What is Historical Ecology

A GIS is developed for analysis of formation, growth and collapse of past societies. The Urban Revolution in Mediterranean area between IX-VIII centuries B.C. pushed by development of Mediterranean market area, is a good case study. The process leads to the growth of urban centres and of population. In Ancient Etruria the changes produced the abandonment of tens of older sites and the origin of protourban centres on hill plateaux. The GIS is developed for explaining the factors affecting the urbanization process in Tarquinia. Settlement strategy was linked to available resources in the territory. The research focused on land use for ancient agriculture, by reconstructing features of land use. The results show that the selection of plateaux allowed a better resources management, required by population growth as well by the Mediterranean market demand. The changes explain the transition from a subsistence economy to a production of agrarian surplus in cereals. A new organization based on the private household property of agrarian plots could satisfy a better resource allocation.