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. For the first time, this paper reports on the census of the Holocene archaeological sites that have been studied as part of archaeobotany in Italy (continental Italy, the Italian peninsula and islands) over the last quarter in a century. Pollen, non-pollen palynomorphs, seeds and fruits, woods/charcoals and other plant remains have all been analysed in multidisciplinary researches. A list of 630 sites has been provided by more than 15 archaeobotanical teams. 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: 321 sites are only pre-Roman, 264 are Roman/post-Roman, and 45 sites cover a broader range of time, present in both time spans. Site distribution is plotted in maps of site density according to geographical districts and the main chronological phases. The reference list helps to find analytical data referring to the descriptive papers that may be scattered throughout monographs and specific books on the matter
In this contribution, we investigated the role of plants in the prehistoric community of Casale del Dolce (Anagni, FR, central Italy), through microparticles recovered from dental calculus. The finding of a great amount of pollen types, even in form of compact lumps, could indicate use of natural substances, such as honeybee products and/or conifer resins. This plant-microremain record also suggested environmental implications relative to the Neolithic and Chalcolithic period. Additionally, the stability of the tartar microenvironment had preserved starches and other microparticles, such as one epidermal trichome, a sporangium, and fragments of plant tissue, rarely detected in ancient dental calculus. The detection of secondary metabolites in the ancient matrix confirmed the familiarity of this community with plant resources. All these data supply various interesting food for thought and expand the knowledge about the potential of dental calculus in archaeological and archaeobotanical fields with a special focus on palaeoecology.
Abstract. Several record-breaking precipitation events have struck the
mountainous area of the Emilia–Romagna region (northern Apennines, Italy) over
the last 10 years. As a consequence, severe geomorphological processes such
as debris avalanches and debris flows, shallow landslides, and overbank
flooding have affected the territory, causing severe damage to human-made
structures. The unusual intensity of these phenomena prompted an
investigation into their frequency in the past, beyond instrumental time. In
the quest for an understanding of whether these phenomena are unprecedented in
the region, peat bog and lake deposits were analyzed to infer the frequency
of extreme precipitation events that may have occurred in the past. We
present the results of a dedicated field campaign performed in summer 2017
at Lake Moo in the northern Apennines, a 0.15 km2 peat bog located at
an altitude of 1130 m a.s.l. During the extreme precipitation event of 13–14
September 2015, several debris flows generated by small streams
affected the Lake Moo plain. In such a small drainage basin (<2 km2), high-density floods can be triggered only by high-intensity
precipitation events. The sedimentary succession (ca. 13 m thick) was
studied through the drilling of two cores and one trench. The sequence,
characterized by clusters of coarse-grained alluvial deposits interbedded
with organic-rich silty clays and peat layers, was analyzed by combining
sedimentological, pollen, microanthracological and pedological data with
radiocarbon dating (AMS 14C) in an innovative multidisciplinary
approach for this area. Original data acquired during the field campaign
were also correlated with other specific paleoclimatic proxies available in
the literature for the northern Apennines area. We discover that the
increase in extreme paleoflooding, associated with coarse-grained deposits
similar to the ones observed recently, correlates well with the warm phases
of the Holocene Thermal Maximum and with the ongoing warming trend observed
that started at the beginning of the last century.
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