image/svg+xml221 IX/2/2018 INTERDISCIPLINARIA ARCHAEOLOGICA NATURAL SCIENCES IN ARCHAEOLOGY homepage: http://www.iansa.eu A look at the region The SUCCESSO-TERRA Project: a Lesson of Sustainability from the Terramare Culture, Middle Bronze Age of the Po Plain (Northern Italy) Mauro Cremaschi a , Anna Maria Mercuri b* , Alessandra Benatti b , Giovanna Bosi b , Filippo Brandolini a , Eleonora Clò b , Assunta Florenzano b , Elisa Furia b , Guido S. Mariani a , Marta Mazzanti b , Maria Chiara Montecchi b , Eleonora Rattighieri b , Rossella Rinaldi b , Paola Torri b , Andrea Zerboni a a Department of the Earth Sciences, “Ardito Desio”, State University of Milan, Via Leopoldo Cicognara 7, 20129 Milano, Italy b Laboratory of Palynology and Palaeobotany, Department of Life Sciences, University of Modena and Reggio Emilia, Viale Caduti in Guerra 127, 41121 Modena, Italy 1. Background How can we mitigate the efects of climate change? How can our society develop towards models of sustainable development in the coming years? The “bridge” to sustainability is a pivotal topic of international debate and is among the priorities of the agenda of the Horizon2020 Societal Challenges, linking the past with the future. Despite the many achievements emerging from some new solutions, it is becoming increasingly aware that the study of the past is at the root of reliable and responsible actions for the future.The SUCCESSO-TERRA Project ( Human societies, climate‐environment changes and resource exploitation/ sustainability in the Po Plain in the mid-Holocene: the Terramare culture ; 2017–2020) is an interdisciplinary research program aiming at reconstructing the landscape and land-use transformations that occurred during the trajectory of the Terramare culture in the southern-central Po Plain of Northern Italy (Figure 1). The project, funded by Volume IX ● Issue 2/2018 ● Pages 221 –229 *Corresponding author. E-mail: annamaria.mercuri@unimore.it ARTICLE INFO Article history: Received: 29 th December 2018 Accepted: 31 th December 2018DOI: http://dx.doi.org/ 10.24916/iansa.2018.2.8 Key words: archaeologyclimate changeTerramaremid-Holoceneinterdisciplinarity ABSTRACT This backstory article deals with the SUCCESSO-TERRA Project (2017–2020), an interdisciplinary research program aiming at reconstructing the land-use transformations that occurred during the development of the Terramare culture in the southern-central Po Plain of Northern Italy. Topics include climate-environment changes, human impact and exploitation of natural resources that are interconnected topics in human ecology and environmental sciences. These topics can only be understood in a long-term perspective integrating archaeology, geology, botany and other sciences. The text includes the theoretical basis, the research strategy and the main methodological approaches given by geoarchaeology and palynology, the two research sides constituting the partnership of the project.