Andrea Zerboni
Biographic Data
| ID | 135563 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Andrea Zerboni |
| GIVEN NAMES | Andrea |
| FAMILY NAME | Zerboni |
| SIGNATURE | ZERBONI A |
| AFFILIATIONS | University of Milan |
| ORCID | 0000-0002-6844-8528 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 68 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 163 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 67 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 1 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2011 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2026 |
| H-INDEX | 7 |
Expanding the perspective on the environment-human nexus in the Quaternary
Geomorphology of the Balzi Rossi archaeological area and of its shallow seafloor (Ventimiglia, NW Italy)
Geomorphological mapping is a powerful tool for reconstructing the evolution of landscapes inhabited by human communities since prehistory. We present high-resolution (1:1000) geomorphological mapping of the Balzi Rossi archaeological area (Liguro-Provençal coast, NW Italy), an outstanding site for European prehistory which has been inhabited since the Middle Pleistocene. The map was produced by combining different types of remote sensing data, c…
Periglacial landforms and deposits from the Last Glacial Maximum to the Holocene in the Visogno and Spluga valleys (Central Italian Alps)
We present the geomorphological mapping of the Visogno and Spluga valleys in the Central Italian Alps, including the morphometric and activity analysis of local rock glaciers, aimed at understanding the response to ongoing climate change. The onset of geomorphic processes controlling the evolution of local landscape dates to the Last Glacial Maximum, under glacial conditions, and continued under warmer conditions in the Holocene. The latter phase…
Geomorphology of the Jebel Akhdar dome (Northern sultanate of Oman)
This study presents a comprehensive geomorphological map of the Jebel Akhdar dome in the northern Sultanate of Oman, a prominent carbonate dome formed during the Late Cretaceous obduction of the Semail Ophiolite. The integration of remote sensing observations and field surveys validations permits to recognise landforms at different scales, and thus complete the geomorphological mapping. The research identifies key landforms shaped by complex inte…
Beyond pigment
This study presents the results of a multi-analytical strategy implemented to investigate the composition of pigments preserved within the shells of marine bivalves recovered from six archaeological sites from the Late Bronze Age to the 6th-7th century CE in the present-day United Arab Emirates. The analysed bivalve specimens contain greenish or blackish materials in the shell interior and according to current archaeological interpretations they …
Two years of Quaternary Environments and Humans
A strontium (87Sr/86Sr) isoscape of Southern Ethiopia
Tracing human and animal mobility behavior, land use, and exploitation strategies through strontium (Sr) isotope analysis is critical for archaeological and palaeoecological research. The development of an 87 Sr/ 86 Sr bioavailable baseline map, often termed isoscape, is a prerequisite for interpreting the Sr isotope composition of animal and human remains from an archaeological context. Despite the wealth of archaeological records dispersed acro…
Evaluating Subsurface Risk for Archaeological Heritage Through Ground-Penetrating Radar Surveys
We present the results of a Ground-Penetrating Radar (GPR) survey conducted at the archaeological site of Bisya and Salūt (Sultanate of Oman), aimed at assessing archaeological risk associated with the planned infrastructural development of the site. The survey employed a dual-frequency GPR system with a survey rugged cart to adapt to the varying conditions of the area. The survey was designed around a scale-adaptive grid strategy, across three s…
Beneath the city
Decoding bronze production at Terramara Santa Rosa di Poviglio site (Bronze Age, N Italy)
A First Glance at Pre‐Islamic Pigments in Shells From Salūt (Sultanate of Oman)
Marine shells containing greenish or blackish pigments are frequently found at pre‐Islamic archaeological sites in Southeast Arabia and are generally interpreted as ancient eye makeup, representing a long‐standing tradition that continues to the present day. While these ‘cosmetic’ shells are primarily found in funerary contexts, their presence in residential areas suggests broader use within the community. Although relatively abundant, these shel…
Bronze Age to Early Iron Age Water Harvesting and Management in the Ancient Oasis of Salūt (Bisya, Sultanate of Oman)
During the 3rd millennium BC, a series of oases located along the western foothills of the al-Hajar Mountains saw the establishment of intensive human occupation, associated with the construction of large buildings (the so-called “towers”) and residential structures. These settlements were supported by the onset of agriculture and their development was often associated with and made possible by the introduction of substantial water management sys…
The Pleistocene tectono-stratigraphic evolution of the northern Po Plain (Italy) around the Castenedolo and Ciliverghe hillocks
We studied the Pleistocene subsurface stratigraphy of an area in the northern Po Plain around the isolated tectonic hillocks of Castenedolo and Ciliverghe (Brescia, Italy) in order to estimate their long-term rates of tectonic deformation. Integrated stratigraphy of a new 100-m-long core (RL13) allowed better definition of the regional Y (0.45 Ma) and R (0.87 Ma) surfaces and the related magnetostratigraphically calibrated PS1, PS2, and PS3 depos…
Rock art in the Borana Zone (southern Ethiopia), new perspectives from fieldwork
The African continent has many rock art concentrations with different traditions, techniques, and chronologies. A few areas have been widely investigated, while many other regions have been the object of patchy and sporadic research. This was the case in a large part of the eastern African region, where the research was intensive during the 1970s and 1980s. In particular, the area known as the Horn of Africa – including Eritrea, Djibouti, Somalil…
The Gotera Archaeological Mission in Southern Ethiopia
The Middle Stone Age (MSA) of Eastern Africa plays an unprece-dented role in the general discussion on the emergence, bio-cultural development and dispersal of our species within and beyond Africa. Despite this, chronologically dated and archaeologically documented open-air sites dated to this region’s MSA period remain sparse. In the framework of the current debate about modern human origin and behavioral evolution, the “La Sapienza” University …
Mapping Early Holocene to contemporary surface processes and human landscapes west of the lower White Nile (central Sudan)
High-resolution magnetochronology detects multiple stages of Pleistocene tectonic uplift and deformation in the Po Plain of northern Italy
We developed a high-resolution magnetochronology of the Pleistocene stratigraphy of the Monte Netto hillock, a tectonically uplifted structure in the Po Plain of northern Italy. Our data allowed reconstructing the depositional age of the sequence and assessing rates of deformation and rock uplift of the neotectonic structure, thus providing constraints on the tectono-sedimentary evolution of this seismically active part of the buried Southern Alp…
Introduction to the Sahara
Landscapes and Landforms of the Central Sahara
Geomorphology of the Central Kurdistan Region of Iraq
We present the result of the geomorphological mapping of the central sector of the Kurdistan Region of Iraq. Therein, landscape evolution was mostly overseen by the regional geodynamic, related to the Arabia-Eurasia convergence, and in the Quaternary, regional climate fluctuations contributed to shaping landforms. The combination of such processes affected the distribution, types, and evolution of landforms (related to structural, hillslope, fluv…
Interdisciplinary Research in Africa
Nile River clayey materials in Sudan
Holocene geomorphological and pedosedimentary archives of eastern Sahelian paleoenvironments (Kassala, Sudan)
Studies upon past climates, natural landscapes, and environments of archaeologically pivotal regions of northern Africa have been of paramount interest in the past decades. For some of those regions, the human-environmental nexus, intended as the biunivocal mutual agency between people and nature, has been a long-standing research question; yet, for other areas, the environmental record is a still unexplored archive. Here we present case studies …
The geoarchaeological investigation on the defunctionalisation of an Assyrian canals system reveals Late-Holocene land use transitions in Northern Mesopotamia
During the Assyrian rule over Northern Mesopotamia (present-day northern Iraq), complex systems of canals were built to increase the surface of cultivable land and improve the movement of people and goods across the irrigated waterscape of the hinterland of Nineveh and other major urban centres, with the aim of granting socio-economic prosperity to the empire. Nevertheless, supra-regional political instability eventually led to the rapid downfall…
Settling the riverscape of Erbil (Kurdistan Region of Iraq)
Micromorphology reveals in situ Mesolithic living floors and archaeological features in multiphase sites in central Sudan
In the Khartoum region of central Sudan, Mesolithic sites were established on sandy ridges distributed along the Nile. Most of the excavations carried out in recent decades have revealed limited preserved archaeological structures or layers corresponding to subsequent phases of human presence due to the disturbance of the deposits. Post‐depositional processes affecting Mesolithic sites include (1) the excavation of Neolithic to Post‐Meroitic ceme…
Mesolithic Site Formation and Palaeoenvironment Along the White Nile (Central Sudan)
Microstratigraphic analysis on a modern central Saharan pastoral campsite. Ovicaprine pellets and stabling floors as ethnographic and archaeological referential data
Textural and Morphometric Analysis Applied to Holocene Pottery from T akarkori Rock Shelter ( SW L ibya, Central S ahara)
This paper proposes the application of digital image processing of plane‐ and cross‐polarized light photomicrographs to textural and morphometric analysis as an extension of routine petrographic characterization. The aim is to answer questions on the provenance and technology of quartz‐ and calcite‐bearing potsherds from the T akarkori rock shelter ( L ibyan S ahara, from around 8900 to 4200 uncal. years bp ). Specific processing algorithms run o…
Fish and salt
Age, palaeoenvironment, and preservation of prehistoric petroglyphs on a boulder in the oasis of Salut (northern Sultanate of Oman)
The archaeology and ethnoarchaeology of rain-fed cultivation in arid and hyper-arid North Africa
Coprolites from Rock Shelters
Archaeological deposits in rock shelters have enormous informative potential, particularly in arid environments where organic materials are well preserved. In these areas, sub-fossilized coprolites and dung remains have been identified as valuable proxies for inferences about past environments, subsistence economies and cultural trajectories. Here we present a multidisciplinary analysis of bovid (ovicaprine) coprolites collected from the Early Ho…
Lashed by the wind
Rock art survey in the ancient oasis of Salūt (northern Sultanate of Oman)
The systematic survey of petroglyphs in the area of the ancient oasis of Salūt, in central Oman, highlighted a rich repertoire of representations that are here discussed against the background of Arabian rock art in general. The region displays an extremely rich number of engravings along the slopes of the Jabal Hammah, north of the main site of Salūt. The majority of the petroglyphs find abundant fitting comparisons in the region. The notable ex…
Early Human Occupation at al-Jamrab (White Nile Region, Central Sudan)
The middle reaches of the Nile River play a key role in the current models about the diffusion of modern Humans out of Africa, nevertheless the Early and the Middle Stone Age (Early Palaeolithic and Middle Palaeolithic) in central Sudan are poorly known. On-going investigation at al-Jamrab (White Nile region) highlights the archaeological potential of the central Sudan and illustrates the importance of an integrated approach combining archaeologi…
The ‘Messak Project’
The Messak plateau contains remarkable evidence of human occupation during prehistoric and historic times, such as rock art engravings, megalithic monuments, and scatters of stone tools. Since 1980 these remains have been heavily affected by oil extraction-related operations, and it has only been over the last decade that these operations were adequately supported by archaeological mitigation strategies. The ‘Messak Project’ was originally concei…
Lithic variability and raw material exploitation at the Middle Stone Age (MSA) site of Gotera, southern Ethiopia
Technological variability within East African Middle Stone Age (MSA) lithic assemblages is considered a reflection of regional or local identities. These identities are a possible outcome of different social dynamics in human populations or interaction with the environment. Here we analysed the lithic assemblage from GOT 1-S site, in the Gotera area (Southern Ethiopia) in order to integrate fresh data from the region into the broader discussion o…
The Visibility of Mobility
The archaeological landscape of the Tadrart Acacus massif (SW Libya, central Sahara) is made of sites testimony of complex systems of cultural-specific settlement and economic strategies stretching over millennia of occupation. Here, caves and rock shelters represent the main physiographic features exploited by prehistoric herders. Climate fluctuations, settlement patterns and economic strategies regulate the depositional and post-depositional pr…
Networking through pottery characterisation at Takarkori rock shelter (Libyan Sahara, 10,200-4650 cal BP)
The long-distance exchange of amazonite and increasing social complexity in the Sudanese Neolithic
The presence of exotic materials in funerary contexts in the Sudanese Nile Valley suggests increasing social complexity during the fifth and sixth millennia BC. Amazonite, both in artefact and raw material form, is frequently recovered from Neolithic Sudanese sites, yet its provenance remains unknown. Geochemical analyses of North and East African raw amazonite outcrops and artefacts found at the Neolithic cemetery of R12 in the Sudanese Nile Val…
Land-use and cultivation in theetaghasof the Tadrart Acacus (south-west Libya)
The hyperarid climate of the central Sahara precludes permanent agriculture, although occasional temporary ponds, oretaghas,as a result of rain-fed flooding of wadi beds in the Tadrart Acacus Mountains of the Libyan Sahara allow the pastoral Kel Tadrart Tuareg to cultivate cereals. Geoarchaeological and archaeological data, along with radiocarbon dating and evidence from rock art, however, suggest a much greater antiquity for the exploitation of …
Holocene Supra-Regional Environmental Changes as Trigger for Major Socio-Cultural Processes in Northeastern Africa and the Sahara
Bronze Age to Early Iron Age Water Harvesting and Management in the Ancient Oasis of Salūt (Bisya, Sultanate of Oman)
During the 3rd millennium BC, a series of oases located along the western foothills of the al-Hajar Mountains saw the establishment of intensive human occupation, associated with the construction of large buildings (the so-called “towers”) and residential structures. These settlements were supported by the onset of agriculture and their development was often associated with and made possible by the introduction of substantial water management sys…
The geoarchaeological investigation on the defunctionalisation of an Assyrian canals system reveals Late-Holocene land use transitions in Northern Mesopotamia
During the Assyrian rule over Northern Mesopotamia (present-day northern Iraq), complex systems of canals were built to increase the surface of cultivable land and improve the movement of people and goods across the irrigated waterscape of the hinterland of Nineveh and other major urban centres, with the aim of granting socio-economic prosperity to the empire. Nevertheless, supra-regional political instability eventually led to the rapid downfall…
Settling the riverscape of Erbil (Kurdistan Region of Iraq)
Active surface processes at Mahal Teglinos (Kassala, Eastern Sudan)
The Successo-Terra Project
How can we mitigate the effects of climate change? How can our society develop towards models of sustainable development in the coming years? The "bridge" to sustainability is a pivotal topic of international debate and is among the priorities of the agenda of the Horizon2020 Societal Challenges, linking the past with the future. Despite the many achievements emerging from some new solutions, it is becoming increasingly aware that the study of th…
Micromorphology reveals in situ Mesolithic living floors and archaeological features in multiphase sites in central Sudan
In the Khartoum region of central Sudan, Mesolithic sites were established on sandy ridges distributed along the Nile. Most of the excavations carried out in recent decades have revealed limited preserved archaeological structures or layers corresponding to subsequent phases of human presence due to the disturbance of the deposits. Post‐depositional processes affecting Mesolithic sites include (1) the excavation of Neolithic to Post‐Meroitic ceme…
Mesolithic Site Formation and Palaeoenvironment Along the White Nile (Central Sudan)
The ‘Messak Project’
The Messak plateau contains remarkable evidence of human occupation during prehistoric and historic times, such as rock art engravings, megalithic monuments, and scatters of stone tools. Since 1980 these remains have been heavily affected by oil extraction-related operations, and it has only been over the last decade that these operations were adequately supported by archaeological mitigation strategies. The ‘Messak Project’ was originally concei…
Textural and Morphometric Analysis Applied to Holocene Pottery from T akarkori Rock Shelter ( SW L ibya, Central S ahara)
This paper proposes the application of digital image processing of plane‐ and cross‐polarized light photomicrographs to textural and morphometric analysis as an extension of routine petrographic characterization. The aim is to answer questions on the provenance and technology of quartz‐ and calcite‐bearing potsherds from the T akarkori rock shelter ( L ibyan S ahara, from around 8900 to 4200 uncal. years bp ). Specific processing algorithms run o…
Geomorphological Map of the Tadrart Acacus Massif and the Erg Uan Kasa (Libyan Central Sahara)
Here we present a geomorphological map of the Tadrart Acacus Massif and Erg Uan Kasa (SW Libya, central Sahara). The geomorphological mapping of the area was carried out by means of satellite imagery analysis followed by detailed control of units in the field. The Tadrart Acacus is a sandstone massif delimited to the West by a high scarp and cut by a dendritic fossil drainage network of W-E-oriented wadis. The massif has been shaped since the Ter…
Age, soil-forming processes, and archaeology of the loess deposits at the Apennine margin of the Po plain (northern Italy)
Early–Middle Holocene environmental changes and pre-Neolithic human occupations as recorded in the cavities of Jebel Qara (Dhofar, southern Sultanate of Oman)
Holocene Supra-Regional Environmental Changes as Trigger for Major Socio-Cultural Processes in Northeastern Africa and the Sahara
Climatic changes and social transformations in the Near East and North Africa during the ‘long’ 4th millennium BC
This paper explores the possible links between rapid climate change (RCC) and social change in the Near East and surrounding regions (Anatolia, central Syria, southern Israel, Mesopotamia, Cyprus and eastern and central Sahara) during the ‘long’ 4th millennium (∼4500–3000) BC. Twenty terrestrial and 20 marine climate proxies are used to identify long-term trends in humidity involving transitions from humid to arid conditions and vice versa. The f…
Colour in context. Pigments and other coloured residues from the Early-Middle Holocene site of Takarkori (SW Libya)
Climate, Environment, and Population Dynamics in Pleistocene Sahara
Geomorphology of Mount Ararat/Ağri Daği (Ağri Daği Milli Parki, Eastern Anatolia, Turkey)
This paper presents a geomorphological map of Mount Ararat/Ağri Daği in Eastern Anatolia (Turkey). Mount Ararat/Ağri Daği is a volcanic complex covered by a unique ice cap in the Near East. The massif is the result of multiple volcanic phases, and present day landforms are the result of subsequent and overlapping glacial, periglacial, and slope processes. The geomorphological mapping of Mount Ararat/Ağri Daği was firstly performed on the basis of…
Microstratigraphic analysis on a modern central Saharan pastoral campsite. Ovicaprine pellets and stabling floors as ethnographic and archaeological referential data
Done with fish? A diachronic study of fishing in the Holocene Nile basin of Sudan
The Successo-Terra Project
How can we mitigate the effects of climate change? How can our society develop towards models of sustainable development in the coming years? The "bridge" to sustainability is a pivotal topic of international debate and is among the priorities of the agenda of the Horizon2020 Societal Challenges, linking the past with the future. Despite the many achievements emerging from some new solutions, it is becoming increasingly aware that the study of th…
Fish and salt
Rock Art Between Preservation, Research and Sustainable Development—a Perspective from Southern Ethiopia
Early Human Occupation at al-Jamrab (White Nile Region, Central Sudan)
The middle reaches of the Nile River play a key role in the current models about the diffusion of modern Humans out of Africa, nevertheless the Early and the Middle Stone Age (Early Palaeolithic and Middle Palaeolithic) in central Sudan are poorly known. On-going investigation at al-Jamrab (White Nile region) highlights the archaeological potential of the central Sudan and illustrates the importance of an integrated approach combining archaeologi…
The long-distance exchange of amazonite and increasing social complexity in the Sudanese Neolithic
The presence of exotic materials in funerary contexts in the Sudanese Nile Valley suggests increasing social complexity during the fifth and sixth millennia BC. Amazonite, both in artefact and raw material form, is frequently recovered from Neolithic Sudanese sites, yet its provenance remains unknown. Geochemical analyses of North and East African raw amazonite outcrops and artefacts found at the Neolithic cemetery of R12 in the Sudanese Nile Val…
Identity Markers in South-Western Fazzan
According to Herodotus’s Histories , the people living a ten day’s journey to the west of the Garamantes was the Atarantes As suggested by Liverani, if the Garamantes are to be placed in the Wadi al-Ajal around Jarma/Garama, this would likely locate the Atarantes in the Wadi Tanzzuft/Tadrart Akakus region Fig. 3.1). Archaeological research over the last two decades has considerably improved our knowledge of Saharan civilisations that developed fr…
Matilda’s castles, northern Apennines
The positioning and construction of castles in ancient times responded not only to strategic opportunity, but also to the issue of geomorphological risk. We investigated castles and strongholds built in the era of the Great Countess Matilda of Canossa in part of the northern Apennines (Italy), in order to study the relationship between their positioning and the distribution of geomorphological and geological hazards. We observe how the location o…
Coprolites from Rock Shelters
Archaeological deposits in rock shelters have enormous informative potential, particularly in arid environments where organic materials are well preserved. In these areas, sub-fossilized coprolites and dung remains have been identified as valuable proxies for inferences about past environments, subsistence economies and cultural trajectories. Here we present a multidisciplinary analysis of bovid (ovicaprine) coprolites collected from the Early Ho…
Age, palaeoenvironment, and preservation of prehistoric petroglyphs on a boulder in the oasis of Salut (northern Sultanate of Oman)
Lashed by the wind
The archaeology and ethnoarchaeology of rain-fed cultivation in arid and hyper-arid North Africa
Geography (55 works) · Archaeology (49 works) · Geology (40 works) · Paleontology (31 works) · Archaeology and ancient environmental studies (29 works) · Geology and Paleoclimatology Research (29 works) · Pleistocene-Era Hominins and Archaeology (28 works) · Physical geography (19 works) · Geomorphology (16 works) · Holocene (15 works)