Il Tumulo A della necropoli del Bronzo antico di Sant’Eurosia (Parma) : Aspetti geoarcheologici

The funerary mound, indicated as Tumulo A, is the main structure of a group of burials, dating back to the Early Bronze Age. It was discovered in a construction pit, to the depth of 3.80 meters and it was associated to a buried soil interposed into alluvial fan deposits of the Baganza river (Parma, Northern Italy). On the base of field characteristics and laboratory analyses (grainsize, C org. CaCO3 contents, micromorphology), we investigated the processes of construction and degradation of the mound and the development of the soil connected to it. The mound has been built on the top of a cleared surface and its construction involved significant reworking on the soil it was lying upon. The soil, the body of the mound and related archaeological deposits display similar pedological characteristics (accumulation of organic matter, decarbonation and pedoplasmation). This fact indicates that the construction, the use of the mound and its abandonment have occurred in a short interval of time. These processes have been followed by a prolonged phase of abandonment, during which soiland mound deposits suffered further weathering, before being buried by the resumption of the fluvial processes.