Severe land degradation is recorded between these major climatic phases, indicated by human impact (deforestation and agriculture) and soil erosion. These features indicate a transition towards (probably cooler) prolonged humid conditions, intercalated by one or more drought episodes. The post-Neolithic soils show comparable or more abundant amounts of short-range order minerals than phyllosilicates, and no to scarce clay coatings. The occurrence of clay coatings, their relict nature and overall dominant phyllosilicate clay minerals in the Neolithic soil horizons of both sites, suggest warm climate conditions with high moisture availability and some seasonal contrast, during the late early-middle Holocene climatic optimum. All soils display some Andisol-like features, related to some volcanic input during soil formation originating from late Pleistocene to Holocene explosive eruptions of the Aeolian Islands. At both sites, surface A horizons are affected by repeated plough marks.
The archaeological record of soils at Cecita spans from late Neolithic/early Eneolithic to Roman ages. At the Palmi site, the representative soil profile includes settlements and artefacts ranging from late Neolithic to late early Bronze Age and undifferentiated historical epochs. It is based on a comparison of geoarchaeological, pedological and pedoanthracological data from soil profiles in the coastal hilly and inland mountainous surroundings of Palmi and Cecita Lake, respectively. This paper focuses on the reconstruction of Holocene climatic and environmental changes in two archaeological sites of southwestern and north-central Calabria (southern Italy).
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