Anna Maria Mercuri

Abstract: This paper presents the study of parasite remains recovered in pollen samples collected from archaeological layers. Laboratory treatment enabled us to obtain very high concentrations of both pollen and parasite eggs from the same samples. The case study of the site of Piazza Garibaldi in Parma, a town in the Po plain, is reported. The site was a sacred area in Roman times and a market square in Medieval times (10th�11th century A.D.). Pollen, seeds, and fruits from the latter phase were collected from four Medieval pits and one cesspit. After a palynological treatment including sieving, floating, and light acetolysis, abundant quantities of parasite eggs were extracted. Human and animal parasite eggs belonging to Trichuris, Ascaris, Taenia/Echinococcus, Capillaria, Dicrocoelium, and Diphyllobothrium were found. The analyses of animal and plant remains identified in the same samples suggested that the pit infillings consisted of waste, human and animal excrements, deteriorated plant food, and refuse of grapes. Therefore, parasite remains help the interpretation of archaeobotanical data in identifying human behaviors and site functions.

Abstract: The paper presents the large set of basketry and other worked fibre artefacts constituting the perishable artefacts assemblage from the Takarkori rock shelter. This site is located in southwestern Libya, central Sahara. Its well-preserved Holocene stratigraphy testifies to human occupations by foraging groups (Late Acacus culture; ca. 9000-7400 uncal years bp; ca. 8300-6100 BCE) and herders (Pastoral cultures; ca. 7400-4500 uncal years bp; ca. 6400-3000 BCE). The basketry collection includes 91 desiccated items. They have been divided into two distinct groups: basketry constructions and basketry elements (b-items: 53 fragments); ropes and other elements in the broad sense (r-items: 38 fragments). Stems were mostly used to make the b-items, while a fairly diversified set of materials was used for ropes and other elements. In a few cases, mixed animal and plant materials were also employed. SEM analyses showed some diagnostic characteristics such as epidermal stomata, phytoliths, hairs and vessels indicating monocotyledons. Many items were identified as Panicoideae, likely of the Setaria and Panicum types. Therefore, the main wild cereals collected for food and transported into the site also seem to have been the main plants used to make basketry. The only wooden item was attributed to Vitex. The majority of the basketry is made using the twined technique. Basketry remains were more common during the Late Acacus occupation of the site, possibly associated with wild cereal processing and storage, reinforcing the idea of a re-organization of food security towards a delayed use of resources. The basketry material could be interpreted as remains of large and open baskets to collect and store seeds. Decreasing availability of wild cereals, changes in resource exploitation and the nomadic mobility pattern may explain why a smaller number of basketry items was found in layers connected to the Pastoral phases of occupation.

Abstract: Integration of pollen data from both marine and terrestrial cores contributes to the understanding of the timing of the climatic and human forces that shaped the cultural landscapes in the Italian peninsula. This paper focuses on the relation between natural and human land- scapes, and the development of the cultural landscape from the Bronze Age to the medieval period and modern times. Two records were studied within independent projects, first the marine core RF93-30, from the central Adriatic, with a sediment source area including the Po valley and which spans the last 7,000 years, and secondly, material from the site of Terramara di Montale, a Bronze Age settlement on the Po plain, which was occupied from approximately 3550�3200 cal. B.P. The original chronology of the marine core was developed by using the magnetic inclination of the secular variation record and two 14C dates carried out on benthic and planktic foraminifera at depths of 527 and 599 cm. Its pollen record shows a gradual irreversible trend towards increasing aridity since 5700 cal. B.P. and, just after around 5100 cal. B.P., a Picea decline and a Quercus ilex type increase indicate less cool conditions. Human impact introduces rapid changes, such as the decrease of Abies alba, thinned by the reduction of precipitation and further cleared before or during the Early Bronze Age, followed by the fall of oaks. The latter started after around 3900 cal. B.P., and became evident at around 3600 cal. B.P. The gradual increase in signs of open landscape and woodland clearance correspond to the onset of Middle Bronze Age settlements in the Po valley, and to the development of the cultural landscape in the region. The impact of the terramare people includes woodland man- agement by coppicing, and division of the territory into a patchwork of pastures and fields. Dry environments are indicated mainly by Cichorioideae, resulting from the continued human pressure, and these spread since the Recent Bronze Age. Of the possible causes for the decline of the terramare, we suggest that climate would have been less important in the decline than in the onset phases. The later cultural landscapes are mainly indicated by the trends of the Olea, Juglans and Castanea (OJC) records, besides those of cereals. At around 700 cal. B.P., the ��chestnut landscape�� spread while modern times are shown by the finds of Zea mays.

Abstract: The effectiveness of surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy (SERS) spectrocsopy on Ag colloids has been successfully demonstrated for the identification of a yellow dye in two ancient wool threads found in the Royal Tumulus of In Aghelachem, Libyan Sahara, belonging to the Garamantian period (2nd�3rd century A.D.). High-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) highlighted the presence of ellagic acid in the extracts from the threads, excluding other chromophores. This result, together with the abundance of malic acid detected by gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS), suggested the possible use of pomegranate rind or sumac berries as source of the yellow dye, both plants being documented in the Fezzan area during the Garamantian period. HPLC analyses and SERS spectra acquired on the extracts of the ancient threads were therefore compared with those obtained from pomegranate and sumac extracts of the corresponding fruits and reference dyed wool samples, allowing us to identify the yellow dye as deriving from pomegranate (Punica granatum L.). SERS spectra of ellagic acid and dyes extracted from pomegranate rind and sumac berries are reported here for the first time. A methodological improvement is also presented, based on the use of NaClO4 as aggregating agent, that leads to a significant increase of the signal-to-noise ratio in the SERS spectra.

Abstract: In Mediterranean and north-African regions, cultural trajectories have shown trends sometimes coincident with climatic changes. The mid Holocene was a period of intense changes in climate, and in environmental and cultural systems. This paper reports pollen and charcoal studies from these areas aiming at presenting how impressive cultural changes frequently coincided with critical climate oscillations. Three of the main dry events of key relevance for climatic�cultural changes were selected to discuss this topic: c. 8200 cal. yr BP, c. 6000 cal. yr BP, and c. 4200 cal. yr BP. Five examples from on-site case studies were reported: (1) Wadi Teshuinat area (Fezzan, Libya, Central Sahara); (2) Benzù cave (Ceuta mountains, Spain, NW Africa); (3) La Vaquera Cave (Central System, Spain); (4) Terramara di Montale (Po Plain, Northern Italy); (5) Arslantepe (Eastern Anatolia, Turkey). Their archaeobotanical record helps to recognise and date human presence and activity in different territories. In these examples, anthropogenic signals and comparisons with other sites could be useful to distinguish climate signal from human impact in pollen records. Charcoals are evidence of human activity in cases which are not shown by pollen. Overexploitation of thinned plant resources, including overgrazing, accelerated the evolution towards xeric conditions during drying climatic phases. Humans enforced the aridity crisis and enhanced its signal in palaeoclimatic records. Sometimes, changing exploitation strategies and movements led to the onset of new cultures. Nevertheless, the onset and decline of a culture are very different critical phases, and different agents must have been involved in their occurrence. The Bronze Age marked the environment more than the Neolithic, probably because there is a relation between improvements in knowledge, cultural changes and the evolution of complex forms of land exploitation.

Abstract: Archaeobotanical analyses were carried out on layers from the site of Piazza Garibaldi in Parma, a town located in the plain of Emilia Romagna, in northern Italy. The layers dated to the 3rde2nd centuries BC, around the time of the foundation of the Roman town, and to the 10the11th centuries AD. According to archaeological data, the site was a sacred area in Roman times, while it was a market square in Mediaeval times. Data from pollen and seeds/fruits were useful for both palaeoenvironmental and palae- oethnobotanical reconstructions, and together with NPPs including parasite remains contributed to add details on the function of the site in the different chronological phases. Since Roman times, woods have grown far from the site, and human activities highly influenced the landscape. Cereals, legumes and hemp were cultivated together with figs, grapevines, and a number of medicinal, vegetables and spice plants. Altogether, data confirmed the presence of votive offerings, and particularly the association of opium poppy and cereals suggested that they were mainly offered to Ceres, the goddess of crops and soil fertility. In the Middle Ages, cereal fields, together with legumes, grapevines and fruit trees continued to be grown in the area, but olive trees and Prunoideae revealed a different arboricultural economy. The analyses of plant and parasite remains in four pits and one latrine suggested that their infillings consisted of waste, human and animal excrements, deteriorated vegetable food and marcs. Human parasite eggs of Ascaris and Trichuris were found in the latrine, while parasites of animals were found also in the pits. The interpretation of archaeobotanical data was so tightly linked to the archaeological context that similar spectra must be differently interpreted in the two chronological phases.

Abstract: The special issue ��Cultural landscapes of the past�� is the outcome of the idea to present a set of researches centered on past cultural landscapes reconstructed principally on the basis of an integrated archaeobo- tanical approach. The publication of this topic on Plant Biosystems, the research international journal edited by the Societa` Botanica Italiana, accomplishes to our deliberate purpose of emphasizing the role of plants as key elements of the landscape and their consequent invaluable usefulness in revealing past cultural trajectories involving environmental trans- formations. The papers reported in this special issue present examples of archaeobotanical studies from Mediter- ranean countries, and offer a fairly articulated illustration of how much different contexts can be investigated. The range of time mainly includes Bronze Age and Roman times, but also some reference to later periods are included. As archae- obotanical analysis was well-defined by Faegri et al.�s (1989) words as the study of anthropogenic indica- tors in past contexts, most part of these papers is dedicated to consider and discuss the roles of cultivated and wild synanthropic plants.

Abstract: The article aims at presenting some aspects of environmental reconstruction through pollen analysis from archaeological contexts. The anthropogenic pollen transport into archaeological sites is regarded as an interesting tool to improve knowledge on flora and vegetation in the area of influence of sites. The zoophilous plants can be found more easily than in the regional airborne pollen rain where anemophilous pollen is generally overrepresented. Moreover, pollen from archaeological contexts is mainly a result of the cultural landscape shaped by human activities. Two case studies from the Bradano Valley (Basilicata, southern Italy), rich in archaeological sites dating altogether from the Middle Bronze Age to the Medieval age, are reported. Difesa San Biagio and its surroundings is one of the biggest settlements of the area, settled in early times by Enotrians. Altojanni is an extended area mainly frequented in Hellenistic, Roman late Imperial and Medieval times. A very open landscape, and clear signs of plant exploitation and cultivation, breeding and settlements were present in the two sites. Though samples are disturbed and preservation problems are sometimes observed, the main characters of pollen spectra are recurrent. High percentages of Poaceae and Cichorioideae, together with coprophilous fungal spores, strongly suggest a long tradition of pastoral activities. These case study examples suggest that human activities would have produced a fairly xeric environment.

Abstract: Three examples of plant landscape shaping, carried out by Iron Age populations living in different geographical areas, are presented. The examples differ in population type (Garamantes, Etruscans, and Romans), archaeological context (settlement, necropolis, furnace, port), and area of plant exploitation (respectively, Fezzan � Libyan Sahara and Tuscany, Latium � central Italy). The leitmotiv of the three parallel investigations highlighted that humans induced clear changes in plant cover modifying the quantitative ratio among native elements and spreading the plants of economic interest even outside of their natural habitats. Micro- and macroremain analyses once more enhanced that landscape reconstruction depends on both wild and cultivated plants, and that the cultural plant landscape is composed of a complex mixture of indigenous and exotic elements. Archaeobotany results in great help in reviewing ancient prejudices, rewriting history in a modern ecological view, also discovering a different role in the landscape evolution of past civilizations. In this light, the Garamantes deeply transformed the oases in agrarian producer sites, and the Etruscans, in the area of the Gulf of Follonica, modified the previous forest vegetation, probably enhancing the xeric features. The Romans, believed as the main creators of the environmental changes in the Mediterranean basin, surprisingly did not produce consistent plant changes in the area of the Tiber delta, in the surroundings of the imperial port of Rome, during the first century AD.

Abstract: Central Sahara rock shelters offer an early and middle Holocene environmental reconstruction. This paper summarises palynological research carried out within a multidisciplinary archaeological research project on the Wadi Teshuinat area (Tadrart Acacus Mts., in south-western Fezzan, Libya). The sites were occupied by hunter-gatherer and pastoralist cultures. On-site pollen data, treated as a single �regional site�, showed that different pollen stratigraphies and flora characterised the past phases. Plant macro-remains also helped to understand local plant exploitation and landscape evolution. Pollen spectra showed the following climate oscillations: wet and cool (approx. 8800�8250 cal. BC), dry and warm (approx. 7920�7520 cal. BC), wet (approx. 7550�7200 cal. BC), dry (approx. 6340�6210 cal. BC�geoarchaeological evidence), wet and warm (approx. 6250�4300 cal. BC, including a wetter and warmer phase at approx. 5500�4600 cal. BC); dry and warm (approx. 4250�2900 cal. BC); drier and warm (approx. 2900�1600 cal. BC, up to the present). Since the early Holocene, both climatic and anthropic factors have played an important and strictly interconnected role in transforming the environment. Thus, while subsistence strategies were adjusting to climatic and environmental changes, the plant landscape was also being slowly and continuously shaped by humans.

Abstract: Pollen analyses of 13 archaeological sites in the Wadi Teshuinat area, in southwestern Fezzan, Libya, were synthesised to explore the potential contribution of palynological investigation to archaeological research in this area. During the Holocene, the sites were occupied by pre-Pastoral (hunter�gatherers) and Pastoral (pastoralists) cultures. Different pollen stratigraphies and floras characterised the diverse sites and the relevant cultural phases. Pollen data were reported by discussing the sites separately, and by combining them to interpret the regional data set. Emphasis was made on the anthropogenic pollen indicators and grasses, including large grass pollen grains (>40 μm), which were considered evidence of plant transport into the site. These were ethnobotanical markers, human-made evidence of plant harvesting by hunter�gatherers, or of animal breeding by pastoralists. The disappearance of some wild cereals was also observed, consistent with increasing climate dryness and land exploitation. Macroremains were used as a parallel tool to better understand plant exploitation in the region.

Abstract: Background: Approximately two hundred human burials were discovered on the edge of a paleolake in Niger that provide a uniquely preserved record of human occupation in the Sahara during the Holocene (,8000 B.C.E. to the present). Called Gobero, this suite of closely spaced sites chronicles the rapid pace of biosocial change in the southern Sahara in response to severe climatic fluctuation. Methodology/Principal Findings: Two main occupational phases are identified that correspond with humid intervals in the early and mid-Holocene, based on 78 direct AMS radiocarbon dates on human remains, fauna and artifacts, as well as 9 OSL dates on paleodune sand. The older occupants have craniofacial dimensions that demonstrate similarities with mid- Holocene occupants of the southern Sahara and Late Pleistocene to early Holocene inhabitants of the Maghreb. Their hyperflexed burials compose the earliest cemetery in the Sahara dating to ,7500 B.C.E. These early occupants abandon the area under arid conditions and, when humid conditions return ,4600 B.C.E., are replaced by a more gracile people with elaborated grave goods including animal bone and ivory ornaments. Conclusions/Significance: The principal significance of Gobero lies in its extraordinary human, faunal, and archaeological record, from which we conclude the following: (1) The early Holocene occupants at Gobero (7700�6200 B.C.E.) were largely sedentary hunter-fisher-gatherers with lakeside funerary sites that include the earliest recorded cemetery in the Sahara. (2) Principal components analysis of craniometric variables closely allies the early Holocene occupants at Gobero with a skeletally robust, trans-Saharan assemblage of Late Pleistocene to mid-Holocene human populations from the Maghreb and southern Sahara. (3) Gobero was abandoned during a period of severe aridification possibly as long as one millennium (6200�5200 B.C.E). (4) More gracile humans arrived in the mid-Holocene (5200�2500 B.C.E.) employing a diversified subsistence economy based on clams, fish, and savanna vertebrates as well as some cattle husbandry. (5) Population replacement after a harsh arid hiatus is the most likely explanation for the occupational sequence at Gobero. (6) We are just beginning to understand the anatomical and cultural diversity that existed within the Sahara during the Holocene.

Abstract: The paper presents a synthesis of the on-site archaeobotanical investigations of the Terramara di Montale, one of the most important sites of the Terramara cultural system which characterised the Po Plain in the Middle-Late Bronze Age (1650�1200 b.c.). Samples for pollen analysis and macroremains, including seed/fruit and wood/charcoal records, were collected from stratigraphic sequences and occupation levels during the excavations 1996�2001. The results permitted the reconstruction of the main characteristics of the landscape which at the onset of the Terramara rapidly passed from a natural, more forested landscape with mixed oak wood and conifers to a more open and anthropic landscape characterised by cereal fields, pastures and meadows. People felled oaks and other trees such as Populus/Salix and Fraxinus to make piles or walls for houses. Wood from these species was also recorded as charcoal in the hearths. Palynological and carpological data show that the inhabitants of the Terramara largely founded their economy on cereals (mainly Triticum aestivum/durum, T. dicoccum and Hordeum vulgare). They also grew a few legumes (Vicia faba var. minor, Vicia sp. and Lens culinaris). There was also grazing by domestic animals, mainly ovicaprines but also pigs and cattle, and these were fed exploiting wild plants such as Carpinus. In the paper the four main steps of the history of the Terramara are described (before the Terramara, the onset, the Terramara phase, the decline) during which both human influence and climatic changes were important. At the onset of the Terramara (around 1600 b.c.) a warm and possibly dry phase occurred. The intense use of the territory and a climatic deterioration at around 1300 b.c. might have triggered the decline of the Terramara di Montale.

Abstract: The cores of Albano and Nemi lakes, near Rome, were studied within the EC funded PALICLAS project and provided high resolution records of Lateglacial and Holocene. Pollen evidence of increasing human influence on vegetation was recorded in the Holocene of both diagrams, and the curve of Cannabis was one of its main signs. In this paper we present the most ancient unambiguous pollen evidence of the cultivation of hemp in Central Italy in the framework of the Hemp Family. The oldest records of Cannabis and Humulus dated to the Lateglacial. Hop pollen rose during the Middle Holocene, while hemp pollen became more abundant later (PAZ IIId, in both the diagrams from 3000 cal B.P.). The highest and earliest peak of hemp (21%) dated to the I cent. A.D. This �Cannabis-phase�, i.e. the abrupt rise of hemp pollen closely following the rise of cultivated trees (Castanea, Juglans and Olea) was associated with the increase in cereals and ruderal plants. This unambiguous prove of cultivation by Romans around 2000 B.P. occurred inside a long lasting pre-Roman presence of hemp in the area, natural and possibly also anthropic. Subsequent clear episodes of cultivation were in the Medieval Ages.

Abstract: A palynological study was carried out on 28 corpses brought in one year (June 2003�May 2004) to the morgue of the Institute of Legal Medicine of Parma (Northern Italy). This preliminary research focuses on the date of death, which was known for all corpses examined. Pollen sampling and analyses were made with the first aim of comparing the pollen grains found on corpses with those diffused in the atmosphere in the region in the same season as the known date of death. Eyebrows, hair-line near the forehead, facial skin and nasal cavities were sampled. Most of the corpses had trapped pollen grains, with the exception of two December corpses. All pollen grains were found with cytoplasm and in a good state of preservation. In this way, a series of reference data was collected for the area where the deaths occurred, and we examined whether pollen grains on corpses could be an index of the season of death. To verify this hypothesis, the pollen analyses were compared with data reported in the airborne pollen calendars of Parma and the region around. Pollen calendars record pollen types and their concentrations in the air, month by month. The quantity of pollen recorded on corpses did not prove to be directly related to the quantity of pollen in the air. But qualitatively, many pollen types which are seasonal markers were found on corpses. Main corpse/air discrepancies were also observed due to the great influence that the local environmental conditions of the death scene have in determining the pollen trapped by a corpse. Qualitative plus quantitative pollen data from corpses appeared helpful in indicating the season of death. A preliminary sketch of a �crime pollen calendar� in a synthetic graphic form was made by grouping the corpse pollen records into three main seasons: A, winter/spring; B, spring/summer; C, summer/autumn. Trends match the general seasonal trend of pollen types in the air.

Abstract: A multidisciplinary research was conducted dealing with the archaeological, archaeozoological and archaeobotanical aspects of the site of Domagnano. The archaeobotanical studies were conducted mainly for the purpose of reconstructing the plant landscape in order to gain an understanding of the relationship between humans and environment. This is a central topic in modern archaeobotanical research, which requires an increasingly integrated approach to the treatment of archaeological and botanical information from an ecological perspective.

Abstract: The reconstruction of ancient landscapes is undergoing in these last years a particularly fruitful season of study. The archaeological site of Jure Vetere was excavated in the years 2002-2005 and was studied with a multidisciplinary approach, using a wide range of methods and techniques, some specifically archaeological (excavations and surveys), others belonging to Geoarchaeology and to Environmental Archaeology. As regards this last subject, this is an important source of information to reconstruct the archaeoenvironment of the area regards research of ecofacts coming from the archaeological stratification of the religious building, conducted by the analysis of the botanical finds, including charcoals and seeds/fruits, microscopical charcoals and pollen. In this paper, we show data from pollen and GIS analyses aiming at the archaeoenvironmental reconstruction and to understand the ways in which the territory was exploited at the time of the monastic settlement, which include the last years of the 12th century and early decades of the 13th century. These are the two historical periods (Periods I and II) related to the medieval phase, as it results from the stratigraphic analysis of Architecture Unit A. The building phases of this Unit A were two: the Constructive Unit 1 (CU 1) and the Constructive Unit 2 (CU 2).

Abstract: Plants have always had fundamental value for human life, but the customary importance now given to plants per se seems to be out of the zeitgeist of this century, while molecular biology is largely more fashionable than classic botany among life sciences. Plant exploitation, depending on different subsistence strategies and territories, has always been a fundamental aspect of human cultures. From gathering to cultivation, the different forms of plant exploitation have forced wild landscape to develop into cultural landscape, and human behaviour to adapt to changing environments. In recent times, the decline of the agriculture-based culture in many countries has caused the separation of city and countryside, and modern humans are suffering a gradual but continuous loss of perception of the seasonal rhythms, which our ancestors knew were marked by plant life cycles. One major effect of the botanical knowledge crisis is that most people are no longer aware of the relevance of plants in their lives. The disappearance of indigenous plant knowledge among the native people of all continents, i.e. the knowledge of "how to use the forest without destroying it", is considered a huge botanical tragedy that has been ongoing over recent decades, resulting in the loss of long-established history of human wisdom.