LAND USE FROM SEASONAL ARCHAEOLOGICAL SITES: THE ARCHAEOBOTANICAL EVIDENCE OF SMALL ROMAN FARMHOUSES IN CINIGIANO, SOUTH-EASTERN TUSCANY - CENTRAL ITALY

this paper focuses on the archaeobotanical study of two Roman small farmhouses, san Martino and poggio dell’amore, located near cinigiano, in the province of grosseto-tuscany. the sites were probably occupied during seasonal agricultural works, a peculiar typology of site that has not been usually identified in Roman sites of central italy. the integrated analyses of pollen, non pollen palynomorphs, charcoal particles and seeds/fruits help to obtain interesting details on the site function, land use and palaeoenvironment of these archaeological contexts. the archaeobotanical reconstruction shows that the landscape was fairly treeless. pastures surrounded the small buildings while cereal fields were probably less extended or further away than legume fields cultivated to forage. shrubs and some fruit trees might mark boundaries of fields, while the woods, including oak woods, were distributed far from the sites. anthropogenic pollen indicators, spores of coprophilous fungi and parasite eggs point to the presence of excrements in the sites suggesting that the small buildings were used as small barns for domestic animals, or a temporary shed

Palaeoenvironment, Settlement, and Land Use in the Late Neolithic—Bronze Age Site of Colombare di Negrar di Valpolicella (N Italy, On-Site)

Palynological and archaeobotanical analyses have been carried out as part of the interdisciplinary project of Colombare di Negrar, a prehistoric site in the Lessini Mountains (northern Italy). The palaeoenvironmental and economic reconstruction from the Late Neolithic to the beginning of the Early Bronze Age was based on 16 pollen samples and three samples of macroremains taken from two contiguous trenches. The landscape reconstruction shows the presence of natural clearings in the wood. Forest cover was characterised by oak wood, with Ulmus and Tilia. The intermediate morphology of size and exine of Tilia cordata/platyphyllos pollen may be regarded as the first palynological evidence of lime hybrids in palaeorecords. Hygrophilous trees and Vitis vinifera testify to the presence of riparian forests and moist soils. Among trees supplying fruits, in addition to the grapevine, hazelnut (Corylus avellana) and walnut (Juglans regia) were present. A mixed economy based on animal breeding and cultivation of cereals (Hordeum vulgare, Triticum monococcum, T. dicoccum, T. timopheevii) emerged from the data. The combined analysis of pollen and plant macroremains suggests that different activities were carried out simultaneously in Colombare and a relationship between natural resources and the socio-economic and cultural evolution of the territory

The representativeness of Olea pollen from olive groves and the Late Holocene landscape reconstruction in central Mediterranean

Modern pollen spectra are an invaluable reference tool for paleoenvironmental and cultural landscape reconstructions, but the importance of knowing the pollen rain released from orchards remains underexplored. In particular, the role of cultivated trees is in past and current agrarian landscapes has not been fully investigated. Here, we present a pollen analysis of 70 surface soil samples taken from 12 olive groves in Basilicata and Tuscany, two regions of Italy that exemplify this cultivation in the Mediterranean basin. This study was carried out to assess the representativeness of Olea pollen in modern cultivations. Although many variables can influence the amount of pollen observed in soils, it was clear that most of the pollen was deposited below the trees in the olive groves. A rapid decline in the olive pollen percentages (c. 85% on average) was found when comparing samples taken from IN vs. OUT of each grove. The mean percentages of Olea pollen obtained from the archaeological sites close to the studied orchards suggest that olive groves were established far from the Roman farmhouses of Tuscany. Further south, in the core of the Mediterranean basin, the cultivation of Olea trees was likely situated approximately 500\u20131000 m from the rural sites in Basilicata, and dated from the Hellenistic to the Medieval period

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

Con autorización de la revista para autores CSIC[EN] 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.Peer reviewe

Archaeobotanical research and related ethnobotanical observations in the central and southern Sahara

This paper presents two case studies demonstrating links between archaeobotany and ethnobotany, completed in the south-western and central Sahara desert from 2004 to 2008. The focus is on evidence of plant use from archaeobo- tanical records, mainly pollen. Ethnobotanical data are reported from the literature, interviews, and observations of the local cultural knowledge of Tuareg people. The archaeological sites represent a range of contexts, including the open air necropolis of Gobero in Niger and rock shelters and cave sites of the Tadrart Acacus mountains in Libya. Samples taken from burials at Gobero had very low pollen concentrations. However, four Pastoral burials preserved high percentages of pollen grains of caper and myrtle and a signifi ant presence of grasses. Particular funerary behaviours are suggested. In the Tadrart Acacus, the actions of hunter-gatherers and pastoralists are visible in the archaeobotanical record. Remains of food and medicinal plants, such as fruits of Balanites and pollen of Artemisia, were typically observed in layers corres- pondingtotheearlyandmid-Holocene.HugenumbersofPoaceaefl retsandcaryopsesanddiversefruits,seeds,leaves, and other plant parts accumulated in shelters. Altogether, at least 38 pollen types pertain to plants that were probably used for food and fodder