The Halaesa landscape (III B.C.) as ancient example of the complex and bio-diverse traditional Mediterranean polycultural landscape

Abstract

ABSTRACTSouthern Europe and the whole Mediterranean area are distinguished by landscape types whose characters result from countless, long and complex cultural and historical processes that developed in an equally complex and varied environment. The Mediterranean rural landscape would keep these same distinctive characteristics until the crisis of the mixed crops, and the phenomena of urbanisation in the1960s/70s.This paper identifies the characteristics of the Mediterranean polycultural and polyspecific (coltura promiscua) landscape, characterised by the presence of trees (both wild and cultivated), starting from a historical overview of the central Mediterranean. The analysed case-study of the Halaesa landscape (Sicily), as one of the first historical detailed descriptions of a complex Mediterranean cultural landscape, is the result of a polycultural agro-silvo-pastoral system which guarantees complexity and richness (in terms of structural and biological diversity), as well as with reference to others environmental, cultural and economic multi-functionality. The analysis of these polycultural landscapes reveals a rich spatial configuration and the patchiness of the land mosaic. The presence of historical features, of traditional crops and land use, of traditional land management, and the conservation of the rural architecture and other material cultural heritage related to agricultural activity, as well as the non-material cultural heritage, are particularly important aspects considered by international and European organisations towards their valorisation and conservation. The pressure on these landscapes and their rapid transformation into more modern forms call out for a better knowledge of the more complex forms of traditional land use and their relative rural landscapes.