TY - JOUR
T1 - Heart of darkness
T2 - an interdisciplinary investigation of the urban anthropic deposits of the Baptistery of Padua (Italy)
AU - Nicosia, Cristiano
AU - Ertani, Andrea
AU - Vianello, Alvise
AU - Nardi, Serenella
AU - Brogiolo, Gian Pietro
AU - Arnau, Alexandra Chavarria
AU - Becherini, Francesca
PY - 2019/5/1
Y1 - 2019/5/1
N2 - Archeological excavations beside the Baptistery of the Dome of Padua (north-eastern Italy) unearthed anthropic deposits formed between the seventh- and tenth-century ad. These were analyzed using soil micromorphology, soil chemical analyses (especially aimed at the definition of organic matter properties and dynamics), and GC/MS analyses of fecal biomarkers, the latter corroborated by principal component analysis. This inter-disciplinary study allowed differentiating between units resulting from in situ accumulation of trampled domestic waste and other, more frequent, units derived from repeated dumping or backfilling episodes. Fast accumulation of organic-rich domestic waste, coupled with an incomplete evolution of organic molecules appears as a fundamental formation process of these anthropic deposits. The overall level of fecal contamination in the Padua Baptistery sediments proved to be very low or absent.
AB - Archeological excavations beside the Baptistery of the Dome of Padua (north-eastern Italy) unearthed anthropic deposits formed between the seventh- and tenth-century ad. These were analyzed using soil micromorphology, soil chemical analyses (especially aimed at the definition of organic matter properties and dynamics), and GC/MS analyses of fecal biomarkers, the latter corroborated by principal component analysis. This inter-disciplinary study allowed differentiating between units resulting from in situ accumulation of trampled domestic waste and other, more frequent, units derived from repeated dumping or backfilling episodes. Fast accumulation of organic-rich domestic waste, coupled with an incomplete evolution of organic molecules appears as a fundamental formation process of these anthropic deposits. The overall level of fecal contamination in the Padua Baptistery sediments proved to be very low or absent.
KW - Formation processes
KW - Organic matter
KW - Urban deposits
KW - Urban geoarchaeology
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85046700261&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1007/s12520-018-0646-2
DO - 10.1007/s12520-018-0646-2
M3 - Journal article
AN - SCOPUS:85046700261
SN - 1866-9557
VL - 11
SP - 1977
EP - 1993
JO - Archaeological and Anthropological Sciences
JF - Archaeological and Anthropological Sciences
IS - 5
ER -