Plant remains in an Etruscan-Roman well at Cetamura del Chianti, Italy
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(2020) 12:35
ORIGINAL PAPER
Plant remains in an Etruscan-Roman well at Cetamura del Chianti, Italy M. Mariotti Lippi 1 & M. Mori Secci 1 & G. Giachi 2 & L. Bouby 3 N. T. de Grummond 5
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& J.-F. Terral & E. Castiglioni & M. Cottini & M. Rottoli &
Received: 19 April 2018 / Accepted: 16 October 2019 # Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature 2020
Abstract An abundance of plant remains (pollen, seeds/fruits and wood) and wood artefacts was found during the excavation of an Etruscan-Roman well located at Cetamura del Chianti in Tuscany, Italy, which contained rich cultural and ecofact assemblages in a stratified context. The findings provide evidence for the presence of a mixed oak forest during the time span of the usage of the well. The main decline of deciduous Quercus, possibly due to forest clearance, is recorded during the late Etruscan period (ca. 300–100/50 B.C.). A diffusion of Quercus ilex occurred during the Roman period (from ca. 50 B.C. to 68 A.D.). Food plants are well represented in the well, particularly cereals and grapevine. The morphometric analysis of the grape pips suggests that fully domesticated forms were cultivated, and that wild fruits may have been gathered in the woods or harvested from weakly domesticated individuals. Some botanical finds could possibly be linked to ritual practices, although the state of preservation of the seed/fruit record, the majority waterlogged, does not meet criteria for carbonized remains used for attributing the plant remains to ritual offerings. Keywords Palynology . Wood/charcoal analysis . Carpology . Morphometry . Grapevine domestication
Introduction The excavation of an Etruscan-Roman well (“Well #1”) at Cetamura del Chianti in Tuscany, Italy (Fig. 1), provided Electronic supplementary material The online version of this article (https://doi.org/10.1007/s12520-019-00992-4) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users. * M. Mariotti Lippi [email protected] 1
Dipartimento di Biologia, Università di Firenze, Via G. La Pira, 4, 50121 Florence, Italy
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Museo e Istituto Fiorentino di Preistoria “Paolo Graziosi”, Via Sant’Egidio, 21, 50122 Florence, Italy
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Institut des Sciences de l’Evolution de Montpellier (ISEM) - UMR 5554 CNRS - U Montpellier – IRD – EPHE, Université de Montpellier, Place Eugène Bataillon, CC 065, 34095 cedex 05 Montpellier, France
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Laboratorio di Archeobiologia dei Musei Civici di Como, - Piazza Medaglie d’Oro, 1, 22100 Como, Italy
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Department of Classics, Florida State University, 600 W. College Avenue, Tallahassee, FL 32306, USA
abundant plant micro- and macroremains recovered from a detailed stratigraphy and chronology (see de Grummond 2017; Fig. 2). They include pollen grains, spores, starch grains, wood and charcoals, and seeds/fruits. The presence of an Etruscan sanctuary on Zone II (Fig. 1b) of the same archeological area establishes Cetamura as a sacred site (“The site of Cetamura and the well” section of this article). Regarding the possible origin of the plant re
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