Quaternary International 303 (2013) 24e42
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Quaternary International
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Olea, Juglans and Castanea: The OJC group as pollen evidence of the
development of human-induced environments in the Italian peninsula
A.M. Mercuri*, M. Bandini Mazzanti, A. Florenzano, M.C. Montecchi, E. Rattighieri
Laboratorio di Palinologia e Paleobotanica, Dipartimento di Scienze della Vita, Università di Modena e Reggio Emilia, viale Caduti in Guerra 127,
41121 Modena, Italy
a r t i c l e i n f o
a b s t r a c t
Article history:
Available online 12 January 2013
Pollen data from three off-site records and twenty-six on-site (archaeological) sites are reviewed to
investigate the development of cultural landscapes through the history of the olive, walnut and chestnut
trees in the Italian peninsula from the Late Glacial to late Holocene. The spread of these trees, which have
been gathered or cultivated since ancient times, though not marked by high values in pollen diagrams, is
an important indicator of increasing human activity and anthropization in the Mediterranean area.
The sum of Olea, Juglans and Castanea percentages in pollen spectra constitutes the OJC curve. The off-site
records discussed are core RF93-30 from the Adriatic Sea (last 7000 years), and cores PALB94-1E of Lago
Albano and PNEM94-1B of Lago di Nemi, two lakes in the Latium region (last 13,000 years). The on-site
records are located in several regions (Veneto, Emilia Romagna, Tuscany, Basilicata, Calabria, and Sicily)
and in the Republic of San Marino. Their chronology spans approximately from the Bronze to the Renaissance ages, from 4200 to 500 BP. The simultaneous presence of OJC in the off-sites and in all the archaeological sites confirms that these trees were widespread in the Italian peninsula during the last four millennia.
The OJC pollen sum shows low values but Olea, Castanea and Juglans are common in Bronze age sites from
northern Italy, when their percentages increase in the off-site records. In Hellenistic and Roman times, there
are sharp increments of their curves in the off-sites, and values of Olea are especially high in archaeological
sites of southern Italy. The highest values of OJC, especially due to Castanea, are found in records of the
Middle ages. Juglans is significant but less frequent in both the archaeological sites and the off-sites.
The cultivation of walnut and chestnut trees in pre-Roman times may have included local stands. The
nurturing for wood may have had negative effects on pollen fallout while the flowering of plants was
favoured to obtain fruits.
As humans exploited the natural resources they interfered with the distribution of useful plants. The
development of human environments in a modern sense, however, is a relatively recent phenomenon. It
has largely caused the expansion of complex agrarian landscapes, including fields, pastures and groves.
Ó 2013 Elsevier Ltd and INQUA. All rights reserved.
1. Introduction
Plants are basic elements of cultural evolution. Both their past
and present uses and the development of human environments
support this simple assumption. The effects of human action range
from low influence to high impact on vegetation, depending on the
scale (space) and duration (time) of its presence in a given territory
(Mercuri et al., 2010a). The transformation of natural into cultural
landscapes is the result of millennia of human activities. These
have had direct and indirect effects on the environment that led,
and still lead, to clear changes in vegetation cover (Fægri and
Iversen, 1989). The life sciences firstly investigate these changes
* Corresponding author.
E-mail address: [email protected] (A.M. Mercuri).
1040-6182/$ e see front matter Ó 2013 Elsevier Ltd and INQUA. All rights reserved.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.quaint.2013.01.005
by exploring the morphological and genetic diversity of flora, and
then improve the knowledge on the redistribution of forested and
open lands.
In pollen diagrams, new flora and vegetation cover may be evident
at the passage from wild to human environments (Birks et al., 1988;
Zohary and Hopf, 2000; Morel and Mercuri, 2009; Marinova et al.,
2012). The ensemble and diversity of taxa are altered by the reduction in wild species in some habitats (e.g., forest clearance, wetland
reclamation) and by the increase in anthropogenic species in other
habitats (e.g., cultivated plants and their associated weeds, fields,
pastures and orchards, ruderals and other synanthropic plants;
Behre, 1981; Carrión et al., 2003; Miras et al., 2010; Brun, 2011; Rull
et al., 2011). Human action, as overexploitation of thinned plant resources including overgrazing, generally favours the expansion of
xeric environments (Jalut et al., 2009; Mercuri et al., 2010b).
A.M. Mercuri et al. / Quaternary International 303 (2013) 24e42
Generally speaking, pollen from trees is particularly suitable
to highlighting high resolution climatic inferences, while pollen
related to human activities, largely from herbs, is considered to
mirror land use and economy. Interpretations are made more
complicated by the fact that climate can trigger land use changes
and economy shifts, and reactions or adaptation of human societies
to climate oscillations produce complex effects on the environment
(Weninger et al., 2009; Mercuri et al., 2011).
The assemblage approach (sensu Birks et al., 2010) is the better
palynological way to investigate these anthropogenic land transformations. However, not all plants give the same pollen imprint to
spectra, and sometimes they highlight human action although
present at low levels (Mercuri, 2008).
Pollen rain is more recognizably altered by high pollen producing
species, such as anemophilous trees, rather than by low producing or
zoophilous plants. For example, the clearance of mixed oakwoods in
the vicinity of Bronze Age settlements is evident from the significant
decrease of their pollen at many sites of the Italian peninsula (Sadori
et al., 2004; Mercuri and Sadori, 2012). However, most of wild trees
suffer from temperature changes, drought phases or hydrological
regime modifications, and not all woodland reductions may therefore be attributed to human pressure (Sadori, 2007).
In contrast, the spread of trees known to have been gathered or
cultivated since ancient times, though not marked by high values in
pollen diagrams, may be an important indicator of increasing
anthropization in the Mediterranean area. Mercuri et al. (2012a, p.
366) highlighted that pollen evidence for the evolution of the
cultural landscape in the Italian peninsula may be found in the
curves of Olea, Juglans and Castanea pollen (OJC group) observed in
marine and terrestrial cores. This is generally accepted, and these
trees are commonly included in the anthropogenic pollen indicators of human activities (e.g., Bottema and Woldring, 1990,
p. 239). However, this assumption raises the following questions:
i) What is the meaning of the presence of pollen from these
plants in pre-Holocene times and before cultural phases? Was
their presence always related to human action, or were they
indicators of human activity only in combination with other
anthropogenic indicators?
ii) Which implications does the presence of pollen from these
plants have, when they are found in archaeological sites? The
evidence from terrestrial and marine cores is by definition
regional and it represents an ideally ‘average estimation’ of
the plant cover in the surrounding lands. Therefore, it is
important to understand if the OJC pollen group has different
meanings when found in off-site and on-site contexts.
This paper presents new details on and an interpretation of the
pollen evidence from three cores studied within the EU-PALICLAS
project (Guilizzoni and Oldfield, 1996), and introduces new data
on cultivated trees and other selected anthropogenic pollen records
from archaeological sites. Although an important Bronze Age site
was discovered on the shores of Lago Albano, the three long drilling
cores of the PALICLAS project will be hereafter termed as off-sites to
distinguish them from sites sampled during systematic archaeological excavations.
The research explores the significance of the OJC pollen group as
a marker of human environments in the off-sites studied. The data
collected from on-sites help to test if the OJC pollen evidence is
similarly present in archaeological sites. Moreover, the comparison
between the two types of record assist in understanding how local
pollen records can help to reconstruct spatial and temporal differences in the expansion of human landscapes in the Italian peninsula. To ensure the maximum control over the source data, the
paper is centred on sites that have been studied by the research
25
team. The reviews of the relevant plant macroremains and palaeoclimatic inferences from the pollen data discussed in this paper
are two main points that will be developed in further studies. Most
of the territory covered by the studied sites is known to have hosted
human populations even before Neolithic cultures and it is scattered with archaeological sites, evidence of long-term human
presence in these lands (Guidi and Piperno, 1992).
1.1. Olea europaea subsp. europaea, Juglans regia, Castanea sativa:
from wild plants to crop trees
Olive, walnut and chestnut trees are economically important
thanks to their edible fruits, timber, oil or decorative potential. They
have had, and still have, both practical uses and symbolic meanings
that are firmly part of Mediterranean culture. Their origin and timing
of domestication are still fairly uncertain though new molecular data
add precision to past hypotheses (e.g., Olea: Kaniewski et al., 2012;
Juglans: Aradhya et al., 2007; Castanea: Conedera et al., 2004). The
literature has impressively increased in the last few years, normally
reporting on the three species in separate articles. In general, the
present geographical distribution of genetic diversity seems to have
been influenced more by human activities than by natural migration
and colonization. The integration of genetic data with palaeoenvironmental records is critically important to reconstructing the
history of the spread of these species (Zohary and Hopf, 2000).
Olea e Most probably, the subspecies europaea developed from
a pre-Quaternary Mediterranean ancestor. The olive was among the
first fruits to be collected by hunter-gatherers in the Levant, and its
primary area of domestication may have been the territory where
the Pre-Pottery Neolithic B culture emerged (Edwards et al., 2004;
Kaniewski et al., 2012). In the south of Greece, olives prevail in the
archaeobotanical record, starting from the Final Neolithic and
increasing during the course of the Bronze Age, also in pollen records (Bottema and Sarpaki, 2003; Kouli, 2012).
A multi-factor secondary domestication process, with hybridization between locally exploited wild forms and introduced cultivars, took place several times in the Mediterranean basin (Terrall
et al., 2004; Baldoni et al., 2006). Accordingly, wild and cultivated
olives from the same country have molecular similarity (Besnard
et al., 2007). Today, there are more than 2000 cultivars (Bartolini
et al., 1998). The distribution scarcely reflects that of the wild
form and only partly overlaps with wild relatives (Carrión et al.,
2010). The wild forms are the main components of the maquis
and garigue formations and the species is the principal indicator of
the Mediterranean climate (Liphschitz et al., 1991).
Ecology e The olive tree is a drought tolerant, slow-growing and
long-lived evergreen species. Its growth is favoured in semi-arid
to sub-humid warm-temperate regions, usually with winterdominant rainfall and hot, relatively dry, summers. The phytoclimatic zone is between the 30th and 45th parallels. In Italy, it coincides
with the lower limit of the phytoclimatic belt of Castanetum and of the
warm-temperate Lauretum (Marra, 2009). Its distribution is limited by
low (never <8 C) and high (not >44 C) temperatures, with thermal
thresholds of 9.1 C, and, although less so, by soil water and other
factors. It prefers sandy, well-drained, loam soils. Wild populations can
persist for very long periods without sexual reproduction. Variations
in the phenology of olive trees are a sensible indicator of the rising
spring temperatures, causing olive trees to flower earlier. Temperature
affects development and production rates, photosynthesis, respiration
and mortality of the trees (Osborne et al., 2000; Gutierrez et al., 2009).
Juglans e Its centre of origin is in the western Himalaya in the
IraneAfghanistan region, and its distribution spans a region from
south-eastern Europe to central-eastern Asia (Oberdorfer, 2001;
Aradhya et al., 2007). J. regia is not indigenous to central Europe
(Loacker et al., 2007), but had probably survived in refugium areas
Castle
Settlement including
houses and storages
Medieval
Hellenistic
445
138
SI
SI
5
6
Basilicata Matera
Basilicata Matera
Miglionico
Difesa San Biagio
40 340 0300 N 16 290 5800 E
40 300 2100 N 16 400 5100 E
14the15th cent. AD
3rde2nd cent. BC
Hellenistic
930
SI
4
Basilicata Potenza
SI
3
Basilicata Matera
Torre di Satriano
40 340 1200 N 15 380 1500 E
6the5th cent. BC
Roman, Medieval
3rde5th cent. AD,
12the15th cent. AD
375
40 36 36 N 16 23 40 E
Medieval
1100
00
0
00
0
39 150 5100 N 16 380 000 E
Cosenza
SI
2
Calabria
10
9
Florenzano and Mercuri, in
press-a
Unpublished
Mercuri et al., 2010b
4
Mercuri et al., 2010b;
Florenzano et al., 2011b
11
4
Accorsi et al., 2009;
Montecchi, 2010
Mercuri et al., 2007
48
Rural roman villa, rural
settlement
Remains of an abbey
destroyed by a fire
Rural house, military
building with a tower and
animal breeding area
Rural settlement
Roman, Medieval
1st-5th cent. AD,
10the15th cent. AD
12th/13th cent. AD
550
37 210 4900 N 14 200 0300 E
Villa del Casale di
Piazza Armerina
Jure Vetere di San
Giovanni in Fiore
Altojanni
On-site e archaeological sites
1
SI
Sicily
Enna
74
e
e
Last ca. 14,000 yrs*
CI
Latium
Rome
0
00
0
00
41 45 00 N 12 40 00 E
293
318
41 420 4400 N 12 420 0900 E
PNEMI94.1B (Lago di
Nemi)
PALB94.1E (Lago
Albano)
Last ca.11500 yrs
e
e
87
Lowe et al., 1996; Oldfield
et al., 2003; Mercuri et al.,
2012a
Lowe et al., 1996; Mercuri
et al., 2002
Lowe et al., 1996; Mercuri
et al., 2002
63
e
e
Last ca. 7000 yrs
0
42 400 0100 N 15 400 0300 E
Archaeological contexts
Culture
m asl Chronology
(* ¼ radiocarbon
dates)
Geographical
coordinates
Province Site
RF93-30
c
Pollen data have been selected from the three off-sites cores and
twenty-six (archaeological) on-sites (Fig. 1). The detailed pollen results have been published elsewhere (see references cited in Table 1).
Off-site e marine and lake cores
a
Central
Apulia
e
Adriatic
Sea
b
CI
Latium
Rome
2. Material and methods
Site Macroarea Region
no.
of southern Europe in the Last Glacial (Accorsi et al., 1991; Paganelli
and Miola, 1991). Genetic analysis confirms that its current distribution has resulted also from human action, and developed along
east-west trade routes, since the mid-Holocene (Pollegioni et al.,
2011). Walnut has been cultivated in the Mediterranean basin
since classical times and Pliny wrote that walnut nuts were imported by kings coming from Persia, in the Middle East (Naturalis
Historia; liber XV, 86e91). However, information on the centre of
domestication is still inadequate (Zohary and Hopf, 2000). Today,
walnut trees form closed forests in hilly regions of its native area,
and in flood-plain communities and moist deciduous communities
of south-eastern Europe. In the Alps, and in Italy, the species lives
wild as sparse specimens or small groups, or it grows at the margins
of cultivated areas, along river shores, or as part of the urban flora,
until 1000e1500 m asl (Ferrazzini et al., 2007).
Ecology e The walnut grows well in temperate climate regions.
It is a frost-sensitive species that does not tolerate hard winter
frosts, or early and late frosts. It prefers mean annual temperatures
of 10.5e15 C, never <7 C, and mean winter temperatures >2.5 C,
and annual precipitation higher than 600 mm (Hemery and Savill,
2001; Loacker et al., 2007).
During the last few decades, its tendency to be invasive was
observed in central Europe as a combined increment of both the
seed disperser agents (Corvus frugilegus), and the abandoned fields
(Lenda et al., 2012). In Alpine valleys, J. regia invades mostly open
south- and south-west-facing forests, often dominated by Pinus
sylvestris L. The recent success of wild walnut sprouting was
interpreted as a reaction of this species to the increasing global
temperatures that favoured or inhibited growing of many tree
species (Loacker et al., 2007; Mercuri et al., 2013).
Castanea e Its centre of origin is likely north-east Turkey and the
Ponto-Caucasian region (Zohary and Hopf, 2000; Mattioni et al.,
2010), though pre-Holocene glacial refugia have been reported
for southeastern and central Europe (Krebs et al., 2004). Pollen data
and the high genetic variability of chestnut stands support the
existence of refugia in Italy (Accorsi et al., 1984; Mattioni et al.,
2010). Genetic and physiological adaptation to drought gives to
the species the capability to colonize a wide range of environments
(Lauteri et al., 2004). The human-mediated colonization and
management, including propagation and transplanting of grafted
clonal plants, must have been a major driving force of its current
distribution (Conedera et al., 2004). The fragmentation of the genetic characteristics of chestnut populations seems to have occurred in a different way in several countries. Information on the
centre of domestication is still inadequate (Zohary and Hopf, 2000;
Mattioni et al., 2008). The ancient Greeks had a fundamental role in
developing the cultivation of chestnut, both for its wood and fruits,
and they probably introduced chestnut cultivation to the Italian
colonies making use of tree varieties from the main chestnut zones
of Ancient Greece, just as they did for the grapevine (Conedera
et al., 2004; Diamandis, 2010). Then, its distribution continued to
be largely affected by human activities, especially during the Roman times when Pliny wrote that chestnut fruits arrived from Sardi,
capital of Lidia in eastern Turkey (Liber XV, 92).
Ecology e It is a deciduous tree preferring slightly acidic soils (pH
4.5e6.5) and not too high a ground water level. It grows where the
mean annual precipitation is higher than 600 mm, and the drought
season is shorter than 3 months or absent. Moreover, it does not live
well where the risk of late spring frost is high (Ketenoglu et al., 2010).
Number References
of pollen
samples
A.M. Mercuri et al. / Quaternary International 303 (2013) 24e42
Table 1
List of the sites discussed in this paper. Macroareas: CI ¼ Central Italy; SI ¼ Southern Italy; NI ¼ Northern Italy.
26
7
SI
Basilicata Matera
Pizzica
40 240 4500 N 16 470 2800 E
36
5the4th cent. BC
Hellenistic
8
SI
Basilicata Matera
Fattoria Fabrizio
40 240 4600 N 16 440 2800 E
57
6the4th cent. BC
Hellenistic
0
00
0
00
SI
Basilicata Matera
Pantanello
40 23 21 N 16 47 11 E
8
2nd-1st cent. BC
Roman
10
SI
Basilicata Matera
Sant’Angelo Vecchio
40 230 3900 N 16 430 1000 E
46
6th-1st cent. BC
Hellenistic-Roman
11
CI
Tuscany
Grosseto San Martino
42 560 4300 N 11 230 0300 E
130
1st cent. BCe1st cent. AD
Roman
12
13
CI
CI
Tuscany
Tuscany
Grosseto Podere Terrato
Grosseto Case Nuove
42 550 3900 N 11 220 3200 E
42 540 0600 N 11 190 4200 E
159
318
1st cent. BCe1st cent. AD
1st cent. BCe1st cent. AD
Roman
Roman
14
15
16
CI
CI
NI
130
123
76
1st cent. BCe1st cent. AD
1st cent. BCe1st cent. AD
18the15th cent. BC
NI
Grosseto Colle Massari
Grosseto Poggio dell’Amore
Ferrara
Monte Castellaccio of
Imola
Modena Montegibbio
42 530 5700 N 11 190 4100 E
42 460 3600 N 11 220 3200 E
44 210 000 N 11 420 000 E
17
44 300 4800 N 10 470 900 E
350
18
NI
Modena
Terramara di Montale
44 340 3400 N 10 540 3800 E
19
NI
Tuscany
Tuscany
Emilia
Romagna
Emilia
Romagna
Emilia
Romagna
Emilia
Romagna
Emilia
Romagna
Emilia
Romagna
Emilia
Romagna
Modena
Necropoli di Casinalbo
44 350 000 N 10 520 000 E
20
NI
21
NI
22
NI
23
NI
24
NI
25
NI
26
San
Marino
Modena
Ferrara
Modena
Emilia
Modena
Romagna
Emilia
Parma
Romagna
Veneto
e
Rovigo
e
Baggiovara- Opera Pia
Bianchi
Argenta - Vie Vinarola/
Aleotti
Palazzo Boschetti e
historical centre of
Modena
Cognento
Piazza Garibaldi e
historical centre of
Parma
Canàr di S. Pietro
Polesine
Domagnano
5
10
Waste area from a furnace
of pottery
Settlement and necropolis
area
Small rural farmhouse
12
11
15
Roman
Roman
Middle Bronze
Small rural farmhouses
Rural farm and processing
area
Small rural farm
Small rural farmhouse
Settlement
2nde4th cent. AD
Roman
Villa
71
17the12th cent. BC
Middle/Late Bronze
60
18the7th cent. BC*
44 36 26 N, 10 52 18 E
34
17the16th cent. BC*
Middle/Late Bronze,
Iron
Middle Bronze
44 370 5500 N 11 500 0100 E
4
13the14th cent. AD
Medieval
Settlement including
houses and storages
Necropolis near
a settlement
Settlement including
houses and channel
Claimed drainage channel
44 380 4100 N 10 550 3200 E
34
1ste7th cent. AD
Roman
Villa, house
44 380 0400 N 10 520 1600 E
34
44 480 000 N 10 200 000 E
55
6the7th cent. AD,
13the17th cent. AD
3rd/2nd cent. BC,
11th cent. AD*
Roman,
Well
Medieval-Renaissance
Roman, Medieval
Sacred area, market square
45 030 000 N 11 200 000 E
7
22nde18th BC*
Early/Middle Bronze
0
0
00
00
0
00
00
46 56 52 N 12 28’8 E
225
1st cent. BCe6th cent. AD Roman- Gothic
27
8
4
5
7
Unpublished
Mercuri and Florenzano, in
press
Unpublished
Florenzano and Mercuri, in
press-b
Mercuri et al. (2010 e
http://www.sas.upenn.edu/
romanpeasants/reports.
html)
Unpublished
Vaccaro et al., forthcoming
29
Unpublished
Unpublished
Bandini Mazzanti et al.,
1996
Montecchi and Accorsi,
2010
Mercuri et al., 2006
17
Montecchi et al., in press
20
Montecchi et al., 2011
2
2
Forlani and Marvelli, 1999
4
Accorsi et al., 1999
6
Marchesini et al., 1999
7
Bosi et al., 2011
Pile dwelling settlement
10
Accorsi et al., 1998
Villa, house
13
Mercuri et al., 2009
A.M. Mercuri et al. / Quaternary International 303 (2013) 24e42
9
Drainage channel near
a necropolis
Small rural farmhouse
27
28
A.M. Mercuri et al. / Quaternary International 303 (2013) 24e42
Fig. 1. Location map of the sites whose data are elaborated in this paper. Letters A,B,C and numbers (from 1 to 26) correspond to the sites reported in Table 1.
2.1. Sites
Off-sites e The marine core RF93-30, in the Adriatic Sea, and
cores of Lago Albano and Lago di Nemi, two crater lakes in Latium,
were part of a large multidisciplinary research (EU PALICLAS project; Guilizzoni and Oldfield, 1996).
The marine core RF93-30 was collected 18 km north of the
northern coast of the Gargano promontory and 55 km southeast of
the centre of the Mid-Adriatic Depression (MAD). The stratigraphical, chronological and multiproxy research (Trincardi et al.,
1996) and the detailed pollen diagram (Mercuri et al., 2012a)
have been reported elsewhere. They provide one high-resolution
marine record mirroring human impact on terrestrial ecosystems
showing evidence for changing sea-surface temperature in the
meantime (Oldfield et al., 2003).
The lake core PALB94.1E was collected in the north-central part
of the Lago Albano, at a water depth of about 70 m. The whole
sequence contains a record of the last 28 ka cal BP. The Holocene
sediment sequence is about 600 cm long, while further about
700 cm sediments at the bottom are Pleistocene in age (Lowe et al.,
1996). The core presents a hiatus due to major erosional events
that occurred in the mid-Holocene, between about 6500 and
4200 cal BP.
The lake core PNEMI94.1B was collected in the Lago di Nemi at
a water depth of 30 m. The sediment sequence is 915 cm long. The
core describes an expanded Holocene section and extends down to
the Late Glacial in the bottom part.
Chondrogianni et al. described the lithological units of the two
lakes cores (1996). Combined sedimentological and organic matter
analyses indicate high level of primary productivity during the
entire Holocene (Ariztegui et al., 2000). In the last 3700e4000
years, these were determined by both human activity and by
changes in climatic variables such as wind intensity, precipitation
and temperature (Vigliotti et al., 2010).
The chronology of the three off-site cores is based on a combination of tephra layers, radiocarbon datings, lithostratigraphical
and biostratigraphic correlations with other cores, and palaeomagnetic data (Guilizzoni and Oldfield, 1996). The chronology of
the marine core has been recently revised on the basis of the secular variation record of the magnetic field (Mercuri et al., 2012a).
A.M. Mercuri et al. / Quaternary International 303 (2013) 24e42
The ‘Avellino’ tephra from Somma-Vesuvius was identified at
529 cm in RF93-30, at 355 cm in PALB94-1E, and at 450 cm in
PNEMI94-1B. Its age was roughly estimated at 3600e4200 cal BP
by Calanchi and Dinelli (2008), and it has recently been precisely
dated at 3945 10 cal BP by Sevink et al. (2011). This age is about
150 years earlier of the date of 4100 cal BP assumed for AV-tephra
in the PALICLAS project (Rolph et al., 2004; Vigliotti et al., 2010)
but it is within the margin of error of datings newly assessed for
core RF93-30. Based on paleomagnetism, the AV-tephra of RF9330 and of PNEMI94.1B dated to about 3850e4000 cal BP
(Vigliotti, 2006, and pers. comm.). Looking forward to a better
definition of this date, the occurrence of this tephra is a very
useful marker for the stratigraphical correlation of these cores
(Zanchetta et al., 2011).
The age depth model of PNEMI94.1E by Rolph et al. (2004, and
Vigliotti pers. comm.), here adopted, slightly changed with respect
to the previous model (Lowe et al., 1996). It makes ‘younger’ the
diagram of about 80 years around the Roman age. Based on
Rolph et al. model, the peak of Cannabis in Nemi, previously
dated to ca. 1900 cal BP by Mercuri et al. (2002), is now dated
to 1810 cal BP. This shortens to only 20 years the age-distance
between this and the other peak of Cannabis dated to
1790 cal BP in PALB94.1E.
Based on age-depth models, the top samples of the three off-site
cores represent approximately the last 10e60 years.
Archaeological sites e Pollen samples have been collected from
archaeological sites excavated in different districts/regions of the
Italian peninsula. One (Domagnano) is located in the Republic of
San Marino, while the others are situated in six regions of Italy: 1 in
Veneto, 9 in Emilia Romagna, 5 in Tuscany, 8 in Basilicata, 1 in
Calabria and 1 in Sicily (Fig. 1). In Table 1, the sites are numbered
according to increasing latitude (from 37 to 46 N), and then
decreasing longitude (from 16 to 10 E), following SeN, and then
EeW directions.
Pollen was taken from layers opened during excavations by
sampling from short vertical profiles or structures. They belong to
different chronological phases ranging from the middle to late
Holocene. Chronology is largely based on the recovery of specific
typologies of archaeological materials that surely belong to layers
without displacements or reworking of sediments. In some cases,
radiocarbon dates were performed (‘*’ in Tables 1 and 4). Samples
with uncertain chronological identification (such as, e.g., samples
from layers ‘under/before’ or ‘over/after’ the establishment of the
studied site) were excluded. The interpretation of on-site pollen
spectra must take into consideration that pollen transport is in
great part the result of the human presence and activities in these
contexts.
The 300 pollen samples selected for this study belong to sites
that were investigated by multidisciplinary teams and that cover,
sometimes with overlapping, the following chronocultural
layers: 5 sites dated to the EarlyeMiddleeLate Bronze (22nde
12th century BC), 1 to Iron (12the7th century BC), 5 to Hellenistic (6the2nd century BC), 13 to Roman (6th century BCe7th
century AD), and 7 to Medieval/Renaissance ages (8the17th
century AD).
The chronology of archaeological sites spans from approximately 4200 to 500 BP. Considering the distribution of sites and
number of samples per phase, they mainly represent periods from
the Middle Bronze to the Imperial Roman ages covering the two
thousand years from about 3600 to 1600 yrs BP.
2.2. Pollen extraction and analyses
Pollen extraction includes heavy liquid separation (Na-metatungstate hydrate) and follows van der Kaars et al. (2001; see
29
details in Florenzano et al., 2012a). Lycopodium tablets were added
for calculation of concentrations (expressed as pollen per cm3 in
off-sites e p/cm3, and pollen per gram in on-sites e p/g). Residues
in glycerol were mounted in permanent slides. Pollen was routinely
identified at 1000 magnifications, with the help of the reference
collection and atlases.
Percentages of the three off-site cores were calculated from
a pollen sum that excludes Pinus that is over-represented in the
marine core. Percentages of on-site samples, with inconsequential
pine pollen, are calculated on a pollen sum including all pollen
types. The OJC pollen group is included in tree sum. The pollen
diagrams were drawn with TGView (Grimm, 2004).
A restricted number of herbaceous taxa, selected amongst the
most common in the studied contexts, are reported in this paper
and referred to as anthropogenic pollen indicators:
i) Cereals, the main category of anthropochores, incorporating
Cerealia undiff., Avena/Triticum-group and Hordeum-group;
besides some wild grasses, especially in the barley group,
they frequently indicates the presence of fields.
ii) The tribe Cichorieae, among the apophyte Cichorioideae, is
characterised by a fenestrate or stephanolophate pollen and
has a prevalent Mediterranean-North Africa distribution;
they are indicators of mesic meadows and pastures (Fægri
and Iversen, 1989; Funk et al., 2009; Florenzano et al., 2012b).
iii) The genus Centaurea is common in disturbed places like
pastures, often in dry, sunny, weedy waste areas; it is as well
a good indicator of pastures (e.g., Centaurea nigra type, CourtPicon et al., 2006), as shown by the increased abundance of
their values in grazed areas (Bottema and Woldring, 1990;
Brun et al., 2007).
iv) The genus Plantago is recurrent in all types of anthropogenic
habitats (Brun, 2011). Behre (1981) indicates Plantago lanceolata-type as preferential marker of wet meadows and
pastures, and Plantago major/media-type as preferentially
associated with trampled and ruderal places. They both grow
on soils subjected to trampling causing compaction of sediments (Noë and Blom, 1981). These ecological needs are
common to all the plantain species, and therefore their distribution in a territory is mainly linked to the presence of
humans groups and herbivore herds.
v) The genus Urtica includes nitrophilous plants growing in both
grazed areas (Court-Picon et al., 2006; Ejarque et al., 2011)
and settlements (Li et al., 2008). This type is the most common indicator of ruderal habitats and gives a clear palynological signal for anthropogenic impact on the environment
(Brun, 2011).
3. Results
The main evidence of OJC presence in pollen records from
off-site and on-site records is reported in Table 2 (off-sites), and
Tables 3 and 4 (on-sites). Below, the frequency, percentages and
chronology of the OJC sum and main related records are
described in the marine core, in lake cores, and in archaeological sites.
3.1. RF93-30 (Fig. 2)
OJC is present in 83% of samples, with mean value of 1%. Its early
peak reaches values of 4% at ca. 1800 cal BP, and then at ca. 700 and
ca. 385 cal BP. In modern times, its value is as high as the maximum
values in the past (4% in the top sample).
Juglans has the earlier records at ca. 6400 cal BP, while Castanea
appears at ca. 4800 cal BP and Olea at ca. 3900 cal BP.
30
Table 2
Main data of Olea, Juglans and Castanea pollen grains found in the off-site cores: from the older, PALB94.1E (last 14,000 years), PNEMI94.1B (last 11,600 years) and RF93-30 (last 7050 years)
Natural
Earlier occurrences
occurrence?
PALB94.1E
Olea
PNEMI94.1B
RF93-30
Increasing frequency of records (first recovery of pollen in
five consecutive samples)
Beginning of the continuous curve (pollen found in all samples after this
point)
PALB94.1E
PALB94.1E
PNEMI94.1B
13,370 BP (655 cm) 11,300 BP (911.5 cm) 3900 BP (522 cm) 3825 BP (320.5 cm)
RF93-30
PNEMI94.1B
2140 BP (362 cm) 3825 BP (320.5 cm)
[gap at 1630 BP e 130 cm]
8402 BP (450 cm) 11,300 BP (911.5 cm) 6400 BP (602 cm) 3400 BP (270.5 cm)
2700 BP (314.5 cm) 2032 BP (352 cm) 3400 BP (270.5 cm)
[gap at 140 BP - 14.5 cm]
12,374 BP (625 cm) 11,400 BP (914.5 cm) 4780 BP (552 cm) 2920 BP (230.5 cm)
2700 BP (314.5 cm)
140 BP (42 cm) 2920 BP (230.5 cm)
13,370 BP (655 cm) 11400 BP (914.5 cm) 6400 BP (602 cm) 6552 BP (380.5 cm) 11400 BP (914.5 cm) 3076 BP (452 BP) 3825 BP (320.5 cm)
Juglans
Castanea
OJC
8250 BP (735 cm)
Maximum peak values (excluding top sample)
RF93-30
3300 BP (389.5 cm) [gap at 2140 BP (362 cm)
ca. 2300 BP e 253e264 cm]
2700 BP (314.5 cm)
808 BP (252 cm)
2700 BP (314.5 cm)
3300 BP (389.5 cm)
140 BP (42 cm)
2140 BP (362 cm)
Increase of the curve (as evident from
pollen diagrams)
Top sample values (recent spectrum)
PALB94.1E
PNEMI94.1B
RF93-30
PALB94.1E
PNEMI94.1B
RF93-30
PALB94.1E
PNEMI94.1B
RF93-30
Olea
Juglans
ca. 3600 BP
ca. 3300 BP
ca. 3300 BP
ca. 2760 BP
ca. 3600 BP
ca. 2000 BP
259 BP (24.5 cm; 7%)
2150 BP (170.5 cm; 6%)
120 BP (38 cm; 15%)
1400 BP (171 cm; 8%)
14 BP (4.5 cm; 4%)
14 BP (4.5 cm; 0.1%)
3 BP (1 cm; 5%)
3 BP (1 cm; 0.4%)
57 BP (4 cm; 3%)
57 BP (4 cm; 1%)
Castanea
ca. 3600 BP
ca. 2760 BP
14 BP (4.5 cm; 7%)
3 BP (1 cm; 18%)
57 BP (4 cm; 0.5%)
ca. 3600 BP
ca. 2760 BP
1240 and 1113 BP (100
and 90 cm; 18%)
2280 BP (180.5 cm; 20%)
2650 BP (308.5 cm; 10%)
OJC
ca. 3600, ca.
700 BP
ca. 1800 BP
287 BP (112 cm; 4%)
584 and 460 BP
(202 and 162 cm; 1.5%)
240, 118-95 BP
(92, 32-22 cm)
700 and 385 BP
(222 and 142 cm; 4%)
14 BP (4.5 cm; 11%)
3 BP (1 cm; 24%)
57 BP (4 cm; 4%)
120 BP (38 cm; 19%)
Table 3
Main data of Olea, Juglans and Castanea pollen grains and selected anthropogenic pollen indicators from the archaeological sites discussed in this paper. Sites are ordered in geographical order, from south to north Italy. Data from
the Terramara di Baggiovara includes the short sequences 2 and 6 þ 7, and data from Sant’Angelo Vecchio includes the short sequences 2, 10 and 8 þ 9.
Site no.
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
Site
Villa del Casale di Piazza Armerina
Jure Vetere di San Giovanni in Fiore
Altojanni
Torre di Satriano
Miglionico
Difesa San Biagio
Pizzica
Fattoria Fabrizio
Pantanello
Sant’Angelo Vecchio
San Martino
Podere Terrato
Case Nuove
Colle Massari
Poggio dell’Amore
Monte Castellaccio of Imola
Montegibbio
Terramara di Montale
Necropoli di Casinalbo
Baggiovara e Opera Pia Bianchi
Argenta e Vie Vinarola/Aleotti
Palazzo Boschetti e historical centre of Modena
Number
of pollen
samples
Olea %
Juglans %
Castanea %
Cereals %
Cichorieae %
Centaurea %
Plantago %
Urtica %
Mean
Max
Mean
Max
Mean
Mean
Max
Mean
Max
Mean
Max
Mean
Max
Mean
Max
48
4
11
4
10
9
5
10
12
27
8
11
15
4
5
7
2
29
17
20
2
4
1.6
0.3
1.0
0.3
0.8
0.7
2.5
2.6
0.4
1.9
0.01
0.01
0.1
0.2
0.1
0.0
0.1
0.1
0.02
0.03
0.0
0.1
14.0
0.6
6.5
1.1
2.4
1.8
11.8
4.6
2.1
13.1
0.2
0.4
1.0
0.4
0.3
0.0
0.2
0.2
0.4
0.3
0.0
0.2
0.1
0.3
0.0
0.0
0.02
1.6
0.0
0.0
0.0
0.0
0.0
0.0
0.0
0.1
0.0
0.2
0.2
0.1
0.1
0.03
0.2
0.4
0.9
0.6
0.2
0.0
0.3
3.1
0.0
0.0
0.0
0.0
0.0
0.0
0.0
0.2
0.0
0.4
0.2
0.4
1.1
0.5
0.2
0.6
0.4
2.3
0.1
0.1
0.0
0.0
0.0
0.1
0.0
0.0
0.0
0.0
0.01
0.2
0.0
0.1
0.2
0.1
0.5
0.2
0.2
1.0
0.9
4.3
0.6
6.4
1.6
0.1
0.0
2.0
4.5
0.7
1.4
3.2
4.3
3.4
3.0
8.8
1.9
9.5
0.3
0.6
12.7
5.9
20.6
7.0
2.9
9.4
3.6
0.5
0.0
4.0
11.6
3.2
2.7
5.4
10.2
5.4
5.7
23.0
1.9
33.1
2.7
1.9
20.0
8.9
46.5
32.0
26.4
22.3
26.3
27.2
39.4
11.9
41.2
21.1
34.7
31.6
23.6
35.8
34.0
22.2
31.0
53.2
43.5
28.6
1.8
9.3
76.6
38.4
41.3
30.7
48.7
39.9
53.3
15.3
53.5
36.2
42.7
38.1
33.7
47.6
38.4
66.5
33.5
75.4
60.2
55.9
2.5
13.4
0.1
0.4
2.8
2.2
1.0
2.0
1.2
0.9
0.1
0.8
2.3
5.3
2.1
4.4
4.4
0.1
0.4
2.5
2.4
0.8
0.2
0.8
3.1
0.6
7.2
3.5
2.1
3.9
2.4
1.6
0.5
2.4
6.0
8.9
4.8
8.5
6.2
0.8
0.5
5.0
2.7
2.6
0.3
1.6
1.8
3.2
2.8
2.1
3.6
0.6
0.2
2.5
4.6
1.7
0.6
1.2
0.8
0.4
1.2
0.9
2.2
0.5
1.5
1.0
1.1
1.2
10.1
5.8
15.2
3.8
8.6
3.2
0.5
4.2
10.5
3.6
1.5
2.4
2.3
1.4
2.0
2.1
2.4
1.3
5.8
2.6
1.2
3.8
0.1
1.1
0.9
0.7
0.3
0.2
0.5
1.3
1.4
4.8
0.6
0.8
1.0
0.5
1.2
1.1
0.1
0.1
0.4
4.6
1.1
0.7
1.3
1.3
2.4
1.5
1.3
0.6
0.9
2.9
1.9
34.4
1.5
1.9
3.4
2.0
2.0
1.9
0.2
0.4
1.8
10.6
1.2
1.9
Max
2.6
3.4
0.1
0.3
0.0
0.0
0.0
0.3
0.0
0.0
0.0
0.0
0.2
0.6
0.0
0.2
0.2
0.3
1.8
2.0
0.3
3.5
Mean
AP/NAP
Mean
concentration
(p/g)
13/87
29/71
14/86
6/94
11/89
5/95
12/88
19/81
3/97
12/88
16/84
16/84
13/86
21/79
13/87
26/74
14/86
12/88
20/80
22/78
40/60
38/62
6400
1800
16.200
2100
1600
11.300
1900
19.000
22.000
5000
37.200
16.500
9500
2400
12.600
1400
12.300
60.000
1060
11.500
22.700
19.000
A.M. Mercuri et al. / Quaternary International 303 (2013) 24e42
Human-induced
spreading
23
24
25
26
Cognento
Piazza Garibaldi e historical centre of Parma
Canàr di S. Pietro Polesine
Domagnano
6
7
10
13
0.0
0.5
0.0
1.0
0.0
1.3
0.0
2.7
0.6
0.1
0.1
0.3
1.2
0.3
0.2
1.2
1.2
4.1
0.8
0.02
2.7
12.1
2.3
2.0
3.3
15.1
2.0
6.4
4.2
24.8
6.1
14.3
11.6
9.5
0.1
19.8
19.5
25.2
0.4
40.8
0.9
2.0
0.02
0.6
2.2
5.3
0.2
1.4
1.5
0.4
0.3
1.2
2.4
1.0
0.9
2.5
1.9
0.0
0.1
0.4
2.7
0.0
0.6
0.9
30/70
20/80
45/54
25/75
13.000
197.000
33.700
18.000
Site no. Site
Chronology (* ¼ radiocarbon dates)
23
Cognento
13the17th cent. AD
5
3
1
Miglionico
Altojanni
Villa del Casale di
Piazza Armerina
Argenta e Vie Vinarola/
Aleotti
Jure Vetere di San
Giovanni in Fiore
Piazza Garibaldi e
historical centre of
Parma
Domagnano
14the15th cent. AD
12the15th cent. AD
10the15th cent. AD
MedievalRenaissance
Medieval
Medieval
Medieval
13the14th cent. AD
21
2
24
26
22
23
1
3
Palazzo Boschetti e
historical centre of
Modena
Cognento
Villa del Casale di
Piazza Armerina
Altojanni
Number Olea %
Juglans %
Castanea % Cereals %
Cichorieae % Centaurea % Plantago % Urtica %
Mean
Mean
of pollen
AP/NAP concentration
Mean Max Mean Max Mean Max Mean Max Mean Max Mean Max Mean Max Mean Max
samples
(p/g)
4
0.0
0.0 0.5
1.2
1.6
4.3
3.1
7.0 17.0
35.4
1.1
3.2
1.4
4.0 2.2
4.9 24/76
18.000
10
7
26
0.8
1.6
3.4
2.4 0.02
6.5 0.0
14.0 0.1
0.3
0.0
0.8
0.0
0.0
0.2
0.0
0.0
1.1
1.6
0.6
0.5
3.6 26.3
2.9 23.5
1.4 48.4
48.7
41.3
76.6
1.0
2.9
0.0
2.1
6.0
0.0
3.6
2.4
1.1
8.6 0.3
4.9 0.8
10.1 0.2
1.3 11/89
1.9 18/82
1.2 17/83
1600
16.000
3000
Medieval
2
0.0
0.0 0.2
0.2
0.2
0.3 12.7
1.8
2.5
0.2
0.3
1.1
1.2 1.1
1.2 40/60
22.700
12th/13th cent. AD
Medieval
4
0.3
0.6 0.3
0.6
2.3
3.4
7.0 32.0
38.4
0.4
0.6
3.2
5.8 1.1
1.3 29/71
1800
11th cent. AD*
Medieval
4
1.0
1.3 0.1
0.3
3.4
8.5 16.6
24.8
6.8
12.2
2.0
4.8
0.2
0.5 0.0
0.0 15/85
265.000
1st cent. BC e
6th cent. AD
1ste7th cent. AD
Roman-Gothic
13
1.0
2.7 0.3
1.2
0.02
2.0
6.4
14.3 19.8
40.8
0.6
1.4
1.2
2.5 0.4
0.9 25/75
18.000
Roman
4
0.1
0.2 0.4
0.6
1.0
3.5
5.9
9.3
13.4
0.8
1.6
1.2
3.8 0.7
1.9 38/62
19.000
6the7th cent. AD
1ste5th cent. AD
Roman
Roman
2
22
0.0
0.6
0.0 0.3
2.5 0.1
0.6
0.9
0.6
0.5
1.3
2.6
3.9
1.1
7.7 7.2
20.6 45.5
14.3
65.8
0.9
0.2
1.9
3.1
1.8
2.2
3.6 1.5
6.0 0.1
3.1 25/75
1.3 13/87
38.000
8400
3rde5th cent. AD
Roman
4
0.0
0.0 0.1
0.2
0.2
1.0
0.6
1.5 31.3
41.0
2.6
7.2
4.6
15.2 1.0
2.4
16.700
4.3
20.0
8.9
7/93
31
(continued on next page)
A.M. Mercuri et al. / Quaternary International 303 (2013) 24e42
Table 4
Main data of Olea, Juglans and Castanea pollen grains and selected anthropogenic pollen indicators from the archaeological sites discussed in this paper. Samples are ordered in chronological order.
33.700
0.6 45/54
0.02
0.4
0.2
Early/Middle Bronze 10
22nde18th cent. BC*
0.0
0.0 0.1
0.8
2.3
2.0
6.1
0.1
0.2
0.3
0.9 0.1
1400
1.9 26/74
3.0 1.1
1.3
0.1
66.5
0.4
7
Middle Bronze
18the15th cent. BC
0.0
0.0 0.2
0.1
0.2
8.8
23.0 22.2
0.8
5000
11.300
1900
19.000
2100
1400
60.000
900
11.500
12/88
5/95
12/88
19/81
6/94
18/82
12/88
24/76
22/78
0.8
2.0
1.2
0.9
2.2
0.4
2.5
0.5
0.8
36.2
39.9
53.3
15.3
30.7
60.2
75.4
50.3
55.9
0.0
1.6
0.0
0.0
0.0
0.04
0.1
0.1
0.03
13.1
1.8
11.8
4.6
1.1
0.0
0.2
0.4
0.3
Hellenistic-Roman
Hellenistic
Hellenistic
Hellenistic
Hellenistic
Iron
Middle/Late Bronze
Middle/Late Bronze
Middle Bronze
6the1st cent. BC
3rde2nd cent. BC
5the4th cent. BC
6the4th cent. BC
6the5th cent. BC
12the7th cent. AD
17the12th cent. BC
18the12th cent. BC
17the16th cent. BC*
27
9
5
10
4
5
29
12
20
1.9
0.7
2.5
2.6
0.3
0.0
0.1
0.03
0.03
0.0
3.1
0.0
0.0
0.0
0.2
0.4
1.1
0.5
0.0
0.0
0.0
0.1
0.1
0.4
0.1
0.5
0.2
0.0
0.0
0.0
0.3
0.3
0.8
0.3
1.8
2.0
0.7
0.1
0.0
2.0
6.4
0.0
9.5
0.5
0.6
3.2
0.5
0.0
4.0
9.4
0.0
33.1
2.7
1.9
21.1
27.2
39.4
11.9
22.3
51.9
53.2
38.3
28.6
2.4
3.9
2.4
1.6
3.5
0.8
5.0
2.7
2.6
1.7
0.6
0.2
2.5
2.1
1.4
0.5
1.5
1.0
3.6
3.2
0.5
4.2
3.8
3.1
1.3
5.8
2.6
4.8
0.2
0.5
1.3
0.7
0.2
0.1
0.5
4.6
34.4
0.6
0.9
2.9
1.5
0.7
0.4
1.8
10.6
12.300
37.200
16.500
9500
2400
12.600
22.000
130.000
0.2
1.5
1.9
3.4
2.0
2.0
1.9
0.0
0.1
0.6
0.8
1.0
0.5
1.2
1.4
0.0
2.4
1.5
2.4
2.3
0.4
2.0
10.5
1.0
2.2
0.6
1.2
0.8
0.2
1.2
4.6
0.5
0.5
6.0
8.9
4.8
8.5
6.2
0.5
5.3
0.4
2.3
5.3
2.1
4.4
4.4
0.1
2.1
33.5
42.7
38.1
33.7
47.6
38.4
53.5
25.2
31.0
34.7
31.6
23.6
35.8
34.0
41.2
12.3
1.9
2.7
5.4
10.2
5.4
5.7
11.6
19.5
0.2 1.9
0.0 1.4
0.0 3.2
0.2 4.3
0.6 3.4
0.0 3.0
0.0 4.5
12.1 13.6
0.2
0.0
0.0
0.01
0.2
0.0
0.0
4.7
0.2
0.0
0.0
0.0
0.2
0.0
0.0
0.3
0.2
0.0
0.0
0.0
0.1
0.0
0.0
0.1
0.2
0.2
0.4
1.0
0.4
0.3
2.1
0.0
0.1
0.01
0.01
0.1
0.2
0.1
0.4
0.0
2
8
11
15
4
5
12
3
Roman
Roman
Roman
Roman
Roman
Roman
Roman
Roman
AD
AD
AD
AD
AD
2nde4th cent. AD
1st cent. BCe1st cent.
1st cent. BCe1st cent.
1st cent. BCe1st cent.
1st cent. BCe1st cent.
1st cent. BCe1st cent.
2nde1st cent. BC
3rd/2nd cent. BC
25
16
10
6
7
8
4
19
18
19
20
Montegibbio
San Martino
Podere Terrato
Case Nuove
Colle Massari
Poggio dell’Amore
Pantanello
Piazza Garibaldi e
historical centre of
Parma
Sant’Angelo Vecchio
Difesa San Biagio
Pizzica
Fattoria Fabrizio
Torre di Satriano
Necropoli di Casinalbo
Terramara di Montale
Necropoli di Casinalbo
Baggiovara e Opera Pia
Bianchi
Monte Castellaccio
of Imola
Canàr di S. Pietro
Polesine
17
11
12
13
14
15
9
24
Chronology (* ¼ radiocarbon dates)
Site no. Site
Table 4 (continued )
14/86
16/84
16/84
13/86
21/79
13/87
3/97
25/75
A.M. Mercuri et al. / Quaternary International 303 (2013) 24e42
Number Olea %
Juglans %
Castanea % Cereals %
Cichorieae % Centaurea % Plantago % Urtica %
Mean
Mean
of pollen
AP/NAP concentration
Mean Max Mean Max Mean Max Mean Max Mean Max Mean Max Mean Max Mean Max
samples
(p/g)
32
Olea is the most frequent taxon, being present in 70% of
samples, while the other two trees are less recurrent (Juglans 57%,
Castanea 48%).
3.2. PNEMI94.1B (Fig. 3)
OJC is present in 83% of samples, mean 4%. Its early peak reaches 13%
at ca. 2800 cal BP, and remains of about 10% for 500 years. Other
values of about 10% are recorded at around 1600-1000 cal BP and
at 500e400 cal BP. A peak of 19% is registered at around 120 cal BP.
In modern times, the 24% of the top sample indicated that current
values are higher than in the past, largely due to Castanea percentages.
Records of these tree taxa are present in the deepest samples of
the core. Castanea is found in the bottom sample, dated to ca.
11,400 cal BP, and Juglans and Olea have their first records about one
hundred years later.
Olea and Castanea are the most frequent taxa, being present in
64-63% of the samples respectively, while Juglans is less common,
found in 48% of the samples.
3.3. PALB94.1E (Fig. 4)
OJC is present in 73% of samples, mean 4%. Its early peak of 6%
occurred at ca. 3000 cal BP, and remains at 7e9% for about 600
years. Later, values double to 20% at around 2300 cal BP, and remain
high with oscillations until ca. 1000 cal BP. In the last ca. 300 cal BP,
its values are around 10%, i.e. over the mean of this diagram.
Olea has the earliest records at ca. 13,400 cal BP, Castanea is
present about one thousand years later, while Juglans occurrences
are more recent, reported at ca. 8400 cal BP.
Olea and Castanea are the most frequent OJC taxa, being present
in 64-61% of samples respectively, while Juglans is less common,
occurring in 53% of the samples.
3.4. Archaeological sites (Figs. 5 and 6)
OJC is present in all sites, with mean values of 1%. The maximum
value of 5% was found in site no. 24 (Roman and Medieval Parma),
followed by the 3% reported at site no. 2 (Medieval Jure Vetere). The
lower percentages are found in sites no. 11 and 12 of Roman Tuscany (Table 3).
The earliest records of Juglans and Castanea are found in site no.
25, an Early Bronze age pile dwelling of Canàr (radiometrically
dated to 3660 50 and 3600 50 uncal BP; ca. 4000 cal BP), and in
Middle Bronze age sites no. 19 and 20.
Olea has significant amounts in southern Italy, mainly in the
Hellenistic sites no. 6,7,8 and 10. It reaches the highest values of
>10% in sites no. 10-Sant’Angelo Vecchio and no. 7-Pizzica, in
Basilicata. These high values are recorded later only during
Medieval times, at site no. 1-Villa del Casale, in Sicily.
Castanea reaches percentages >10% in northern Italy only in site
no. 24 (Roman Parma), but it has significant values in several sites,
including those of southern Italy, in Roman (site no. 22) and Medieval (no. 2 and 23) times. Juglans is less represented in spectra, and
reaches 3% only in Hellenistic site no. 6 (Difesa S. Biagio, Basilicata).
4. Discussion
4.1. Pre-Holocene records, wild trees and their representativeness in
pollen spectra (Fig. 7)
In the lake cores studied, early records of olive, walnut
or chestnut trees, together with some anthropogenic pollen indicators, date to Late Glacial as fallout of wild plants living in the
Mediterranean basin.
A.M. Mercuri et al. / Quaternary International 303 (2013) 24e42
Fig. 2. Percentage pollen diagram of the Adriatic Sea core RF93-30, selected taxa (AV tephra ¼ Pomici di Avellino eruption of Somma-Vesuvius).
Fig. 3. Percentage pollen diagram of the lake core PNEMI94.1B, selected taxa (AV tephra ¼ Pomici di Avellino eruption of Somma-Vesuvius).
33
34
A.M. Mercuri et al. / Quaternary International 303 (2013) 24e42
Fig. 4. Percentage pollen diagram of the lake core PALB94.1E, selected taxa (AV tephra ¼ Pomici di Avellino eruption of Somma-Vesuvius).
The pre-Holocene OJC taxa record has a scattered presence in
pollen diagrams from northern (Olea: Vescovi et al., 2010a; Juglans:
Accorsi et al., 1998; Castanea: Paganelli and Miola, 1991; Bertolani
Marchetti et al., 1994), central (Olea, Castanea, Juglans: Mercuri
et al., 2002, and this paper; Olea: Magri and Sadori, 1999; and in
Mezzano, Sadori pers. comm.) and southern Italy (Olea: Sadori and
Narcisi, 2001; Olea, Juglans: Russo Ermolli and Di Pasquale, 2002;
Castanea: Joannin et al., 2012). The pollen frequency of these taxa is
low, but their occurrence is interestingly indicative that small
stands, or at least some specimens, of these trees lived in different
regions of the Italian peninsula.
This statement, though hypothetical, is based on the comparison
with the representation of these plants in current pollen rains. Today,
pollen from cultivated Olea europaea, Juglans regia and Castanea
sativa are common but notably under-represented in soil surface
samples and airborne pollen rains of the Italian peninsula (e.g.,
Basilicata: Florenzano et al., 2011a; Tuscany: Drescher-Schneider
et al., 2007; Emilia Romagna: Mercuri et al., 2012a) as elsewhere
(Olea: Vermoere et al., 2003; Juglans: Beer et al., 2007; Castanea:
Huntley and Birks, 1983). In the uppermost samples from the offsites studied, representing recent years (Table 2), Juglans is the
least represented (0.1e1%), followed by Olea (3e5%) and Castanea
(0.5e18%). This great variability and low values are not surprising
because, today, the distribution of these species depends on wood
cultivation, a practice that concentrates a large number of specimens
in a limited area. Pollen rains produced by cultivated woods may be
high near the centre of the cultivation but rapidly fall further away
from the main pollen source. For example, olive pollen decreases by
about 87e92% 500 m from the olive grove (Florenzano et al., 2011a).
4.2. From Palaeolithic to Neolithic land-use
Hundreds of Palaeolithic sites attest to the impressive long-term
anthropogenic pressure on the environment that has occurred in
the central Mediterranean since pre-Holocene times (e.g., Muttoni
et al., 2011). Hunter-gatherers exploited the natural resources and
in some way they were able to interfere with the distribution of
useful plants. Pollen data do not allow distinguishing between wild
and cultivated plants, and hardly therefore contribute to answering
the question as to when cultivation began. However, as pollen indicates the pre-Neolithic presence of these trees, it can be suggested that humans probably adopted some behaviours related to
these trees.
In this sense, these trees may have been formerly protected for
their utility as fuel, food or fodder. Fruit trees, probably, were initially managed in a way similar to that hypothesised for the wild
orchards of the eastern Mediterranean (Zohary, 1973). Such management includes several steps: i) gathering, ii) management of
natural stands, iii) formation of wild orchards, and iv) cultivation of
wild trees. In the centre of domestication this eventually resulted in
the cultivation of morphologically domestic trees (Willcox, 2012).
Wild olive trees, for example, became part of major economic
changes as they were used for olive gathering for oil, and then
domesticated harnessing their genetic ‘pre-adaptation’ and their
potential for maintaining selected features through vegetative
propagation (Fall et al., 2002; Kaniewski et al., 2012).
After the hunter-gatherers mainly acted as part of natural ecosystems, early farmers increased their control over nature. The
transition to cultivation would have imposed a more stable occupation of land with permanent settlements. The intense action on
a limited area had consequences on ecological adjustments and the
different scenarios for resource exploitation have been natural
settings for the advance of different cultures (Diamond, 2002;
Mercuri and Sadori, 2013).
In pollen spectra, land transformation under Neolithic activities
is mainly highlighted by the presence of cereals. However, the
Neolithic spread of cultivated fields would not have caused
impressive changes in the pollen rain. Cereals include low pollen
A.M. Mercuri et al. / Quaternary International 303 (2013) 24e42
35
Fig. 5. Pollen percentages and total concentrations of the 26 archaeological sites discussed in this paper, according to decreasing latitude (see also Table 1). Bars show mean values,
and lines show maximum percentages of Olea, Juglans, Castanea and Cichorieae. AP ¼ Arboreal pollen, NAP ¼ non arboreal pollen.
production species, some genera are self-pollinating (barley and
wheat are autogamous), and their large pollen size (>40 mm) causes
a fall speed roughly double than that of smaller wild grasses (Fyfe,
2006). Cereal pollen is not easily found very far from the fields.
Moreover, the identification of the pollen types does not necessarily mean that domesticated species occurred (Behre, 2007;
Mercuri, 2008).
Data from the lake cores studied show that, in the countries
facing the Mediterranean basin, large pollen of wild cereal native
species was present even in pre-Holocene times and therefore it
cannot unequivocally be a marker of farming practices (Fig. 4).
Anthropogenic pollen indicators are abundant in Late Glacial dry
oscillations (Fig. 7). Therefore, the interpretation of these pollen
data should be supported by archaeological evidence.
4.3. From natural presence to human-induced spreading of OJC in
off-site cores
The development of human environments in a modern sense,
meaning the irreversible transformation of soils and land morphology, is a relatively recent phenomenon. It has largely caused
the expansion of agrarian landscapes, including fields, pastures and
groves. Accordingly, the OJC sum increases in the off-site diagrams
from the late mid-Holocene onwards, when high levels of primary
production are also registered in lakes (Ariztegui et al., 2000), and
when the OJC pollen grains are ubiquitous in archaeological sites.
In the marine core, an increasing aridity is evident at least since
5700 cal BP, and anthropogenic pollen indicators began to raise about
three hundred years later (Mercuri et al., 2012a, p. 359). Later, the
effect of clearings to give space to fields is visible as a decline of trees
and increase of cereals in pollen spectra. As reported above, fruit trees
were probably not cut when woods were opened to give space to
fields. According to Woldring and Cappers (2001), it is very likely that
during the abrupt deforestation that occurred around 4000 BP in the
eastern Mediterranean, there was a shift in the composition of
woody species because oaks were cut. The wild fruit trees were
protected and therefore at an advantage in this new situation.
Similarly, in the Italian peninsula, in times of dramatic land
transformations occurring under global climate warming and
growing economic pressures (Mercuri et al., 2011; Roberts et al.,
2011), the OJC trees have marked the human environments of the
last four millennia.
In our cores, after the first Late Glacial and early Holocene
sporadic records (Table 2), the OJC pollen sum firstly shows an
uninterrupted curve in lake cores. This curve begins earlier in core
PALB94.1E (3825 cal BP), probably also influenced by the presence
of the Bronze age settlement, and starts about 500 years later in
PNEMI94.1E (3300 cal BP).
About 1000 years later (2140 cal BP), when these plants were
definitively widespread on lands, their pollen fallout became continuous also in the marine record. This may be interpreted as the
definitive spread of the plants in the vicinity of the lakes during the
Early and Middle Bronze age. This may have been a wide regional
environmental feature as their pollen become more common also
in other cores of the Italian peninsula (see below 4.5).
The beginning of the continuous curve may have been favoured
by climate and environmental factors that caused the increase in
populations of drought-resistant species under increasing dryness,
36
A.M. Mercuri et al. / Quaternary International 303 (2013) 24e42
Fig. 6. Mean percentage spectra of the 26 archaeological sites discussed in this paper, grouped according to the main archaeological chronology of their cultural phases of
occupation (see also Table 2).
and possibly temperatures (Olea and Juglans; see above for their
ecological needs).
4.4. OJC records and human landscape development near
archaeological sites (Fig. 8)
The data from archaeological sites give details on local landscape transformations occurring at times when OJC sum increases
have been reported in the off-site cores.
Different geographical, geobotanical and depositional features,
archaeological contexts and cultural variables, number of sites and
samples per phase preclude quantitative correlation between the
off-site and on-site records. However, a general association is evident and may be summarised in the following observations:
i) The simultaneous presence of OJC in the off-sites and in all of
the archaeological sites confirms that these trees were
widespread in the Italian peninsula in approximately the last
4200 years.
ii) The OJC records are low but common in Bronze Age sites from
northern Italy, at the same times when their values increase
in the off-site cores (Fig. 6).
iii) Then, in (Hellenistic)-Roman times, their curves have sharp
increments, and values of Olea are especially high in
archaeological sites of southern Italy (Fig. 5).
iv) The highest values of OJC are found in archaeological samples
of Medieval age, and are especially due to Castanea; the
increased importance of this taxon is also evident in the offsite pollen records (Table 4, Fig. 8).
v) Juglans is less common and abundant than the other two trees
in both the archaeological sites and the off-sites.
High values of pollen of each taxon in archaeological layers may
be a signal of the presence of plants in the vicinity of the site
(Tables 3 and 4). Following the phytogeographical distribution of
olive tree, the pollen of Olea reached high values only in southern
Italy (sites no. 1,7,8,10), while those of Juglans (no. 6,19,23,26) and
Castanea (no. 1,2,19,22,23,24) were significant both in northern and
in southern sites (Fig. 5). This is in agreement with the statement
mentioned above that, though these plants lived wild in the peninsula, the spread and present distribution of walnut and chestnut
trees is more greatly influenced by millennia of human action than
by natural migration.
4.5. Early-mid Holocene pollen records of OJC in Italian cores
In southern Italy, early Holocene records of Olea are found at
Pergusa, Gorgo Basso (Sicily; Sadori and Narcisi, 2001; Tinner et al.,
2009) and Lago di Trifoglietti (Calabria; Joannin et al., 2012). Later,
in mid-Holocene cores of Apulia, Olea is fairly continuous in the last
6500e5600 years at Lago Salso and Lago Alimini Piccolo (Di Rita
and Magri, 2009; Di Rita et al., 2011), also showing high values at
ca. 5900e5300 cal BP at Lago Battaglia (Caroli and Caldara, 2007).
From around 3600 cal BP, Olea spread in southern Italy, at Lago
Alimini Piccolo and Lago di Pergusa. There, this was the time of
climatically-induced intense fires (Sadori and Giardini, 2007;
Sadori et al., 2008), and the degradation of the Mediterranean
woodland to shrub formations occurred at Lago Battaglia. At
A.M. Mercuri et al. / Quaternary International 303 (2013) 24e42
Fig. 7. Comparison of the trends of synthetic diagrams from the three off-site cores, from the left, Lago Albano, Lago di Nemi, and Adriatic Sea core. Anthropogenic pollen indicators include only selected taxa (cereals, Cichorieae,
Centaurea, Plantago and Urtica).
37
38
A.M. Mercuri et al. / Quaternary International 303 (2013) 24e42
Fig. 8. Comparison of the trends of OJC curves from the off-site and on-site records of the Italian peninsula. Percentages in off-site records are shown in Figs. 2e4. Pollen data from
archaeological sites are mean value per site and per chronological phase (reported in Tables 3 and 4). They give local details of OJC presence during the time interval when the
percentage curve of OJC sum increases in off-site records.
around 3100 and 2600 cal BP, olive pollen has high values at Lago
Alimini Piccolo and at Lago Battaglia, respectively.
Juglans is less recurrent than the other two taxa in lake records.
Walnut pollen is common before ca. 4000 cal BP at Lago Salso, and
after about 4600 cal BP at Lago Alimini Piccolo. It is not abundant
but common, together with Castanea, from ca. 6000 cal BP in the
marine core C106 (bay of Salerno, Campania; Russo Ermolli and Di
Pasquale, 2002).
Castanea is recorded in traces at Lago Grande di Monticchio
(Basilicata; Allen et al., 2002) and at Lago Battaglia (Apulia;
4400 cal BP). Chestnut pollen probably represents scattered populations only living in some districts of those regions. In fact,
Castanea is absent from the sequence of Lago Salso (Apulia).
Pollen of Castanea is found at Gorgo Basso and Lago Alimini
Piccolo only in the last ca. 2000-1500 years, when pollen of Juglans
was also found at Lago di Trifoglietti.
In central Italy, cores located in Tuscany show the occurrence
of Olea and Juglans during the early Holocene at Lago dell’Accesa
(Tuscany; Drescher-Schneider et al., 2007, p. 291), but only Olea
becomes continuous from ca. 7300 cal BP. The pollen record of
Lago del Greppo contains traces of Olea pollen since ca.
7000 cal BP (Vescovi et al., 2010b, p. 222). At Lago dell’Accesa,
Neolithic human impact is recognised at ca. 8000 cal BP. At ca.
4200 cal BP, anthropogenic indicators, especially Plantago species
and cereals increase as a result of human activity in the region.
The impact of the Etruscan settlement near the lakeshore is
mainly shown in the increasing values of arable crops. At Lago di
Massaciuccoli (coastal lake; Mariotti Lippi et al., 2007, p. 271),
human impact is evident particularly due to the opening of the
woodland at ca. 4200e2500 cal BP. Pollen of Juglans, and then of
Olea, is present in traces in the mid-Holocene.
One record of Castanea is present in the early Holocene, and
later this pollen has an isolated peak at ca. 2800 cal BP. Only later
are cultivated trees clearly indicated by pollen values. At Lago del
Greppo (1440 m asl), the continuous curve of Castanea starts at ca.
1500 cal BP, while those of Olea and Juglans are found only in the
last millennium, probably mirroring the cultivation of these trees at
lower altitudes. At Lago dell’Accesa, Castanea is recorded together
with Juglans from ca. 2800 cal BP. In summary, the cultivated species had already been controlled by pre-Roman populations
(Mercuri et al., 2002; Sadori et al., 2010a).
In Latium, at Lago di Mezzano, the climatic aridity crisis (Magny
et al., 2009) caused woodland decrease, lowering of water level and
a decrease of lake size at around 3800 cal BP. A strong human impact
at around 3600 cal BP characterised by deforestation and spread of
anthropogenic indicators is unquestionable (Sadori and Giardini,
2008). High values of Castanea around 3000 cal BP coincide with
the ‘Cannabis phase’ in Lago Albano and Lago di Nemi (Mercuri et al.,
2002). At around 2760 cal BP the OJC curve rapidly increases in Nemi
especially due to Juglans and Castanea rises, while in Albano there is
a clear increase of Castanea (Fig. 5). Then, at around 2800e
2700 cal BP, Olea, Juglans and Castanea increased together with
cereals and other anthropogenic indicators also at Lago di Vico, Lago
dell’Accesa and Lago Battaglia, but at Lagaccione walnut pollen is
absent (Magri and Sadori, 1999; Magri, 1999; Caroli and Caldara,
2007; Drescher-Schneider et al., 2007).
A.M. Mercuri et al. / Quaternary International 303 (2013) 24e42
In the Roman Portus, Olea and Castanea are significantly present
in the two cores PTS13 and PTS5, together covering from about the
1st century AD to the Renaissance, while Juglans is less common
(Sadori et al., 2010b).
At Lago d’Averno, the core AV14 K2, dating approximately from
800 BC to 800 AD, shows the gradual increment of percentage
values of these trees. Only Olea is recorded in the entire sequence,
and it has the highest values in Greek/early Roman times when
regular but few records of Juglans and sporadic pollen of Castanea
were also found. Then, olive pollen decreases fairly gradually, while
walnut and especially chestnut pollen grains show significant
increases (Gruger and Thulin, 1998, p. 38).
In northern Italy, in the Apennine hills of Emilia Romagna, isolated Late Glacial evidence of Olea was found at Pavullo nel
Frignano (Vescovi et al., 2010a, p. 38). Castanea was recorded at ca.
6500 and 3200 cal BP, and Juglans at ca. 4200 cal BP. These scattered
records cannot be considered anthropogenic indicators, and the
first signs of human activities were recognised later when a significant increase of Plantago lanceolata and Centaurea nigra occurred
at around 3500 cal BP.
A very different situation was recognised at Lago della Costa
(Colli Euganei, Veneto; Kaltenrieder et al., 2010, p. 684). One record
of Castanea was found at ca. 8800 cal BP, and then Olea at ca.
6500 cal BP. From about 6300 cal BP, Olea, Juglans and then Castanea
rapidly expanded, becoming regularly present. Neolithic people
introduced cereals, weeds and fire activity in this northern region,
also producing the most ancient evidence of a combined cultivation
of walnut and chestnut. Although no major changes were evident in
the pollen curves, their cultivation was assumed by the authors also
during the Bronze age (4150e2750 cal BP) as there was an important Early Bronze age village settled at the lakeshore. A clear
increase of Castanea is visible at ca. 3500 cal BP followed by Olea at
ca. 3000 cal BP. These two taxa show fairly simultaneous peaks at
around ca. 2200 cal BP, while Juglans was steady with minor
oscillations.
In these Northern provinces, the clear rise of Castanea mirroring
the development of the ‘chestnut landscape’ dates to around 800e
700 cal BP (Mercuri et al., 2012a).
5. Conclusions
The history of Olea europaea subsp. europaea, Juglans regia and C.
sativa is still to some extent controversial especially because the
presence of wild specimens and the introduction of cultivated varieties in Italy are commonly confused. Though the presence of wild
olive trees is unquestioned, misinterpretation of the written sources may be at the basis of ‘relict prejudices’ about the presence of
chestnut and walnut in the Italian peninsula before Roman times.
Classical writers cannot have known the concept of ‘genetic
domestication’, and therefore Pliny referred to the attractive features of large-sized and tasty fruits. These sources only inform that
species with attractive fruits were introduced in Roman times.
Pollen records show that Juglans and Castanea frequently spread
together with the Roman culture, from about 2700 cal BP, in the
Italian peninsula. The growing of the two imported species occurred at the same time in many regions. However, examples of their
earlier combined spread are found in pre-Roman times (Mercuri
et al., 2002; Kaltenrieder et al., 2010), probably favoured by local
edaphic peculiarities or agricultural practices. The cultivation of
these trees in pre-Roman times, therefore, may have included local
stands. The nurturing for wood may have had negative effects on
pollen fallout.
In contrast, when crop growing was channelled towards
obtaining fruits, the flowering of plants was favoured. There are still
no pieces of evidence that hybridization between locally exploited
39
wild forms and introduced cultivars occurred, as is known to have
happened for wild and cultivated olive trees. The wide distribution
in time and space of the pollen of walnut and chestnut in the records reported in this paper suggests that these trees were not
introduced to Italy and initially cultivated by the Romans. Local
people would have already known about their cultivation as the
new varieties were promptly adopted. They were rapidly spread for
fruits from the centre of domestication in the eastern Mediterranean, though the cultivation for wood continued (Di Pasquale
et al., 2010).
The context of off-site and on-site records in this paper adds
support to the evidence that OJC pollen curves are useful for the
reconstruction of the recent vegetation history and mark human
landscapes of the Italian peninsula. The data enable answers to the
two questions raised in the introduction of this paper.
i) What is the meaning of the OJC in marine and terrestrial cores?
The pollen from Olea, Juglans and Castanea that has been
observed since Pleistocene times changes in significance along the
temporal line of pollen diagrams. Its presence does not strictly
mean that the survival of these trees was linked to human cultures.
The presence of other anthropogenic indicators may help the
interpretation of pollen records but it is similarly ambiguous
because they mainly include weeds that are also generic indicators
of arid environments. The latter are common, for example, in the
Late Glacial and largely constitute dry habitats preceding Holocene
times.
Olive, walnut and chestnut pollen grains surely indicate human
activity when their curves rise fairly suddenly and in combination
with consistent archaeological evidence. Judging from the
archaeological remains in the Italian peninsula, this is unquestionable only from the Bronze Age onwards. Actually, development
of the cultural landscape in the Po plain is evident in the Middle
Bronze age (Mercuri et al., 2012a). By this time, cultivation of trees
caused the expansion of the species in a limited territory and significantly increased the input of their pollen in the air.
Therefore, what is the meaning of pollen of these trees in precultivation times? Humans acted as dispersal agents, and thus
seeds of useful plants were transported around, and especially near
houses. Even involuntarily, humans increased the number of useful
plants, trees and herbs, before cultivation. The first step of the
management of trees would have been limited to natural stands,
especially by protecting useful trees and cleaning the soils around
them. This has primarily occurred for the useful trees that are slow
to grow, take many years to become mature, and have seeds that
can germinate also in the years different from that of seedling
(Willcox, 2012).
ii) What is the meaning in archaeological sites?
Archaeological sites have several limitations because the contexts are very different and cultural variables play decisive roles in
the composition of pollen spectra. However, they provide an
impressive number of samples related to a relatively short time
period, and in this paper they overall cover approximately from
4200 to 500 BP.
They fall within the times of unquestionable increase in pollen
curve of OJC in off-sites, and confirm that there is a large variability
in the local presence of these trees. This is due to both cultural and
phytogeographical reasons. The latter explain why Olea is more
represented in southern than in northern Italy. Also, climatic
changes may have somewhat influenced the spread of more
drought-tolerant trees in times of increasing dryness. Generally,
this summary suggests that the highest and earlier values of OJC in
40
A.M. Mercuri et al. / Quaternary International 303 (2013) 24e42
archaeological sites were reached in southern regions of the Italian
peninsula. Moreover, a possibly unexpected conclusion rises from
the overall data: in the majority of cases, the OJC sum is very low
near sites, thus indicating that plants lived or grew fairly far from
the settlements. In the case of both plants cared for in the wild and
even cultivated as domesticated species, these trees lived in
favourable soils, slopes and altitudes. Probably, the ecological
conditions that were suitable for plant life were not often the same
selected for constructing human settlements. In the case of terramaras, for example, Montale and Baggiovara were settled near
water bodies, in the inundated plains of the Po River, in climatic and
soil conditions that were unfavourable to the growing of olive,
walnut and chestnut trees.
Acknowledgments
Our warmest thanks go to Luigi Vigliotti and Piero Guilizzoni
who helped to check the up-dated chronologies of lakes. Giovanna
Bosi, Rossella Rinaldi and Paola Torri cooperated on studies quoted
in this paper. Santiago Riera Mora, Laura Sadori and one anonymous referee made fruitful comments to the first version of
the paper. Part of the recent research was funded by the project
PICAR e Cultural landscape and human impact in circumMediterranean countries (Programmi di Ricerca Scientifica di
Rilevante Interesse Nazionale 2008FJCEF4, coord. AMM).
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