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Continuity and discontinuity in the history of upland pastoral landscapes: the case study of Val Molinac and Val Poré (Val di Sole, Trentino, Eastern Italian Alps)

Abstract This paper addresses the question of the formation and evolution of upland rural Alpine landscapes. The case study presented here refers to two upland valleys—Val Molinac and Val Poré—located in the Alpine region of Trentino (Italy). Archaeological fieldwork in the area has revealed a complex landscape; the main features of which are dry stone structures (enclosures, huts and rock shelters), mainly related to pastoralism. Archaeological data and documentary sources show that the investigated landscape underwent distinct formative phases or ‘tipping points’—in the fifteenth to sixteenth centuries AD and in the late eighteenth to early nineteenth centuries AD—and suggest that its evolution has neither been gradual nor incremental, as generally assumed. ‘Punctuated equilibrium paradigm’, derived from evolutionary theory, is applied to address the discontinuous evolution of the upland landscapes of Val Molinac and Val Poré, and theoretical implications for the study of rural landscapes are discussed.