Unearthing anthropogenic and natural footprints: pedogenesis of a polyevent soil at San Lorenzo ad Septimum Abbey (Italy)

Polyevent soils represent ideal systems for investigating how the sequential combination of multiple natural and human processes and interruptions affects the development of a landscape. This investigation particularly focuses on deciphering the anthropogenic footprints embedded in the soil and tracing how human activities—from ancient settlements to modern interventions—have left indelible marks on pedogenic pathways. As a paradigmatic case study, a pedon surveyed in the present “Vegetable garden” built on the old green site of San Lorenzo ad Septimum Abbey (an important human settlement even before 3.9 ky BP) in Aversa city (Italy) was investigated. The research examined the possible predominance of pro-isotropic or pro-anisotropic pedogenetic trends using the following approach: (i) historical documentation, (ii) pedological and pedo-archeological survey, and (iii) the analysis of the distribution of physical-chemical parameters along the soil profile. The investigated pedon represents a paradigm of how polyevent soils could form. In fact, a combination of natural, dramatic incidents, as well as human interventions applied at different levels of consciousness and purpose, contributed to the formation of a polyevent sequence of buried horizons. Both natural and anthropic pro-anisotropic pedoturbations characterise such a sequence and enable the detection and elucidation of pedogenic trends strictly linked to human settlement and land use, thereby highlighting that man has acted as an incisive pedogenic factor since primeval times.