 I'm here speaking on behalf of a group of researchers coming from Italy, Germany, France, and we are basically archaeologists and paleologists working together on this topic for the first time. So these are the very first results. Usually I don't like reading, but please allow me to do that this time because the topic is really incredibly complex and dense. So for this time, I prefer to read my texts. So CC represents a crucial area in the Mediterranean Basin for its geographic position, ecological diversity, cultural heritage, and historical richness. We can say that we are in the center of Central Mediterranean. Main aim of this paper is the review of the paleo-environmental and paleoclimatic results from lake sediments and the evidences from prehistoric context, collecting archaeological, notably paleo-demographic, and archaeological data, pollen and plant macromates in Sicily Island. The chronological range will cover from the Lake Pleistocene until the first historical times. All these studies allow to put together the paleo-ecological information and compare them with cultural development of prehistoric human groups to verify how climatic oscillations can have affected prehistoric communities in settlement patterns, socio-economical change, land use, and other human activities. Sicily is the largest island of the Mediterranean Basin and a key region for understanding of otterai climates and environments, at the crossroad of the western and eastern parts of the Mediterranean, but also very close to the fourth north parallel. This peculiarity of Sicily is mainly due to the strong seasonality and the heterogeneity of its Mediterranean climate, which varies locally according to altitude and exposure to the sun. 23 vegetational bioclimatic assemblages were identified in 250 biotopes and biotec complexes of fauna and vegetation. So archaeological data are the results of regional territorial research and local exhibition on the island developed through the use of modern research strategies along the 20th and 21st century. For what concerns the upper paleolithic and methylitic, the majority of archaeological investigations are focused on western and southern Sicily. Caves of the area of Agri Gent to southern Sicily are representative of the earliest Neolithic faces, while eastern Sicily is representative for the whole Neolithic period. Copper age sites are well known for the earliest face in the southwestern parts of the island and from some caves of the area of southeast and northeast Sicily. The latest past parts of copper age and early Bronze Age has been reasoned to the object of several studies in central Sicily. Studies on early and middle Bronze Age are quite developed all over the islands and on the small islands. Late Bronze Age, apart from sun sites in western Sicily has drawn more attention in eastern Sicily. So let's talk about archaeological studies. We have 18 sites on 30 sites for prehistoric remains, some of them scattered for the classical and medieval faces. Prehistoric analysis are unfortunately centered only on some hot spots such as Aeolian islands and northeast in Sicily for the Bronze Age, west in Sicily for the Iron Age and a reliable stratigraphic sequence from Mesolithic until late Bronze Age for sites. Concerning plant remains analysis, most part of the archaeological resources come from isolated research on a site scale, especially for upper Paleolithic, Mesolithic and the passage to Neolithic. Seven sites, both from Aeolian islands and Sicily with a scattered chronology are known for the early Bronze Age. For what consents the middle Bronze Age, charcoals and topological remains from Aeolian islands are known for these faces? So the Aeolian archaeological dataset is the richest one with a series of AMMS analysis conducted on selected plants in order to obtain the value of the 13 carbostable isotopes. Good and complete results have been obtained through L'Aquistrine sediment analysis all over the islands. In particular, we have in central and southern Sicily per Cusa Lake, Biviera di Gela, La Gopreola and Gorgobassu and northern Sicily with Durio, Cattrocchi and Nuriopiedra Giordano. These sequences were selected because they provide both local and regional trends, they belong to different ecological areas and they have an inappropriate amount of AMMS states correlated to sedimentary segments. They are significant to the interpretation both of local and regional post-celestials during the Aeolian in relation to human occupation. Okay, so let's see and compare the data that we collected. Okay, so pollen diagrams here shown are a synthesis of the vegetation record and here presented as a first selection to compare the available data with human dynamics. Limits of the faces shown on the left are tempered on the social cultural chronology and not on climatic phases. Basically upright you see the sequences from northern Sicily, but Bousa is central Sicily and the other three ones are from southern Sicily. During Upper Paleolithic and Mesolithic, paleo-demography is concentrated in northwestern Sicily on the coasts and southeast in Sicily on the coast of river valleys. Few pollen sequences cover the Mesolithic phase, but Bousa I core provides data showing a more humid climate for this period while more seasonality is readable on the other side. Archipelanical record is still too lacking to elaborate any reliable reconstruction even if it seems possible to say that Sicily shows some early signs of change in the subsystem practices. Domestication process is partially visible and associable to western-made Iranian climatic trends at the beginning of the early Holocene. It is readable through the few data from the Mesolithic sites that stress a tendency to a major presence of Mediterranean serophable taxa already in the eight millennium BC. Since the beginning of Neolithic, paleo-demography is concentrated on the coasts and eastern Sicily. La question sediments sequences show a dense evergreen all-European aquarcus-typilex forest with pistacea shablan for the chronological phase corresponding to Neolithic in western Sicily. In central Sicily, Arbora-pollan concentration declines after the fifth millennium and this has been interpreted as representing forest opening due to a general mid-to-late Holocene areification trend. As available through archipelanical analysis, a more thermophable vegetation is present although northern sequences show that mountainous environment was still quite humid. Serial and legumes variability seems quite high since the beginning of the Neolithic and the absence of archipelanical analysis from late Neolithic sites does not allow to implement the data for this phase. Okay, so during the Copper Age, paleo-demography increases in central Sicily and partially decreases on the coasts. Paleo-environmental trends show as a matter of fact a shift towards drier environmental conditions from 3000 BC on as all the sequences to southern or fourth north parallel. Sequences from southwest and Sicily show an afro-station process, a switch to evergreen forests in south-eastern Sicily is recorded and a remarkable decrease of the Chidus Orcs increasing evergreen orcs and Poache in central Sicily. So we have a lot of differences among the regions. In northern Sicily, increase of faggots show the persistence of humid conditions and higher elevations although also a decrease of the Chidus Orcs and an augmentation of Poache is recorded. Anthropological data are available for three sites in eastern Sicily for middle Copper Age, the record the presence of the Chidus Orcs. Okay, so early middle Bronze Age. With the beginning of Bronze Age, paleo-demography is spread everywhere on the island with some major areas in southern and eastern Sicily. Data from central southern Sicily show a global general trend to evergreen cover reduction since the middle of third millennium BC until the first centuries of the second millennium BC. An establishment of typical made run and cover vegetation after the so-called 4.2 BP events observed in many regions of the world probably affected also Sicily. In northern Sicily, presence of Poache increases with a small decrease in faggots. This vegetational shift was a compine by a loss of diversity and could reflect human impact at high elevation when forests were still expanding in coastal Sicily. On the other hand, at mid second millennium BC both in southern and northern Sicily, the percentage of arboreal pollen has a slight increase as microcharcodes in Pergusa. This could be read as a rising in biomass amounts and a partial recover of vegetation is detectable in northern Sicily. So this phenomenon could highlight a limited inverse climatic trend towards moisture conditions at the end of the early Bronze Age. Local archaeological data bring to light that a great variability, especially visible also on pollen sequences, remains of fruits and seeds shows that the primary early Bronze Age, thank you, economy, was based on a serial cultivation, pasties, and collection of spontaneous plants. So, end of the Bronze Age, paleo-demography decreases with a concentration in some sites of western and eastern Sicily. The increase of oleacea is probably favored by increased temperature and decreased precipitation. These processes might have allowed the spread of thermophilus and less moisture-demanding Daxa. Also, in southwestern Sicily, an increase in oleumpoacea is registered, and archaebotanical data, unfortunately, available for late Bronze Age, are not very consistent. So what can we say? That I hear discussed and presented with the change of sea water level of Lake Preola and Pergusa that you see on the right. In the periods around and right after the late national maximum, the geographical conditions of Sicily represent the most relevant and interesting aspect, in attempt to reconstruct the human groups and landscape dynamics. The first reliable stable occupation of the Allian is attributable to the end of the Paleolithic. An early establishment of Mediterranean vegetation through the lacustrine deposits of southwestern and southeastern Sicily is detectable since the Mesolithic. Low demographic density is probably linked to the late and not spread of the occupation of the Allian yet. Newly thick economic system and the deep change of human-environment relationship during the Holocene represent very discussed phenomena all over Europe and the Mediterranean area. The first phase of Neolithic in western Sicily was more marked while human pressure decreased during the 15th millennium BC, as it visible by the settlements. The beginning of the diffusion of the Anaculture phase could be related to a major impact on the environment due to the widespread of Neolithic agro-pastoral systems. Analyzing Neolithic sites distribution, only the growing human occupation at the end of the Neolithic could justify an impact on the Poland sequences, readable from some indicators together with an increase in moisture. These conditions could have sustained the increase of settlements in northern Sicily at the end of this phase. Between the 4th and the beginning of the 3rd millennium BC cooperate, Sicily is involved in new change processes. A Neolithic economic system is deeply roots, sometimes with a major tendency to pastoral activities. Poland data from southeastern show some increased human influence, but the transition to a more open environment approximately corresponds to the transition between copper and bronze age. So even if human influence could be more effective on the environment, the first half of the 4th millennium is probably not clearly detectable on the environment. And the carbo-logical data show an economic system that does not differ significantly from the previous phase. A decrease in lake levels starting from 3000 BC indicates a climate-driven trend towards verification, at least partially justifying the co-passion of the inner region. Bronze age. The early bronze age represents the beginning of a complex system of exchange in people, models, and objects that brings towards socio-economical profound transformations. Since 1000 BC, there is clear evidence of human influence and prehistoric populations start changing the landscape on a broad scale, especially in the most populated areas. Nevertheless, although these phases represent the moment of passage and a massive impact on the territory for the cultures of the first phases of Castelluccio villages, these processes would only be partially induced by the human presence and mainly from climatic change and a general trend to identification, the so-called crisis of around 2000 BC. So here in Sicily, it is the coolman of a longer process started centuries before and corresponds to one of the most culturally advanced phase in the prehistory of the islands. Of the islands, sorry. After a short increase of moisture during the middle bronze age, between the end of the bronze age and the beginning of Iron Age, despite the decrease in the number of sites, human perturbation would definitely infer change in Sicilian environment, especially due to the contact with the peninsula and eastern societies that will take to the foundation of the Greek colonies. So last slide. This paper represents our first joint effort to put together and compare the great amount of data that needs further discussion and thoughts. Reading cultural features, socioeconomic chains and patterns of settlements of prehistoric communities through the lens of environmental factors can be extremely complex because of the dense variety of factors, especially considering the long range of time here considered and the new data collected and published in the last 20 years. Despite the influence of human activities throughout early and middle Holocene, anthropogenic indicators on Sicily vegetation become visible, only starting from the Copper Age in some areas and more present, I would say, late in the beginning of Copper Age in some areas and more present only with the spread of the early Bronze Age. On the other hand, human dynamics in Sicily were probably affected by climatic chains and these requires further elaboration. At the end of the Bronze Age, concurrent climate change and cultural dynamics have an impact on the insular environment. Nevertheless, most of the strongest signs of change on vegetation will take place only with the 9th, 8th and 3rd BC. Thanks.