BABESCH 89 (2014), 27-46. doi: 10.2143/BAB.89.0.3034668 The Pontine Marshes (Central Italy): a case study in wetland historical ecology Kevin Walsh, Peter Attema, Tymon de Haas Abstract The citation of natural environmental processes as a key element in the formation of and changes in human cul- ture has been unfashionable for some time. Whilst scepticism of certain unfettered cultural ecological or socio- ecological theories is understandable, archaeologists often fail to engage fully with the dynamic relationships between people and environment in the past. This paper provides a new assessment of the potential of more nuanced cultural and historical ecological frameworks that explicitly develop notions of environmental knowl- edge in the investigation of human engagements with the environment. More specifically, this contribution con- siders the development of the forms of environmental knowledge associated with a Roman wetland, the Pontine Marshes. Changes in settlement activity and practices in this central Italian wetland landscape close to Rome were the product of a complex interplay of elite political initiatives and management projects and local forms of environmental knowledge applied by ordinary people who had to engage with this landscape. The paper com- prises an introduction to the research questions and the interpretive framework, followed by an assessment of documentary and recent archaeological research that serve to illustrate the development of human interaction with these marshes. The discussion considers the probable reasons for the waxing and waning of wetland activ- ity, and the nature of different class-based understandings of the wetland during the Roman period.* Key-words Historical ecology, Mediterranean, wetlands, Pontine Marshes, landscape archaeology, diachronic, Roman period. INTRODUCTION ing, fowling, and on coastal wetlands, salt pro- duction. They also offer descriptions of some of the Research on Mediterranean palaeoenvironments political processes that might have influenced the emphasises the interplay of climatic and anthropic development of certain landscapes.3 These assess- impacts on the landscape, often employing induc- ments are important, but they rarely consider the tive hypotheses relating to well-known periods of variations in the forms of environmental knowl- climatic deterioration and amelioration. Perhaps edge, and the manner in which environmental the most extreme manifestation of unpersuasive at - experiences and knowledge were class-based. tempts to correlate climatic evidence with changes Moreover, this type of assessment avoids chrono- in human societies is represented by the recent logically focussed analyses. suggestion that the decline of the Roman Empire This paper aims to address exactly these issues. was related to climatic instability.1 This form of Using evidence from the Pontine Marshes, we narrative presents climate change as a factor that analyse the environmental, political and economic explains the waxing and waning of entire civi- processes at work in a typical ancient wetland lizations without engaging with the specifics of environment. Our approach is situated within a regional variations in climate, and the impact of historical ecological framework that considers such changes on food production and landscape past human-environmental engagements and management practices. More subtle and histori- gives primacy to the environment in the produc- cally informed writings, in particular the work of tion of human engagements with a landscape. Horden and Purcell, emphasise the importance of In the following sections, we first elaborate the the variability in Mediterranean environments and historical ecological approach. We then consider the concomitant need for an assessment of ‘con- various elements that are of particular interest in nectedness’ between these milieus.2 Where Horden studying a Mediterranean wetland (the Pontine and Purcell develop nuanced assessments of land - Marshes) with such an approach. Finally, we dis- scape use, these are often concerned with descrip- cuss the long-term history, elite conceptions of, tions of specialist economic activities such as hunt - and management strategies adopted in the Pontine 27 Marshes. Here we look at elite-based historical tingent upon historical processes.7 An early ex - perceptions, environmental data and landscape ample of a rudimentary cultural ecological inter- archaeological evidence. pretation of a historical process was the contention that the fall of the Roman Empire was an ecologi - HUMAN-ENVIRONMENT INTERACTIONS: A HISTORICAL cal catastrophe partly caused by a misuse of re - ECOLOGICAL FRAMEWORK sources resulting from poor knowledge or infor- mation.8 The majority of palaeoenvironmental narratives Historical ecology assesses environmental knowl - emphasise the assessment of environmental change, edge, i.e. how people understand, and engage whether these be climate change, changes in veg- with their landscape and environment. People are etation (due to climate or anthropogenic actions), not separate from ecological systems; they are or periods of erosion. However, we should assess participants in environmental processes, and as the extent to which these processes (identified via such, human participation in environmental change scientific methods) would have been under stood, or is quite natural.9 This type of approach does not even noticed by the societies that we write about. assume that technologies and human life ways Modern ethnographical studies demonstrate the will be repeated in landscapes characterised by presence of differences between specific, local- identical or similar sets of environmental charac- indigenous environmental knowledge, and the teristics. Responses to changes in the environment assessments produced by environmental scientists.4 do tend to be controlled by the ability of social Another problem that we face in studying his- institutions to adapt. A key question is how envi- torical-period landscapes is that our assessments ronmental knowledge was applied in the past, of how people understood or perceived the nat- and by whom? ural world are based on the writings of social Resilience theory is in many ways directly as - elites, whether these are the agronomists, or other sociated with historical ecology. It offers a way of ancient writers. However, elite and institutional conceptualising the relationships between different attitudes to nature would not necessarily reflect spatial and temporal scales of cultural processes.10 local attitudes of those who worked the land. In light of our study, resilience theory can be used Environmental knowledge is spatially and, there - for investigating the relationships between small- by, socially dynamic, i.e. different people possess scale, localised groups of people (e.g. peasant environmental knowledge that is specific to their families) and how they relate to extensive hierar- locale. chical structures (e.g. the Roman Empire, or its In an attempt to address these imbalances, this regional authority). Of most interest is the notion contribution assesses the development of a spe- that successful environmental exploitation strate- cific Mediterranean wetland within a historical gies only work if people can adapt. However, if ecological framework; a form of ecology that is local engagements with environments are con- concerned with the manner in which landscapes, trolled by entrenched political forces during peri- with all their facets (water bodies, soils, vegeta- ods of environmental change, and local people tion, animals) were agents in the construction of are unable to effectively respond to these changes, culture.5 Historical ecology provides an interdis- then such a situation might contribute to local and ciplinary framework for the study of interactions regional societal instability. When local, poten- between landscapes and human societies and to tially small-and-fast adaptive strategies are stifled explain environmental change at different spatial by slow responding, large-scale hierarchies, such and temporal scales.6 An underlying principle of as certain empires, then environmental problems this approach is the notion that the choices of might ensue. Conversely, certain hierarchical or - how people built in, managed and responded to ganisations might impose or apply new forms of environments, were spatially and temporally con- environmental management that are successful, tingent. Adaptation to the exigencies of a specific and enthusiastically adopted by local people. environmental niche and the development of envi- Wetlands, more than any other landscape type, ronmental knowledge is a story of cultural change, require wholesale management strategies for sys- as much as a sequence of ceramic development. tematic exploitation, organised by a central author- Historical ecology has direct intellectual links ity. Whereas supplying water via irrigation into an with cultural ecology, but differs in the sense that arid zone can target specific spaces within that historical ecology places emphasis on the dialec- zone, the management and draining of a wetland tic nature of relationships between people and the can rarely be undertaken piecemeal. Consequent - environment and how these relationships are con- ly, resilience theory and a historical ecological 28 approach to wetlands can help evaluate environ- tioned above, one of the key issues regarding mental knowledge of ordinary people and elite human perception of wetland zones is the