Millets and Cereal Meals from the Early Iron Age Underwater Settlement of “Gran Carro” (Bolsena Lake, Central Italy)

Abstract

Archeobotanical materials recovered from pottery vessels originating from the underwater archeological site of “Gran Carro”, located in Central Italy on the shore of Bolsena Lake, were analyzed to obtain new insight into the agricultural habits present in this Iron Age settlement. The archeobotanical study of cereal remains was combined with analytical data obtained from an amorphous organic residue using optical microscopy, SEM-EDS, ATR/FT-IR and Py-GC/MS. The cereal remains of emmer wheat (Triticum dicoccum), barley (Hordeum vulgare), broomcorn millet (Panicum miliaceum), and foxtail millet (Setaria italica) were identified as the preferred crops used for food and/or fodder at the site. The presence of charred millets, which have been directly dated by AMS, confirms consumption at the site and adds to the little-known background of millet use in central Italy. The find of millets in a perilacustrine pile-dwelling during a period when the water level of the Bolsena Lake was several meters lower than at present, attesting to a general dry period, suggests that the cultivation of millets, complementing more productive crops of wheat and barley, may have been favored by the availability of a large seasonally dry coastal plain, characterized by poor and sandy soils unsuitable for more demanding cereals.

Pollen and Molecular Biomarkers from Sedimentary Archives in the Central Po Plain (N Italy): Assessing Their Potential to Deepen Changes in Natural and Agricultural Systems

“…Broomcorn millet became a common culture during the Iron Age in northern and central Italy (ca. 3100-2400 cal yr BP; [83]), while in Roman times, the consumption of millet was reserved for animal feed and it was deemed suitable only for the poor as it was considered a low-quality cereal [84]. In general, archaeobotanical evidence suggests a minor presence of millet compared to other cereal crops at Roman sites [85].…”

Understanding the chemical and mineralogical composition of commercial henna and jagua tattoos and dyes—a multi-analytical approach

“…The compositional data was acquired using the Esprit1.9 software and a standardless quantification. The SEM images were acquired in the backscattering mode [16].…”

Production of Dry Cakes (Cookies) Based on a Combination Between Millets Flour with Wheat

“…To increase the number of bioactive compounds, with high-intensity ultrasound treatment, the results showed that with an amplitude of 80% for 12.5 minutes, the number of antioxidants increased by 15% (Mustac et al, 2019). Archaeobotanical studies of the Iron Age in Central Italy using SEM-EDS, ATR/FT-IR, and Py-GC/MS show that millet (Panicum miliaceum) has become the plant of choice for food besides wheat (Fundurulic et al, 2022). Millet flour as a food raw material has been a tradition since 202 BC, the result of the characterization of leftovers from cereals, meat, and kebabs found in Changle Cemetery (202SM-220M) using Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy (FTIR), starch grain, phytolith, stable isotope analysis, and proteomics show that the food is made from millet seeds and millet flour with the addition of barley flour and beef (Ren et al, 2022).…”