Indications from the wooden support and from the other organic materials of the Pace di Chiavenna

Abstract

In the present research Archaeobotany has been applied to the study of some organic materials of Pace di Chiavenna, that are the wooden plate, the wooden cross beneath the central golden cross and the beeswax compound beneath one enamel. The palaeobotanical analyses of the wooden elements could not clarify the geographical origin of the cross, probably black alder wood, while a subalpine or Mediterranean origin seems plausible for the walnut plate. The species found in pollen preserved in the beeswax currently have a very wide altitudinal distribution, extending from the hill to the mountain belt. All the species found were widespread during the Middle Ages in almost all of Western Europe, so it is not possible to identify or completely exclude a specific region in which the wax could have been produced. However, it seems more likely that the area of origin is Northern Italy and in particular a territory near the Pre-Alps. The palynological evidence indicates a strongly anthropized environment, that probably surrounded a city or a large inhabited center