Elsevier

Quaternary International

Volume 499, Part B, 10 January 2019, Pages 231-244
Quaternary International

Dynamics and effects of the Vesuvius Pomici di Avellino Plinian eruption and related phenomena on the Bronze Age landscape of Campania region (Southern Italy)

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.quaint.2018.03.021Get rights and content

Abstract

The Pomici di Avellino eruption is the Plinian event of Vesuvius with the highest territorial impact. It affected an area densely inhabited by Early Bronze Age human communities and resulted in the long-term abandonment of an extensive zone surrounding the volcano. Traces of human life beneath the eruption products are very common throughout the Campania Region. A systematic review of the available archaeological data, the study of geological and archaeological sequences exposed in excavations, and the reconstruction of the volcanic phenomena affecting single sites has yielded an understanding of local effects and their duration. The archaeological and volcanological analyses have shown that the territory was rapidly abandoned before and during the eruption, with rare post-eruption attempts at resettlement of the same sites inhabited previously. The definition of the distribution and stratigraphy of alluvial deposits in many of the studied sequences leads us to hypothesise that the scarce presence of humans during phases 1 and 2 of the Middle Bronze Age in the wide area affected by the eruption was due to diffuse phenomena of remobilisation of the eruption products, generating long-lasting alluvial processes. These were favoured by the deposition of loose fine pyroclastic material on the slopes of the volcano and the Apennines, and by climatic conditions. A significant resettlement of the territory occurred only hundreds of years after the Pomici di Avellino eruption, during phase 3 of the Middle Bronze Age. This study show the role of volcanic and related phenomena from a Plinian event in the settlement dynamics of a complex territory like Campania.

Introduction

Plinian eruptions are among the most dangerous natural phenomena for human life and the environment. They are characterized by very energetic and sustained explosive phases, lasting from hours to days, with intensities not lower than 107−108 kg s−1. These characteristics lead to the formation of convective plumes of stratospheric height, whose instability and collapse can generate pyroclastic density currents (PDC; Cioni et al., 2015). The latter are mixtures of gases and solid particles, which flow downslope under the effect of gravity at high speed and have high temperatures (e.g. Sulpizio et al., 2014). PDCs can completely devastate the areas surrounding a volcano, as far as tens of kilometres from the vent. During the sustained phase of the eruptions, the fallout of pyroclastic particles generates deposits that cover areas of more than 500 km2, reaching distances of hundreds of kilometres from the eruption vent in the direction of the dominant winds (Walker, 1973).

Plinian eruptions are usually accompanied and followed by catastrophic phenomena of reworking of their pyroclastic deposits by the generation of lahars, which are related to a generalized destabilization of the hydrological system due to the huge amount of ash and water vapour introduced into the atmosphere during the eruption (Vallance and Iverson, 2015). The generation of volcanoclastic mass flows can last decades or centuries after a Plinian eruption, threatening both the areas surrounding the volcano and more distant lowlands not directly affected by the eruption and located at the foot of the reliefs downwind of the volcano.

Plinian eruptions are rare events on the scale of human lifetimes, so the reconstruction of their eruptive dynamics is mainly based on the study of deposits of past eruptions. Such studies are particularly important in the case of quiescent volcanoes, whose reactivation and eruptive behaviour are difficult to define in the absence of recurrent activity (Cioni et al., 2003; Marzocchi et al., 2004).

The eruptive history of Vesuvius, in particular, in the past 25 ka is characterized by four Plinian eruptions, separated by very long periods of repose - lasting from centuries to millennia – and periods of effusive and low-energy explosive activity, with shorter recurrence intervals.

Among the Plinian eruptions of Vesuvius, that known as the Pomici di Avellino eruption (PdA; 3945 ± 10 cal yr BP; Passariello et al., 2009; Sevink et al., 2011) is considered one of the most explosive Holocene events in the Mediterranean area (Fig. 1). This eruption (Lirer et al., 1973; Rolandi et al., 1993; Andronico et al., 1995; Cioni et al., 2000; Sulpizio et al., 2010a, 2010b; Sevink et al., 2011) ravaged a wide and densely inhabited area in the Early Bronze Age (Passariello et al., 2009, 2010; Albore Livadie, 1980; Cioni et al., 2000). Its dynamics and the impact on the human settlements have been reconstructed in many papers (Pescatore et al., 1987; Rolandi et al., 1993; Cioni et al., 2000; Mastrolorenzo et al., 2006; Sulpizio et al., 2008, 2010a, 2010b; Di Vito et al., 2009; Di Lorenzo et al., 2013), whereas the study of the characteristics and timing of emplacement of syneruptive and post-eruptive volcanoclastic mass-flow deposits has been only partially addressed (Sulpizio et al., 2006).

In this paper, a critical review of the existing volcanological and archaeological literature and unpublished data has been performed, together with the analysis of new field data, including information on the volcanoclastic mass-flow deposits. This study has been carried out in order to better define the impact of the PdA eruption and the related phenomena on the Early and Middle Bronze Age (EBA; MBA) human settlements of the Campania Region. Moreover, the combined interpretation of all the available data allows us to develop well constrained hypotheses on the dynamics of abandonment and repopulation of the areas variably affected by these events.

Section snippets

Methods

In the past two decades, combined volcanological and archaeological studies carried out through stratigraphic excavation have been very fruitful. These studies, most of them carried out in the Neapolitan volcanic area, produced many scientific papers that shed light on the complex relations between human settlements, environmental evolution and exploitation, and natural hazards since Neolithic times (Di Vito et al., 2009; Sulpizio et al., 2010a, 2010b; Castaldo et al., 2011; Di Lorenzo et al.,

The Campanian landscape

Campania is a region distinguished by a marked geological and morphological difference between the eastern part, largely mountainous or hilly, and the western side, which is mainly flat. The eastern region includes the Apennine chain; the western region, which occupies the coastal strip, is made up of two flat areas, the Campanian Plain and the Sele Plain, separated by the Sorrento Peninsula (Fig. 1).

The contrast within this region is accentuated by the presence of a series of Quaternary

The different types of effect caused by fallout deposits and PDCs during Plinian eruptions

The emplacement of pyroclastic material produced during an eruption significantly affects areas both near the volcano and at considerable distances (e.g. Blong, 1984). In the case of fallout deposits, these effects are due to the tephra accumulation on the ground via its weight, deposition temperature and interaction with the soil. Structures, infrastructures and vegetation can be significantly damaged by ash accumulations of only a few millimetres (Spence et al., 2005). Both social and

The eruption's effect on proximal and distal EBA settlements (Palma Campania facies): observations and interpretations

It is plausible that the effects of an eruption tend to decrease as the distance from the volcano increases. However, it is appropriate to ascertain how such a difference in destructive effect actually affected populated areas - and particularly inhabited and cultivated fields - in relation to the distance and the deposition mechanism.

In the following sections 5.1 Nola, Croce di Papa, 5.2 Badagnano, Afragola, 5.3 Pioppi, Pratola Serra, 5.4 La Starza, Ariano Irpino, 5.5 The effect of the

The role of climate

The Bronze Age in the Mediterranean falls partly within one of the so-called periods of Rapid Climatic Changes (RCC) defined by Mayewski et al. (2004), between ca. 4.2 and 3.8 ka. Most of the RCC have been considered as characterized by polar cooling, tropical aridity, and major atmospheric circulation changes, which can also correspond to drier conditions over much of peninsular Italy (Giraudi, 2011; Drysdale et al., 2006; Magny et al., 2013; Zanchetta et al., 2013, 2014; 2016). This

Concluding remarks

Based on what has been discussed so far, it is appropriate to make some interpretations on the effects of the eruption on the territory and on the population of the area. As mentioned above, in the period prior to the eruption, all of Campania seems to have been more or less densely occupied by Palma Campania facies settlements (Fig. 2). If we compare the settlement distribution of this facies with that of the following Protoapennine (Fig. 3), an interesting phenomenon is apparent. Although

Acknowledgments

The presented study has benefited from the financial support of the Presidenza del Consiglio dei MinistriDipartimento della Protezione Civile DPC-INGV project Ob. 4 task 1; the authors remain responsible for the contents, which therefore do not necessarily reflect the position and official policies of the Department. The authors are grateful to the Archaeological Superintendences of Campania for allowing the access to archaeological sites. Jim Bishop is warmly thanked for the fruitful

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