musculus, estimated to be about 26 m long, according to Bianucci et al. (2019).

A multi-proxy approach that integrates geology, biostratigraphy, palynology, and paleoecology, allowed us to reconstruct the argille subappennine succession depositional system evolution. The occurrence of the calcareous nannoplankton bioevents and the presence of regionally extinct tree taxa constrain the age of the composite section to the Early Pleistocene (1.256-0.879 Ma) corresponding to the late Calabrian. The documented depositional environment is characterized by repeated events of relatively high organic matter and low oxygen contents of the bottom water masses. This indicates an environment characterized by up-welling currents and strong river input. The hypothesized stratigraphic architecture suggests that the initial phase of the succession underwent tectonic subsidence that exceeded s the sea level change, leading to the formation of a subsiding basin. This phase is followed by a coastline progradation caused by an overlapping action of sea level change and tectonic uplift, interpreted as the Apennine peripheral bulge, during the Calabrian. The upper part of the San Giuliano Lake succession exhibits a progressively increasing paleo depth, representing a slope and a ramp flexuring toward the chain, accompanied by active subsidence phenomena.

References

Bianucci, G., Marx, F.G., Collareta, A., Di Stefano, A., Landini, W., Morigi, C., Varola, A. 2019. Rise of the titans: baleen whales became giants earlier than thought. Biol. Lett. 15, 20190175. http://dx.doi.org/10.1098/rsbl.2019.0175.

The study presented has been developed within the PRIN 2022 INSITE: Integrated Shared Knowledge: From Geo-Paleontological Heritage to Present Territorial Challenges, funded by the Italian Ministry of University and Research. The project involves two teams of experts from different cultural backgrounds fully integrated in developing activities and pursuing objectives. The two teams consist of territorial experts and palaeontologists, who jointly implement all project activities to reach a development proposal by enhancing cultural assets connected within a territorial network. Conducted with a multidisciplinary approach, the study suggests that geo-heritage can drive sustainable territorial development by defining adequate strategies that can improve the knowledge of territorial resources and their use for sustainable tourism typologies (i.e., slow and cultural tourism). The INSITE project focuses on two pilot sites in the Campania region. The selected case studies are Pietraroja and Le Ciampate del diavolo, chosen because of their peculiarities of being both high-value paleontological resources inside an urban context. These paleontological resources are precious for revitalization if they are mainstreamed into a global design of compatible territorial development. The Fossil Park in Pietraroja “Le Cavere” is notable for the discovery of a small dinosaur fossil, Scypionyx samniticus, commonly called “CIRO”, found in the sediments of a tropical lagoon dating back approximately 110 million years and is renowned for its exceptional fossilization (Dal Sasso and Maganuco, 2011). The site of Ciampate del diavolo is an ichnosite that preserves evidence allowing for behavioural and structural evaluations of Middle Pleistocene hominins. The human footprints found here are likely attributable to Homo heidelbergensis or archaic Homo neanderthalensis and are among the oldest and rarest in the world (Mietto et al., 2022). Both sites rely precariously on a few enthusiasts striving to restore them for public use. In this sense, the INSITE project aims at setting adequate solutions to consider both the need to preserve and improve the fruition of these sites. On one hand, some virtual solutions are proposed, on the other hand, some collaborations among researchers and local communities are being implemented.

This study addresses the issue of using composite indicators as a support decision-making tool in the definition of policies aimed at promoting sustainable development in inner areas. Inner areas chosen as case study refer to two geopaleontological sites that, despite their value as historical evidence, are considered as “external resources” not mainstreamed into their own territorial system. Starting from a systematic scientific literature review mainly aimed at defining the concept of “territorial fruition”, this study proposes to individuate and measuring the propensity of territory in which these resources locate to act as magnets for a global design of territorial revitalization. The use of the term revitalization within this study is no coincidence, it serves to underline the peculiarities of the two territorial settings as inner areas (affected by depopulation; aging population; lack of primary services; difficulty in accessibility, etc.) and thus their need to be studied as parts of a global territorial system to be really revived as a whole. The revitalization process must stem from the consideration of existing and potential interactions between the study areas and the broader territorial context. This includes integrating and connecting cultural assets, eco-environmental features, socio-ethnic singularities, and historical, architectural, and urban values into a joint-cohesive system. According to these premises and with the primary aim of pinpointing those variables that can express the essence of the chosen territorial contexts, this study investigates the aspects adequate to define their sustainable usability mainly referred to:

- identify a threshold value for the territorial attractiveness;

- define territorial accessibility (physical reachability, services accessibility);

- find out types of tourism compatible with the need to both preserve and promote such territorial heritage.

Case studies refer to the territorial contexts: a) “Ciampate del diavolo” in which have been identified some human footprints dating back around 350.000 years ago; b) “Le Cavere” that at present lays on the mountains but approximately 110 million years ago it was a tropical lagoon.

The study assumes the systemic complex approach to territorial analysis, and it aims at defining a scalable method for the evaluation of other geo-sites while recognizing the singularity of cases. It has been developed within the PRIN 2022 INSITE funded by the Italian Ministry of University and Research (MUR).