Disseminating the knowledge on the complex interactions between humans and volcanoes: the geological section of the Villa Arbusto archaeological museum at Lacco Ameno (Ischia, Naples - Italy)

Abstract

A room in the Archaeological Museum of Villa Arbusto (Lacco Ameno, Ischia) was set up to house rocks and fossils collected by the renowned archaeologist Giorgio Buchner during his excavation activity on the Island of Ischia. The collection is witness to a long multidisciplinary research activity that saw archaeological studies at the center of volcanological, pedological and palaeoenvironmental researches, aimed at reconstructing the archaeological contexts in the complex geological dynamics of the island. In fact, during the different phases of colonization recorded on the island, the Ischia volcanoes were very active and produced explosive and effusive eruptions, accompanied by a strong geological dynamics that included earthquakes, landslides (even gigantic ones), rapid ground uplift and strong hydrothermal activity. In the room, the samples on display “tell” the evolution of the island and its dynamics in four windows and a chest of drawers, where there is an exposition of the products of the various eruptions, from the oldest to the most recent, sedimentary rocks and the collection of macro and microfossils found in marine sediments, displaced at variable altitudes by the rapid volcano-tectonic deformations that characterize the island. A series of panels and monitors accompany the visitor along a path that, starting from the geological evolution of the island, passes through the relationship between humans and the volcano, the main volcanic phenomena and the reconstruction of an archaeological excavation of exceptional value, where it is possible to see the strong interaction between primary and secondary volcanic phenomena and a human settlement of the first Greek colony in the west: Pithecusae. The exhibition was designed with the purpose of educating the visitors and the local population about the natural history of the island and its volcanoes, and their impact on the human life through time.