Strategie di occupazione dell’Appennino emiliano durante l’età del bronzo

This work aims to highlight the occupation patterns of mountain territories between the rivers Tidone and Panaro (Po basin) during the Bronze Age. A wide set of edited data has been recently integrated by significant series of new findings, mainly recovered during survey campaigns. Old and new evidences have been collected in a GIS platform, in order to produce a diachronic picture of landscape through the II millennium BC. The story of t he Ae mil ia n Apenni ne in this period seems to be strictl y connected to the origin and developme nt of the Terramare system in the plains, but some substantial differences actually occur. Which historical model can better explain the “demographic” increase of the Middle Bronze Age in the mountains? Should it be considered a sort of colonization from the lowlands or the result of an internal, parallel growth? Considering the intrinsic complications affecting archaeological record and the consequent difficulty in assessing a precise chronology and a reliable dimension to each settlement, we decide to focus on the strategies of occupation of mountain territories. The analysis has taken into account two specific factors: the spatial relationship between the Bronze Age sites and the ophiolites, probably connected with the exploitation of different resources, and the degree of visual control on the surrounding area. The viewshed analysis and the classification of sites on the basis of their dominance on the valleys and routes seem to reveal the existence of micro-districts of interconnected sites, at least in Parma Apennine. The emerging plurality of mountain areas in the Bronze Age might be explained in the light of allogeneic materials, that suggest the compresence of multiple vectors of trade and contact between the Terramare world and neighbouring groups. Keywords: Aemilian Apennine, Bronze Age, ophiolites, viewshed analysis, demographic trends.