Navigating the past of the Pontine plain, human and wetland interaction from protohistory to the Early Modern period

Throughout history, the Pontine Plain was characterised by the presence of numerous and extensive water bodies. Lagoons lined the coast while rivers, lakes and marshes characterised the vast inland plain up till the Lepine and Ausoni mountains. Essentially this situation lasted up to the fascist land reclamations of the 1930s when drainage of superfluous water became controlled and malaria was eradicated. Before this transformation, the populations inhabiting the Pontine Plain interacted closely with this wetland ecosystem, using its rich natural resources and profiting from access to the sea. The coastal lagoons could be used as natural ports when trading became increasingly important within a context of growing social complexity. The dynamic nature of the wetlands, however, posed challenges to its exploitation in terms of permanent settlement and agricultural exploitation and we know of several historical attempts to improve drainage conditions dating as far back in time as the Roman Republican period. This contribution aims to delineate the nature of human and landscape interactions in the Pontine wetland environment over time and the scale and scope of human interventions in the natural landscape. It discusses changes in settlement organisation, in the wetland and in its periphery, over a period spanning the ancient Bronze Age to the Early Modern period. The authors draw upon data from various research projects coordinated by the Universities of Groningen and Amsterdam, which have focused on this area, and add new data provided by their current work. The mapping of anthropic dynamics is complemented, in a dialectical relationship, with that of the environment and physical landscape. Together, geology and archaeology reveal the dynamic nature of human interactions with this wetland through time.