Emilia Allevato

Anthracological analysis has been carried out in three sites located on the Tyrrhenian coast of central Italy (ancient northern Etruria: the castle of Donoratico, the town of Populonia and the port of Alberese), spanning between the Roman Republican Period and the Late Middle Ages (3rd century bc–13th century ad). The integrated comparison of three different local charcoal data with the regional pollen and microcharcoal data available from northern Etruria showed well that vegetation changes are completely independent of climate and strictly connected to economic and social dynamics
characterising the history of this part of central Italy. Indeed, Quercus ilex forests progressively retracted from the 3rd century bc in favour of open macchia formations just during the growing human impact of the Romanisation when intensive agriculture and livestock grazing characterised the economic system. The transition from macchia to deciduous Quercus forest at the end of the Roman Period from the mid-4th to the mid-5th centuries ad and long lasting until the 9th–10th centuries ad was related to economic and cultural factors which led to a phase of land abandonment. Finally, between the 11th and 13th centuries ad, the vegetation cover shifted again towards an open macchia environment at the same time of a re-settlement phase well evidenced also by intensive orcharding. Charcoal data also showed that the expansion of olive and chestnut in central Italy only began in the Late Medieval Period (11th century ad) and not in the Roman Period. This means that extensive cultivation of chestnut and olive has very recent origins and should be attributed to one and the same macro-factor such as the set-up of the economic establishment of the feudal system and the later political organism of the Medieval town.

Questions: Pollen data for Abies alba Mill., a key European tree species, show broad occurrence in the Italian peninsula in the early to mid-Holocene diffusion (until ca. 6000 yr ago) along the Italian peninsula and a strong decline/local extinction starting ca. 5000 yr ago. This decline has been attributed to climate
change. Recently, high-resolution pollen studies,mainly in northern Italian sites claim that A. alba disappearance was mainly due to human impact. We examined the presence of A. alba in archaeological sites of southern and central Italy in order to trace the late Holocene history (last 3000 yr) of this tree and enhance understanding of its role in pre-anthropic vegetation and of human involvement in its decline.
Location: Central and southern Italy.
Methods: Anthracological analysis was conducted in six archaeological layers at the archaeological site of Trebbio-Spinellina (800–600 BC, Sansepolcro, Tuscany). A critical analysis of wood/charcoal literature relevant to Abies in central
and southern Italy was used to corroborate the results of Trebbio-Spinellina. Charcoal records fromarchaeological sites have been compared with the current distribution of A. alba.
Results: At Trebbio-Spinellina, A. alba charcoal is present in all contexts examined, together with mesophilous broad-leaf taxa (Quercus deciduous, Carpinus betulus, Ostrya carpinifolia, Corylus avellana). A low charcoal percentage of Fagus sylvatica and Taxus baccata is also found; evergreen taxa are mainly represented by Quercus ilex with occasional shrubs (i.e. Viburnum, Cistus, Erica). In the literature, we identified several peninsular and insular Italian archaeological sites showing charcoal evidence of Abies, accompanied by deciduous oaks, mainly Q. cerris, and other broad-leafmesophilous trees, dating from the Iron Age to the Middle Ages. All sites, except one, lie at less than 600 m a.s.l., and far from present- day A. alba communities.
Conclusion: Results call for a reworking of the prevailing paradigmof A. alba as a relic mountain species. Indeed, A. alba once grew at lower altitudes than currently and was associated with deciduous oaks, mainly Q. cerris, and other mesophilous broad-leaf trees. This evidence calls into question the suitability of the Potential Natural Vegetation (PNV) concept usually applied in the floristic approach. The recent population decline is attributable to human activity rather than to climate change. Finally, the persistence of A. alba until the late Holocene calls into question the assumptions that it is a relic species with no potential to expand its spatial range.

The Vesuvius area near Naples, southern Italy, is one of the richest places for archaeological finds from Roman times. The ad 79 volcanic eruption also caused the preservation of a huge quantity of archaeobotanical material. In this paper the available wood and charcoal remains from the timber structures as well as from the garden soils of the Villa of Poppea at Oplontis are presented. The analyses provide new evidence of the history of some significant trees of the Mediterranean region, such as Abies alba and Cupressus ...

ABSTRACT The present study is a review of the archaeobotanical analyses carried out in the last decade at the three ancient Roman port/dock system sites of Pisae, Portus, and Neapolis. Pollen, plant macrofossils (leaf, wood, seed/fruit macroremains) and wood constituting the shipwrecks were considered, and the results, partly unpublished, integrated and interpreted. Waterlogged sediments from these port areas turned out to be particularly suited for archaeobotanical analysis and opened new perspectives in ancient harbour studies. This is the first time that a synthesis of archaeobotanical data from Italian archaeological sites of the same typology is attempted for the Roman period. The disparate sampling strategies and available materials for macrofossil analysis in the various sites - cores in Portus, short sediment sequences in Pisae, and single visible hand-collected macroremains in Neapolis - conditioned the results obtained for these remains, making the comparison among sites a particularly difficult task. The urgency of establishing a common protocol between archaeologists and archaeobotanists is thus emphasized. The plant micro- and macrofossils highlight that in Roman times the landscape of the Italian coasts between Pisa and Naples was formed by deciduous oak plain forests (whose relicts are preserved in some protected areas, like in Parco Nazionale del Circeo, south of Rome and along the coast of the Pisan plain, in the Migliarino San Rossore Regional Park) with prevalence of mesophilous elements. The Mediterranean vegetation was not widespread as expected and maquis was limited to small areas by the coast. Surprisingly, mountain elements such as beech and silver fir were not so rare in pre-Roman times, suggesting that these trees could have occupied wider areas than at present. Besides food plant remains typical of the Roman age, the port sediments also preserved seeds, fruits and leaves of the wild vegetation. Comparing the results obtained by palynology with the shipwreck wood study showed that the boats were prevailingly built with local timber, often with conifers. The use of silver fir, though never very frequent, still confirms the preference of shipbuilders for this timber, which was not always available in the close surroundings of the three sites.

Over the last millennia, the land between the Alps and the Mediterranean sea, characterized by extraordinary habitat diversity, has seen an outstanding cross-cultural development. They cover a large time scale, from the prehistoric through the protohistoric Iron Age, right up to the historical and modern times, and a variety of contexts that make this land one-of-a-kind. For this reason, a huge number of studies on plant records from archaeological contexts are carried out in Italy since the second half of the last century (e.g.: Follieri 1975; Castelletti 1976; Bakels 2002). This data record synthesis (Mercuri et al. submitted) reports for the first time the census of the Holocene archaeological sites that have been studied for archaeobotany in Italy over the last quarter in a century. Sites are typical on-site contexts where samples for botanical analyses were collected during stratigraphical excavation fieldwork. Pollen, seeds and fruits, woods/charcoals and other plant remains w...

Charcoal analysis was carried out in two archaeological sites on the north slope of the Somma-Vesuvius volcano, not far from Naples. Both sites were inhabited between the 2nd century AD and AD 472, when a great Vesuvius eruption (so called Pollena eruption) buried them. In both sites, Castanea sativa wood was largely used for architectural structures as well as firewood. Ten 14C dates, spanning between the 1st and the 5th century AD, testify to a continuative use of this wood throughout the life of the sites. The comparison between archaeobotanical and pollen data from other sites in southern Italy suggests that chestnut woods were close to the sites studied and had a restricted spreading, possibly in a refugium area on Vesuvius' foothills. The match between archaeological charcoals and pollen data suggests that the Romans did not spread chestnut cultivation in the entire Campania region and that chestnut probably became a common timber in Campania starting from the 5th-6th century AD.

Cultural landscapes were prominent during the Early Roman period when agronomic knowledge allowed the spread of intensive land exploitation in most of the available land. The aim of this contribution is to explore whether for the Campania region (Southern Italy) archaeoenvironmental data would support continuity or change in the cultural landscape of Roman tradition in the 4th and 5th centuries. To do so, new data from two sites located on the northern slopes of the Vesuvius, both buried by the AD 472 eruption have been investigated. Charcoal analysis, 14C dating, and chemical analysis of organic residues were carried out in order to study the landscape and the food production at these sites. The results suggest the persistence of the Roman cultural landscape until the 4th and 5th centuries in this area. The landscape is in fact strongly marked both in agriculture and woodland exploitation and management, being characterized by managed chestnut forests as well as valuable cultivations of walnut, large vineyards, olive groves, and probably orchards and crops. The integrated approach with archaeobotanical and archaeometric analyses proves to be a powerful method for the study of the past landscapes, providing a good insight into the environment. Furthermore, this study provided the most ancient evidence of chestnut silviculture for wood.

Over the last millennia, the land between the Alps and the Mediterranean sea, characterized by extraordinary habitat diversity, has seen an outstanding cross-cultural development. They cover a large time scale, from the prehistoric through the protohistoric Iron Age, right up to the historical and modern times, and a variety of contexts that make this land one-of-a-kind. For this reason, a huge number of studies on plant records from archaeological contexts are carried out in Italy since the second half of the last century (e.g.: Follieri 1975; Castelletti 1976; Bakels 2002).
This data record synthesis (Mercuri et al. submitted) reports for the first time the census of the Holocene archaeological sites that have been studied for archaeobotany in Italy over the last quarter in a century. Sites are typical on-site contexts where samples for botanical analyses were collected during stratigraphical excavation fieldwork. Pollen, seeds and fruits, woods/charcoals and other plant remains were analysed in multidisciplinary researches. Fifteen archaeobotanical teams provided 630 sites (see below, 3 examples in the orange boxes from Northern , Central and Southern Italy).
Site distribution is plotted in maps of site density according to geographical districts and main chronological phases. The sites are located across the 20 regions of Italy, and in the Republic of San Marino (356 sites in northern Italy, 118 in central Italy, 156 in southern Italy and on the islands). They belong to several cultural phases, prevalently belonging to a pre-Roman phase.
In the majority of sites, seeds and fruits are important part of archaeobotanical studies. Charcoal analyses are also common, while those on woods are probably limited by preservation problems. One third of the sites include pollen analyses. Interestingly, many sites include other microscopic remains, such as non pollen palynomorphs and charcoal particles; the interest in phytoliths is still limited. Only around 20% of the studies include combined micro - and macroremains; however, there is an evident tendency in recent bibliographies towards the increasing consideration of combined botanical analyses (Sadori et al. 2010).
The synthesis presents a 796 titles reference list that helps to find analytical data referring to the descriptive papers that may be scattered throughout monographies and specific books on the matter.

Questo articolo nasce dalla cooperazione di ricercatori che portano avanti indagini archeobotaniche e iconografiche in campo nazionale (Gruppi di interesse scientifico e tecnico operativo di Paleobotanica e di Botaniche Applicate della Società Botanica Italiana) ed internazionale (International Work Group for Palaeoethnobotany). L’idea di cooperazione su una pianta di notevole interesse culturale è nata in seno al progetto PaCE, che vede riunita in questo volume molta ricerca centrata sulla ricostruzione della storia botanica d’Europa. In questo lavoro sono state verificate dagli autori sia le rappresentazioni iconografiche che le notizie provenienti da fonti letterarie sul pesco. Il pesco venne introdotto in Italia nella prima metà del I sec. d.C. Le fonti storiche indicano la sua presenza da circa il 40 d.C., ma i reperti archeobotanici sembrerebbero retrodatare di almeno un decennio la sua presenza, almeno in Italia settentrionale. I macroresti di pesco sono costituiti quasi esclusivamente dai resistenti endocarpi legnosi o da frammenti degli stessi. Sono spesso rinvenuti in quantitativi scarsi in contesti funerari ed in zone portuali di età Romana imperiale, ma talvolta trovati in grandi quantità in sedimenti archeologici ricchi d’acqua, sepolti e spesso conservati in condizioni anossiche (i cosiddetti waterlogged remains riportati nella letteratura inglese, la cui traduzione italiana “resti sommersi” non sembra rendere a pieno la denominazione originale di quei macroresti considerati un tempo come particolari resti mummificati). La loro presenza in giardini privati e ville rustiche di età classica fa pensare che il pesco fosse utilizzato e apprezzato sia a scopo ornamentale che alimentare. Dati preliminari ottenuti da ricerche morfobiometriche condotte sui nòccioli di pesca sembrano indicare l’esistenza di diverse cultivar già durante il primo periodo di coltivazione in Italia (del resto erano state importate dall’Asia dove erano già in fase ben avviata di coltivazione) e che una grande variabilità si sia conservata anche nel Medioevo. I ritrovamenti di età medievale e rinascimentale suggeriscono che all’epoca il consumo di pesche era ridotto, se non limitato, a contesti abitativi particolarmente ricchi quali castelli o palazzi signorili.