Plant remains from the early Iron Age in western Sicily: differences in subsistence strategies of Greek and Elymian sites

Abstract

For the early Iron Age Elymian town on Monte Polizzo, inland western Sicily, hulled barley was the dominant cereal, followed by emmer and free-threshing wheat. The dominant legume was Vicia faba. In the contemporary Greek harbour town of Selinunte on the southern coast of western Sicily, free-threshing wheat was dominant, while hulled barley and the legume V. ervilia were subdominant. For Selinunte, an import of cereals from the Elymians is suggested. The investigated area around the agora (marketplace) yielded a processed cereal product and edible fruit as the predominantly consumed plantbased food in Selinunte. Its hinterland most probably provided space for large-scale maintenance of horses and oxen as well as for stock breeding for consumption. At ''House 1'' on Monte Polizzo, the archaeobotanical record matches well with the archaeological interpretation of different rooms used for ritual consumption, everyday life, crop processing and crop storage. During feasts in the style of Greek symposia, grapes and figs were consumed. The Elymians most probably adopted olive cultivation quite late. The charcoal analyses, mainly of roof beams from Monte Polizzo residential contexts, point to a sufficient availability of undisturbed natural climax woodland for timberwork.

Mid- and late-Holocene vegetation and fire history at Biviere di Gela, a coastal lake in southern Sicily, Italy

“…Fraxinus oxycarpa almost completely disappeared and Olea became the dominant tree. It is therefore likely that the Greek colonists cultivated olives, as is also suggested by archaeobotanical studies from western Sicily (Stika et al 2008). Non-cultivated landscape was probably garrigue and Mediterranean grassland, a result of intense slashing and browsing (Poaceae and Juniperus reaching almost 80%).…”

“…However, investigations (gas chromatographical analyses) of the Iron Age in Sicily indicated only the local use of animal fat and not of olives (Agozzino 2005), suggesting that in contrast to the Greek settlers (e.g. in Selinunte), the local Sicilian settlers ignored or did not cultivate them (Stika et al 2008). Nevertheless, according to Sadori and Narcisi (2001), it is not clear whether the expansion of Olea (also dated 7200 cal B.P.)…”

The last 7 millennia of vegetation and climate changes at Lago di Pergusa (central Sicily, Italy)

“…The exploitation of olives in Greece during the Bronze Age has been documented by both macroremains and pollen (Kouli, 2012). Presence of olive stones is documented at the early Iron Age archaeological site of Selinunte, southwestern Sicily (Stika et al, 2008), some centuries later than the pollen spread of Pergusa. No evidence of this step was found at Gorgo Basso , inside the natural area of distribution of Olea europea, but we have to consider that Lago di Pergusa lies in a privileged position to observe past land use, in a zone widely and strongly exploited and contended between 3200 and 2700 yr BP, before the Greek dominance (Giannitrapani and Pluciennik, 1998).…”

Sicilian Castles and Coastal Towers

“…Being a land rich in agricultural potential, Sicilian grain was traded in the Aegean and other parts of the Mediterranean since the time of Classical Greece (Austin & Vidal-Naquet 1977, Basile 1941, De Angelis 2000, Morris 2004, Stika, Heiss, & Zach 2008. With references to the use of signal fires being common in the stories of the ancient Greeks (Tracy 1986), it is not surprising that vague references to such fires on Sicily seem to go back to the Greek colonization of the island (Maurici 1985, Ortisi & Rizza 1995.…”