Palaeoenvironment and land use of Roman peasant farmhouses in southern Tuscany

Bowes, Kim; Mercuri, Anna Maria; Rattighieri, Eleonora; Rinaldi, Rossella; Arnoldus-Huyzendveld, Antonia; Ghisleni, Mariaelena; Grey, Cam; MacKinnon, Michael; Vaccaro, Emanuele

doi:10.1080/11263504.2014.992997

Cited by 19 publications

(13 citation statements)

References 21 publications

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“…Therefore, it is not a surprise that an interdisciplinary research field like archaeobotany, joining archaeology and botany, is so well developed that the study of pollen and other plant remains is more and more introduced in the archaeological projects planned in Italian sites (e.g. Roman Peasant Project: Bowes & al. 2015;SicTransit: www.sicilyintrasition.org) or considered in the vegetation history of the Mediterranean area (e.g.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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

Lippi¹,

Florenzano²,

Rinaldi³

et al. 2018

Fl. Medit.

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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.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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

Lippi¹,

Florenzano²,

Rinaldi³

et al. 2018

Fl. Medit.

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“…1st century BC/1st century AD). Along with the significant presence of cereals, the grape vines, and olives attest to the importance of Mediterranean crops in rural contexts, which were small and mainly occupied on a temporary/short-period basis Bowes et al, 2015).…”

Section: Reference Data From Archeological Literaturementioning

confidence: 99%

“…For our study, we selected Tuscany and Basilicata, two of the most productive agrarian regions in Italy, with large olive groves in their territories (Pisante et al, 2009; Figure 2). These regions couple modern plantations, characterized by different cultivars, with an impressive record of archeological sites preserving evidence of long-term agricultural activity carried out for millennia (Florenzano, 2013;Vaccaro et al, 2013;Bowes et al, 2015). Therefore, we have the opportunity to directly compare past (archeological) and present (olive grove) pollen spectra from the same areas.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Representativeness of Olea Pollen from Olive Groves and the Late Holocene Landscape Reconstruction in Central Mediterranean

et al. 2017

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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 archeological 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 ∼500-1,000 m from the rural sites in Basilicata, and dated from the Hellenistic to the Medieval period.

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“…Moreover, soil chemistry change and physical transformation are induced by ploughing, hydrography changes and land reclamation Bosi et al 2014a); the use of fire changes the biomass equilibrium (Bal et al 2011;Sadori et al 2014c); breeding or pastoral activities induce a selection of species towards development of shrubby associations or loss of vegetation (Florenzano & Mercuri 2012) especially under increasing drought (Garcea et al 2013). Consequently, there is the spreading of complex agricultural management (Marvelli et al 2013;Peñ a-Chocarro et al 2013;Masi et al 2014) that archaeobotany has revealed to have been highly advanced in Bronze age (Mercuri et al 2014a and Roman times (Bowes et al 2014); voluntary dispersion of new plants imported for food or decoration (Sadori et al 2009;Rosati et al 2014), and socio-political decisions affecting landscape management (Mensing et al 2013).…”

Section: Collaboration Provides New Insightsmentioning

confidence: 98%

“…The contributions of landscape archaeologists and geoarchaeologists (Ferrari et al 2013;Goiran et al 2014) and of archaeobotanists (Sadori et al 2010a(Sadori et al , 2014a show how the Romans did not impact so much on wetlands near important settlements such as ports and coasts, keeping most of the natural environment. The integrated archaeological approach revealed how rural Roman people were able to adopt convertible agriculture in which pasture, including cultivated fodder, alternated with legumes and cereals in Tuscany (Bowes et al 2014).…”

Section: Collaboration Provides New Insightsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Palaeoecology and long-term human impact in plant biology

Mercuri

Marignani

Sadori

2015

Plant Biosystems - An International Journal Dealing with all As

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Human impact is a collective concept that requires a holistic approach. Human needs eventually caused the development of cultural landscapes that are at the base of the current landscapes. The papers included in this special issue are evidence that cooperation between different disciplines helps to deepen the trend of environmental transformation from past to future. Palaeoecology studies ecosystems of the past and needs archaeology to deepen sociocultural intervention in environmental patterns. In a similar way, ecologists have to include the complexity of societies and economies into landscape ecology by adding principles of human ecology into sustainability science. A brief history of previous actions encouraging the integration of palynology, archaeobotany, archaeology, botany and ecology is reported. The application of integrated studies comes to a new point, the research on the Long-Term Human Impact

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Palaeoenvironment and land use of Roman peasant farmhouses in southern Tuscany

Cited by 19 publications

References 21 publications

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

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

The Representativeness of Olea Pollen from Olive Groves and the Late Holocene Landscape Reconstruction in Central Mediterranean

Palaeoecology and long-term human impact in plant biology

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