Federica Sulas
CSIC (Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas-Spanish National Research Council), Archaeology And Anthropology, Post-Doc
Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche (CNR), ISEM (Istituto di Storia dell'Europa Mediterranea), Post-Doc
Aarhus University, Centre for Urban Network Evolutions (UrbNet), School of Culture and Society, Former assistant prof
Ciao! Hi! Hej! Tadias! Habari!
I am an archaeologist with broad research interests in environmental history and historical ecology. Most of my research to date has focused on the long-term history of farming and settlement in African contexts. To do so, I have been combining the study of soils and sediments (soil macro- and micromorphology), plant microremains (phytoliths), and written and oral records with ethnographic observations.
I am currently working on a number of projects, and I will soon post some info on these.
Should you have any query about my work or just sharing similar interest, I am always happy to hearing from new people.
I am an archaeologist with broad research interests in environmental history and historical ecology. Most of my research to date has focused on the long-term history of farming and settlement in African contexts. To do so, I have been combining the study of soils and sediments (soil macro- and micromorphology), plant microremains (phytoliths), and written and oral records with ethnographic observations.
I am currently working on a number of projects, and I will soon post some info on these.
Should you have any query about my work or just sharing similar interest, I am always happy to hearing from new people.
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Papers by Federica Sulas
structures built of mud or clay degrade quickly after abandonment, leaving almost no traces of human activities behind. This paper presents the results of bulk soil and chemical analyses, artefact distribution, and phytolith analysis from the excavation of a daub house at the early medieval site of Unguja Ukuu (c. 7th–14th c. AD), Zanzibar. High-resolution, systematic sampling for microscopic and elemental analyses proved effective in detecting spatial variability in relatively small areas. However, soil chemical enrichment (e.g. Ca, Mg, Mn, P) usually linked to anthropogenic impact on archaeological deposits appears hardly visible in the Unguja Ukuu house deposits. Instead, measurements of a wider range of elements, including trace and rare earth elements (REEs) proved to be important for detecting elemental signatures related to human activities. Contextual sampling of artefacts and phytoliths were crucial to identify sources of chemical enrichment and, thus, build a picture of spatial organisation within the house. The combined multi-scalar sampling strategy with a multi-proxy analytical approach enabled us to define the layout of the daub structure, indoor/outdoor spaces and activity hot-spots. Although macroscopic traces of past activities were almost completely obliterated, archaeological remains of earthen architecture and the use of space can be detected even in such complex tropical settings.
the Kingdom of Arborèa. It controlled an important strategic sector: it represented the power on the
outskirts of the State, controlled the plains historically devoted to agricultural production and presided
over the communication route. It is a fortification, on the top of a steep hill, built with considerable
economic resources justified by its strategic importance. The fortification characterized the landscape
of which it was part, being influenced in turn: it gave the name to the administrative district of which it
was the capital and then to the geographical subregion.
As in the protohistoric era the Barumini nuragic complex, this manor conditioned the surrounding
landscape, which has always been devoted to the production of grain and organized in an economically
sufficient balance between the small village, cultivated fields and vegetable gardens along the river; so
this district was always among the major producers of wheat and among the highest economic
resources for those who governed it.
Abandoned for centuries, the castle was removed from the shared heritage of the community of Las
Plassas. The recent scientific interest aroused by its history and the territory has allowed to resew once
again the link between it and the present community; its structures have been the subject of studies
from military architecture and materials points of view; a geoarchaeological survey project attested the
intensive use of the territories relevant to the castle from early history up to the present day. In 2013 a
multimedia museum has been established, the MudA, which, telling the story of the castle, describes
the landscape and daily life of the people who inhabited it.
The castrum Marmillae: a border castle to defend Arborea’s agricultural resources
structures built of mud or clay degrade quickly after abandonment, leaving almost no traces of human activities behind. This paper presents the results of bulk soil and chemical analyses, artefact distribution, and phytolith analysis from the excavation of a daub house at the early medieval site of Unguja Ukuu (c. 7th–14th c. AD), Zanzibar. High-resolution, systematic sampling for microscopic and elemental analyses proved effective in detecting spatial variability in relatively small areas. However, soil chemical enrichment (e.g. Ca, Mg, Mn, P) usually linked to anthropogenic impact on archaeological deposits appears hardly visible in the Unguja Ukuu house deposits. Instead, measurements of a wider range of elements, including trace and rare earth elements (REEs) proved to be important for detecting elemental signatures related to human activities. Contextual sampling of artefacts and phytoliths were crucial to identify sources of chemical enrichment and, thus, build a picture of spatial organisation within the house. The combined multi-scalar sampling strategy with a multi-proxy analytical approach enabled us to define the layout of the daub structure, indoor/outdoor spaces and activity hot-spots. Although macroscopic traces of past activities were almost completely obliterated, archaeological remains of earthen architecture and the use of space can be detected even in such complex tropical settings.
the Kingdom of Arborèa. It controlled an important strategic sector: it represented the power on the
outskirts of the State, controlled the plains historically devoted to agricultural production and presided
over the communication route. It is a fortification, on the top of a steep hill, built with considerable
economic resources justified by its strategic importance. The fortification characterized the landscape
of which it was part, being influenced in turn: it gave the name to the administrative district of which it
was the capital and then to the geographical subregion.
As in the protohistoric era the Barumini nuragic complex, this manor conditioned the surrounding
landscape, which has always been devoted to the production of grain and organized in an economically
sufficient balance between the small village, cultivated fields and vegetable gardens along the river; so
this district was always among the major producers of wheat and among the highest economic
resources for those who governed it.
Abandoned for centuries, the castle was removed from the shared heritage of the community of Las
Plassas. The recent scientific interest aroused by its history and the territory has allowed to resew once
again the link between it and the present community; its structures have been the subject of studies
from military architecture and materials points of view; a geoarchaeological survey project attested the
intensive use of the territories relevant to the castle from early history up to the present day. In 2013 a
multimedia museum has been established, the MudA, which, telling the story of the castle, describes
the landscape and daily life of the people who inhabited it.
The castrum Marmillae: a border castle to defend Arborea’s agricultural resources
By placing Great Zimbabwe in its living landscape, we can access new sources of information for taking stock of the past and its legacies in the present for the benefits of both heritage and people.
A multi-scalar programme at the 14th – 16th century site of Songo Mnara, Tanzania, has sought to provide detail that will address this gap in our knowledge for Swahili urban configurations. The thriving town of Songo Mnara lived for about 150 years as a busy Swahili urban centre, on a neighbouring island to Kilwa Kisiwani. The site is dotted with monumental stonehouses, rich mosques, and other standing remains; archaeology has contributed to this urban landscape by locating daub architecture, sites of former industrial activity, and traces of ephemeral practices.
This paper presents the results of detailed analysis of indoor space at the site using chemical mapping across house floors. We report on the nature and preservation of activity markers in different indoor contexts. This includes the application of a 50cm interval grid to occupation deposits and living surfaces in stone-built houses and daub structures. Nearly 1,000 samples were processed for ICP-AES multi-element analysis (33 elements) and the results were elaborated together with the stratigraphic and artefact records from the excavations. Here we discuss what this analysis can add to our knowledge of life at the site of Songo Mnara, and the implications for studies of urban sites elsewhere in the region.
By combining environmental and historical research, this paper illustrates how southern African landscapes and pasts provide an ideal laboratory for developing applied geoarchaeological approaches and techniques to the study of human-environment interactions over time, and help inform current debates on natural and cultural resource management.
Once home of farming and herding societies, the Mapungubwe cultural landscape now embodies both a lasting source of precious metals as well as an enclave of plant and animal biodiversity. Here, geoarchaeological survey and opportunistic soil analyses are now revealing important aspects of landscape development and land-use history. While the Limpopo river sections preserve evidence of slow, over-bank flooding into the wide plain, buried soil records from the small valley bottoms further into the core of the Mapungubwe cultural landscape point to potential ecological niches conducive of farming, with constant input of rich alluvial-colluvial material from small streams and surrounding sandstone hills. Rather more active environmental conditions are, instead, indicated by K2 valley records, where phases of incipient soil formation were interspersed by pulses of localised disruption. If on the one hand the timing and causes of landscape instability are yet to be ascertained, the first results of geoarchaeological investigations do reflect a diversified environment, where landscape units supported, responded to, changing climate and land-uses over time.
By eliciting and integrating data from environmental, archaeological and historical sources, this paper discusses the opportunities and challenges for integrative research in the highland of northern Ethiopia, where diversified agricultural strategies have sustained human settlement for the past three thousand years. However, where there was once the great Aksumite kingdom, there is now inadequate socio-economic development and a recent history of political instability. It is widely accepted that the environmental history of this region lies at the heart of explaining the wider economic, political, social and cultural developments. Indeed, the examination of multiple datasets shows now that Aksum’s countryside enjoyed both prolonged settlement and landscape stability from the mid-fourth millennium BC until the early modern period.
Federica Sulas, Rita T. Melis, Charles French, Federico Di Rita, Francesca Montis, Giorgia Ratto, David Redhouse, Giovanni Serreli.
For centuries, the Rio Posada has provided a link between Sardinia’s agricultural coastal plains and the sheep farming societies of its rugged mountain inland. A high concentration of Nuragic (Bronze Age) settlements, a main Roman port and, later, medieval religious and administrative centres were located in its delta. Despite such historical significance and time-depth, virtually nothing is known of the landscape and settlement history of the Rio Posada floodplain and the hinterland which sustained, interacted and merged with changing cultural and political powers of the last three thousand years. To bring research forward, a new research programme is now combining geoarchaeological investigations and palaeobotanical analysis with study of historical records and toponomastics to reconstruct patterns of settlement and land uses in the Rio Posada basin. This paper presents preliminary results of geoarchaeological borehole survey and pollen analyses together with mapping of historical place-names in the floodplain. On the coast, buried levee deposits and channel fills reflect a dynamic plain environment and settlements located on the floodplain edges. Further inland, deep fine alluvial sequences point to low-energy river flow. While dating of these deposits is underway, the new records from the eastern coast of Sardinia can be associated with palaeoenvironmental proxies available for the island and the western Mediterranean in general and, thus, contributing to wider regional climatic and environmental sequences.
Poster presented at:
International Colloquium
The Geoarchaeology of Mediterranean Islands
Cargèse, France - June 30 - July 02, 2015
Recently, new interdisciplinary research is now advancing knowledge on landscapes across the island by integrating methods from the humanities, social sciences and geoscience. Building on these, the proposed session takes an historical ecology approach to discuss islands as landscapes of frontiers, which are mobile in time and space but also constrained by physical boundaries.
A key feature of Sardinian culture, traditional farming (massaria) is the focus of an interdisciplinary research program led by the Istituto di Storia dell’Europa Mediterranea (ISEM) CNR and the Dipartimento di Scienze Chimiche dell’Università degli Studi di Cagliari, with funding from Regione Autonoma della Sardegna (L. R. 7 agosto 2007 ‘Promozione della ricerca scientifica e dell’innovazione tecnologica in Sardegna’).
As part of the program, ISEM CNR and Dipartimento di Scienze Chimiche e Geologiche, Università di Cagliari, will held an international workshop on 22-23 March 2016, at ISEM CNR, Aula Boscolo, via G. B. Tuveri n. 128, Cagliari.
The workshop is funded by Regione Autonoma della Sardegna, as part of ‘Sa massaria’ program and the Dipartimento di Storia, Beni Culturali e Territorio, Università di Cagliari.
2-3 October 2019, UrbNet, Aarhus University
Summary - A prime source of information for archaeologists, pottery has been studied for centuries across a wide range of cultures and periods. From a long-held focus on types and styles, ceramic study is today amongst the most dynamic and diversifying branches within archaeology, where innovative conceptual approaches and methodologies are opening new, exciting avenues into the study of the past. If defining typologies and chronologies remains the priority of any researcher dealing with this type of material, analytical approaches have considerably expanded the number of questions that archaeologists can answer. These include, for example, reconstructing the biography of pots through the profiling of food residues and use wear, mapping the provenance and processing of clay and temper, charting the use, recycling and trade, to mention but a few topics. Further important developments concern the study of people-pot interactions and the ways in which ceramic shapes and decoration evolved as a result of changing social, cultural, and economic relations. The study of the humble pot, thus, is offering new ways in which archaeologists can study societal development, culture transformation, socio-ecological changes and resilience in high-definition. This research led-course will provide the participants with an introduction to a diverse range of methodologies for ceramic studies, from traditional, typologically-driven approaches to state-of-the-art laboratory analyses. In so doing, the course will provide a forum to discuss and reflect on how new research approaches are gradually transforming archaeology.
Register: https://phdcourses.dk/Course/65813
This collection of articles is freely available through December 15, 2018.
Happy reading!
Nell’ambito di tale programma, l’ISEM CNR e il Dipartimento di Scienze Chimiche e Geologiche, Università di Cagliari, stanno organizzando un workshop internazionale che avrà luogo il 22-23 marzo 2016, presso l’ISEM CNR, Aula Boscolo, via G. B. Tuveri n. 128, Cagliari.
L’evento è finanziato dalla Regione Autonoma della Sardegna e dal Dipartimento di Storia, Beni Culturali e Territorio, dell’Università di Cagliari.
Verranno presentate varie esperienze di studio dell’ecologia storica, del paesaggio rurale e del suo utilizzo agricolo, dal punto di vista delle diverse discipline: la storia, l’archeologia, la geoarcheologia, l’entomologia, la palinologia, la veterinaria. Il fine ultimo è quello di mettere a confronto i vari approcci disciplinari e le varie esperienze di ricerca, in un dibattito costruttivo che consenta di aprire gli orizzonti dei vari partecipanti.
Interverranno
Rita Ara, ISEM CNR
Daniela Artizzu, Pontificia Facoltà Teologica della Sardegna
Andrea Balbo, University of Hamburg, Germany
Alessandra Cioppi, ISEM CNR
Aldo Aveni Cirino, Archivio di Stato di Cagliari
Anna Depalmas, Università di Sassari
Bianca Fadda, Università di Cagliari
Charles French, University of Cambridge, UK
Antonello V. Greco, I.I.S. L. Eidaudi
Maria Grazia Mele, ISEM CNR
Rita T. Melis, Università di Cagliari
Alex Metcalfe, Lancaster University, UK
Gianni Murgia, Università di Cagliari
Giorgio Murru, MudA Las Plassas
Sebastiana Nocco, ISEM CNR
Roberto Pantaleoni, Università di Sassari
Antonella Pettettieri,Istituto per i beni archeologici e monumentali CNR
Elisa Pompianu, Università di Sassari
Giuseppe Seche, Università di Cagliari
Giovanni Serreli, ISEM CNR
Alessandro Soddu, Università di Sassari
Federica Sulas, ISEM CNR
Gabriella Uccheddu, MudA Las Plassas
Mariano Ucchesu, Università di Cagliari
Federica Usai, Università di Cagliari
Alberto Virdis, Università di Cagliari
Marco Zedda, Università di Sassari
Sa massarìa: Ecologia storica dei sistemi di lavoro contadino in Sardegna
a cura di Giovanni Serreli, Rita T. Melis, Charles A.I. French e Federica Sulas
Cagliari, Istituto di Storia dell’Europa Mediterranea, 2017
Il libro è il frutto del progetto di ricerca triennale omonimo, finanziato dalla Regione Autonoma della Sardegna (L.R. 7 agosto 2007 ‘Promozione della ricerca scientifica e dell’innovazione tecnologica in Sardegna’), nel quale si raccolgono i risultati della ricerca assieme a numerosi altri saggi riguardanti il paesaggio, l’uso del territorio, l’insediamento in varie aree della Sardegna dalla protostoria all’età contemporanea.
Il progetto è stato condotto dall’Istituto di Storia dell’Europa mediterranea del CNR e dal Dipartimento di Scienze Chimiche e Geologiche dell’Università di Cagliari con la collaborazione del Charles McBurney Laboratory, Human Landscapes (University of Cambridge). Sono stati partner del progetto il Comune di Las Plassas e il museo MudA.
Nello specifico, il progetto ha visto la collaborazione interdisciplinare di storici, archeologi, geografi, geologi e geoarcheologi, per studiare da vari punti di vista tre aree campione della Sardegna: la Marmilla (e in particolare il territorio di Las Plassas), il bacino del rio Posada e le campagne di Assemini e Decimomannu.
Queste aree campione sono state studiate dal punto di vista storico, partendo dalla documentazione medievale e di età moderna, e da quello geoarcheologico, attraverso una serie di trivellazioni e carotaggi, i cui campioni sono stati poi studiati nei migliori dipartimenti specialistici. Il fine era quello di stabilire una linea di evoluzione dell’uso dei territori in oggetto, del paesaggio, delle modalità di insediamento e dell’evoluzione paleoclimatica.
I risultati della ricerca, che si auspica possa continuare in futuro, oltre a proporsi come modello di approccio per lo studio del territorio e del paesaggio, in questo libro si confronta con esperienze di studio sull’uso del territorio in altre aree della Sardegna e non solo.
a cura di Giovanni Serreli, Rita T. Melis, Charles French e Federica Sulas
Cagliari, Istituto di Storia dell’Europa Mediterranea, 2017
Il libro è il frutto del progetto di ricerca triennale finanziato dalla Regione Autonoma della Sardegna (L.R. 7 / 2007 ‘Promozione della ricerca scientifica e dell’innovazione tecnologica in Sardegna’), nel quale si raccolgono i risultati della ricerca con numerosi altri saggi riguardanti paesaggio, uso del territorio, insediamento in varie aree della Sardegna dalla protostoria all’età contemporanea.
Il progetto è stato condotto dall’ISEM CNR e dal Dip. di Scienze Chimiche e Geologiche dell’Università di Cagliari con la collaborazione del Charles McBurney Laboratory, Human Landscapes (University of Cambridge). Sono stati partner del progetto il Comune di Las Plassas e il museo MudA.
Nello specifico, il progetto ha visto la collaborazione interdisciplinare di storici, archeologi, geografi, geologi e geoarcheologi, per studiare tre aree campione: la Marmilla (e in particolare il territorio di Las Plassas), il bacino del rio Posada e le campagne di Assemini e Decimomannu.
Queste aree sono state studiate dal punto di vista storico, partendo dalla documentazione medievale e moderna, e da quello geoarcheologico, attraverso una serie di trivellazioni e carotaggi, i cui campioni sono stati poi analizzati in dipartimenti specialistici. Il fine era quello di stabilire una linea di evoluzione dell’uso dei territori in oggetto, del paesaggio, delle modalità di insediamento e dell’evoluzione paleoclimatica.
I risultati della ricerca, che si auspica possa continuare in futuro, oltre a proporsi come modello di approccio per lo studio del territorio e del paesaggio, in questo libro si confronta con esperienze di studio sull’uso del territorio in altre aree della Sardegna e non solo.
Al libro, in due volumi, hanno partecipato: Rita Ara, Anna Ardu, Danila Artizzu, Aldo Aveni Cirino, Gianluigi Bacchetta, Franco G.R. Campus, Alfredo Carannante, Francesco Carboni, Salvatore Chilardi, Riccardo Cicilloni, Alessandra Cioppi, Anna Depalmas, Guy D’Hallewin, Federico Di Rita, Bianca Fadda, Giacomo Floris, Charles French, Antonello V. Greco, Maria Grazia R. Mele, Rita T. Melis, Alex Metcalfe, Francesca Montis, Clizia Murgia, Giovanni Murgia, Martino Orrù, Mauro Perra, Elisa Pompianu, David Redhouse, Marco Sarigu, Silvia Sau, Giuseppe Seche, Luigi Serra, Maily Serra, Giovanni Serreli, Alessandro Soddu, Federica Sulas, Sean Taylor, Gabriella Uccheddu, Mariano Ucchesu, Alessandro Usai, Federica Usai, Alberto Virdis, Marco Zedda.
a cura di Giovanni Serreli, Rita T. Melis, Charles French e Federica Sulas
Cagliari, Istituto di Storia dell’Europa Mediterranea, 2017
Il libro è il frutto del progetto di ricerca triennale finanziato dalla Regione Autonoma della Sardegna (L.R. 7 / 2007 ‘Promozione della ricerca scientifica e dell’innovazione tecnologica in Sardegna’), nel quale si raccolgono i risultati della ricerca con numerosi altri saggi riguardanti paesaggio, uso del territorio, insediamento in varie aree della Sardegna dalla protostoria all’età contemporanea.
Il progetto è stato condotto dall’ISEM CNR e dal Dip. di Scienze Chimiche e Geologiche dell’Università di Cagliari con la collaborazione del Charles McBurney Laboratory, Human Landscapes (University of Cambridge). Sono stati partner del progetto il Comune di Las Plassas e il museo MudA.
Nello specifico, il progetto ha visto la collaborazione interdisciplinare di storici, archeologi, geografi, geologi e geoarcheologi, per studiare tre aree campione: la Marmilla (e in particolare il territorio di Las Plassas), il bacino del rio Posada e le campagne di Assemini e Decimomannu.
Queste aree sono state studiate dal punto di vista storico, partendo dalla documentazione medievale e moderna, e da quello geoarcheologico, attraverso una serie di trivellazioni e carotaggi, i cui campioni sono stati poi analizzati in dipartimenti specialistici. Il fine era quello di stabilire una linea di evoluzione dell’uso dei territori in oggetto, del paesaggio, delle modalità di insediamento e dell’evoluzione paleoclimatica.
I risultati della ricerca, che si auspica possa continuare in futuro, oltre a proporsi come modello di approccio per lo studio del territorio e del paesaggio, in questo libro si confronta con esperienze di studio sull’uso del territorio in altre aree della Sardegna e non solo.
Al libro, in due volumi, hanno partecipato: Rita Ara, Anna Ardu, Danila Artizzu, Aldo Aveni Cirino, Gianluigi Bacchetta, Franco G.R. Campus, Alfredo Carannante, Francesco Carboni, Salvatore Chilardi, Riccardo Cicilloni, Alessandra Cioppi, Anna Depalmas, Guy D’Hallewin, Federico Di Rita, Bianca Fadda, Giacomo Floris, Charles French, Antonello V. Greco, Maria Grazia R. Mele, Rita T. Melis, Alex Metcalfe, Francesca Montis, Clizia Murgia, Giovanni Murgia, Martino Orrù, Mauro Perra, Elisa Pompianu, David Redhouse, Marco Sarigu, Silvia Sau, Giuseppe Seche, Luigi Serra, Maily Serra, Giovanni Serreli, Alessandro Soddu, Federica Sulas, Sean Taylor, Gabriella Uccheddu, Mariano Ucchesu, Alessandro Usai, Federica Usai, Alberto Virdis, Marco Zedda.
Recent investigations of an apparently ‘empty,’ partly disturbed Viking chamber grave in Denmark (Fregerslev II, dated around the mid-10th century CE) provided an opportunity to develop a novel multi-scale and multi-method analysis of burial and post-burial processes. To overcome the limitations of poor preservation of artefacts and bones, and the lack of a clear macrostratigraphic sequence, we integrated multi-proxy analyses of organic and inorganic materials to study the spatial architecture, burial, and post-depositional processes, including soil chemistry (inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry - ICPMS, portable X-ray fluorescence spectrometer - pXRF), soil micromorphology, archaeobotany (wood, seeds, fruits, phytoliths), palynology (pollen, non-pollen palynomorphs), and faecal lipid biomarkers. The results enabled the detailed characterisation, spatial analysis, and sequencing of burial deposits, and the identification of post-depositional factors responsible for the poor preservation of the burial. Soil, phytolith and pollen data indicated that the base of the grave was covered with a matting of plant material, and there was no wooden floor. Faecal biomarkers detected substantial amounts of faecal matter, most probably originating from horse faeces, suggesting that a horse died in situ, and trace amounts of pig faeces, which are more likely to have been trampled into the grave. Enriched phosphorus concentrations could be linked to the bodies in the northern and southern sector of the grave. Furthermore, enrichment in lead was found where metal objects were recovered. The findings from Fregerslev II show that integrating high-resolution approaches to the analysis of poorly preserved burial contexts can fundamentally transform archaeological interpretations.