La presenza umana nei gessi emiliano-romagnoli. Dal Medioevo a oggi

The article analyses, in a diachronic perspective, the evolution of the interactions between human communities and Gypsum areas in the Emilia-Romagna Region (Northern Italy) from the Middle Ages to the present. In the Middle Ages, the harsh Gypsum morphologies, suitable for defence, were preferentially home to castles or fortified settlements, while natural cavities were exploited as places of shelter, hermitage or sites for clandestine activities, such as the production of counterfeit coins. With the Modern age, the work of forgers continued to be attested in the caves, while the collection of rainwater in cisterns became systematic and carried on through large structures. In the Contemporary age lies the great transition of the evaporitic areas of Emilia-Romagna from anthropisation, to their centrality during the Second World War (with caves used as shelter for the population and artificial cavities excavated in Gypsum bedrock for military purposes), to depopulation, in some cases total, triggered by the Italian ‘economic miracle’. Depopulation brought to a renaturation of these areas, basis for the institution of present-day parks and reserves.