Crop Field Management and Social Structure at Gricignano d’Aversa (Campanian Plain, Southern Italy) in the Early Bronze Age

Abstract

ABSTRACT Campanian Plain (southern Italy) mid-late Holocene landscape information is preserved by repeated eruption debris from the Mt Vesuvius volcano and the Campi Flegrei caldera and suggests a long-lasting prehistoric settlement pattern based on extensive plough-based agriculture dating between at least c. the 3rd millennium BC Agnano Monte Spina eruption and the Middle Bronze Age (1620-1430 cal BC) AP2 eruption. This paper discusses the management of the Early Bronze Age field system at Gricignano d’Aversa US Navy base, Caserta province, on the basis of its topography sealed by the Pomici di Avellino eruption debris (1950-1820 cal BC), here reconstructed for the first time, suggesting that the gullies of the field system were designed for drainage. Settlement and funerary evidence, together with local environmental reconstruction and comparison with similar European contexts, are also employed to infer the social arrangement behind the prehistoric Campanian Plain evidence discussed.