Leventina - Prehistoric Settlement Landscape. Settlement, environment, and economy 1500 BC - 15 AD

The rich archaeological heritage of the pre- and protohistoric necropoles in the Ticino and Mesolcina valleys includes a number of «contact finds» indicating the existence of transalpine communication routes from these early times. However, prehistoric settlements are widely unknown between the southalpine lakes and the central alpine range. The shortest connection between northern Italy and western central Europe crosses the Gotthard pass an important route of commerce, well attested from the Middle Ages. New archaeological investigations have been started in the Leventina, focusing on the early settlement history of the valley and its role in the framework of transalpine contacts. Field work concerns in particular the prehistoric site of Airolo-Madrano «Mött Chiaslasc/In Grop» and its Bronze and Iron age connections. The project also includes palynological and palaeobotanical research in view of a reconstruction of the natural and cultural landscapes in the Leventina valley, and GIS-based analyses of archaeological sites and their ecological and economical background.

Jacquat, Christiane; Della Casa, Philippe (2018). Airolo-Madrano (TI): Palaeoenvironment and subsistence strategies of a hilltop settlement in the southern Swiss Alps during the Bronze and Iron Ages. Quaternary International: The Journal of the International Union for Quaternary Research, 484:32-43.

Della Casa, Ph., Jochum Zimmermann, E., Jacquat, C. (2009) 

Hess, T., Reitmaier, T., Jochum Zimmermann, E., Ballmer, A., Dobler, I., Della Casa, Ph. (2010)

Della Casa, Ph. (ed.) The Leventina Prehistoric Landscape. Zurich Studies in Archaeology 12_2018 (Zurich: Chronos).

SNF 10-111987/1 (Dept. of Pre- and Protohistory, University of Zurich)

Ufficio dei Beni Culturali del canton Ticino; Institut für Geodäsie und Photogrammetrie ETHZ; Institut für Pflanzenwissenschaften Universität Bern

2003 bis 2010