The SUCCESSO-TERRA project: A lesson of sustainability from the terramare culture, middle bronze age of the po plain (Northern Italy)

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

The Botanical Record of Archaeobotany Italian Network - BRAIN: a cooperative network, database and website

The BRAIN (Botanical Records of Archaeobotany Italian Network) database and network was developed by the cooperation of archaeobotanists working on Italian archaeological sites. Examples of recent research including pollen or other plant remains in analytical and synthetic papers are reported as an exemplar reference list. This paper retraces the main steps of the creation of BRAIN, from the scientific need for the first research cooperation to the website which has a free online access since 2015

The Botanical Record of Archaeobotany Italian Network - BRAIN: a cooperative network, database and website

The BRAIN (Botanical Records of Archaeobotany Italian Network) database and network was developed by the cooperation of archaeobotanists working on Italian archaeological sites. Examples of recent research including pollen or other plant remains in analytical and synthetic papers are reported as an exemplar reference list. This paper retraces the main steps of the creation of BRAIN, from the scientific need for the first research cooperation to the website which has a free online access since 2015

From influence to impact: the multifunctional land-use in Mediterranean prehistory emerging from palynology of archaeological sites (8.0-2.8 ka BP)

Archaeobotany is used to discover details on local land uses in prehistoric settlements developed during the middle and beginning of late Holocene. Six archaeological sites from four countries (Spain, Italy, Greece, and Turkey) have pollen and charcoal records showing clear signs of the agrarian systems that had developed in the Mediterranean basin during different cultural phases, from pre-Neolithic to Recent Bronze Age. A selected list of pollen taxa and sums, including cultivated trees, other woody species, crops and annual or perennial synanthropic plants are analysed for land use reconstructions. In general, cultivation has a lower image in palynology than forestry, and past land uses became visible when oakwoods were affected by human activities. On-site palynology allows us to recognise the first influence of humans even before it can be recognised in off-site sequences, and off-site sequences can allow us to determine the area of influence of a site. Neolithic and Bronze Age archaeological sites show similar land use dynamics implying oak exploitation, causing local deforestation, and cultivation of cereal fields in the area or around the site. Although a substantial difference makes the Neolithic influence quite distant from the Bronze Age impact, mixed systems of land exploitation emerged everywhere. Multiple land use activities exist (multifunctional landscapes) at the same time within the area of influence of a site. Since the Neolithic, people have adopted a diffuse pattern of land use involving a combination of diverse activities, using trees\u2013crops\u2013domesticated animals. The most recurrent combination included wood exploitation, field cultivation and animal breeding. The lesson from the past is that the multifunctional land use, combining sylvo-pastoral and crop farming mixed systems, has been widely adopted for millennia, being more sustainable than the monoculture and a promising way to develop our economy

BRAIN id: CTO53 – pollen dataset

Podere Marzuolo - MAP (Tuscany). Dataset including pollen counts from sediment samples collected from four contexts (CTO53a, CTO53b, CTO53c, CTO53d) opened during archaeological excavations of the Roman site of Podere Marzuolo (Grosseto; 42°57'26" N, 11°24'18" E, 111 m asl; chronology: 1st-3rd century AD) within the Marzuolo Archaeological Project coordinated by Cornell University. The dataset was created as part of the National Biodiversity Future Center (NBFC, Palermo, Italy). The site is included in the BRAIN database (https://brainplants.successoterra.net/; site id: CTO53)

BRAIN id: CTO 16 – pollen dataset

Colle Massari (Tuscany). Dataset including pollen counts from sediment samples collected from the Roman site of Colle Massari (Grosseto; 42°53'35.83" N 11°20'37.69" E, 130 m asl; chronology: 1st century BC - 1st century AD). The dataset was created as part of the National Biodiversity Future Center (NBFC, Palermo, Italy). The site is included in the BRAIN database (https://brainplants.successoterra.net/; site id: CTO16)

BRAIN id: CTO13 – pollen dataset

Poggio dell’Amore (Tuscany). Dataset including pollen counts from sediment samples collected from the Roman site of Poggio dell’Amore (Grosseto; 42°56'21.48" N 11°23'57.91" E, 123 m asl; chronology: 1st century AD). The dataset was created as part of the National Biodiversity Future Center (NBFC, Palermo, Italy). The site is included in the BRAIN database (https://brainplants.successoterra.net/; site id: CTO13)

BRAIN id: CTO14 – pollen dataset

Podere Terrato (Tuscany). Dataset including pollen counts from sediment samples collected from the Roman site of Podere Terrato (Grosseto; 42°55'39.00" N 11°22'32.00" E, 159 m asl; chronology: 1st century BC - 1st century AD). The dataset was created as part of the National Biodiversity Future Center (NBFC, Palermo, Italy). The site is included in the BRAIN database (https://brainplants.successoterra.net/; site id: CTO14)

BRAIN id: CTO12 – pollen dataset

San Martino (Tuscany). Dataset including pollen counts from sediment samples collected from the Roman site of San Martino (Grosseto; 42°56'42.89" N 11°23'04.97" E, 130 m asl; chronology: 2nd century BC - 1st century AD). The dataset was created as part of the National Biodiversity Future Center (NBFC, Palermo, Italy). The site is included in the BRAIN database (https://brainplants.successoterra.net/; site id: CTO12)