Persistence of the cultural landscape in Campania (Southern Italy

Journal of Archaeological Science 39 (2012) 399e406
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Journal of Archaeological Science
journal homepage: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/jas
Persistence of the cultural landscape in Campania (Southern Italy) before the
AD 472 Vesuvius eruption: archaeoenvironmental data
E. Allevato a, *, M. Buonincontri a, M. Vairo a, A. Pecci b, M.A. Cau b, c, M. Yoneda d, G.F. De Simone e,
M. Aoyagi f, C. Angelelli g, S. Matsuyama f, K. Takeuchi h, G. Di Pasquale a
a
Centro Museale “Musei delle Scienze Agrarie” e MUSA, Università di Napoli Federico II, via Università, 100 80055 Portici, Italy
Equip de Recerca Arqueològica i Arqueomètrica, Universitat de Barcelona (ERAAUB), Spain
Institució Catalana de Recerca i Estudis Avançats (ICREA), Universitat de Barcelona, Spain
d
Laboratory of Human Evolution System, Department of Integrated Biosciences, Graduate School of Frontier Sciences, The University of Tokyo, Japan
e
St. John’s College, University of Oxford, Oxford OX1 3JP, UK
f
Graduate School of Humanities and Sociology, Faculty of Letters, The University of Tokyo, Japan
g
“Sapienza” Università degli Studi di Roma, Dipartimento di Storia dell’Arte, Italy
h
Laboratory of Landscape Ecology and Planning, Department of Ecosystem Studies, Graduate School of Agriculture and Life Sciences, The University of Tokyo, Japan
b
c
a r t i c l e i n f o
a b s t r a c t
Article history:
Received 18 May 2011
Received in revised form
10 September 2011
Accepted 23 September 2011
Cultural landscapes were prominent during the Early Roman period when agronomic knowledge allowed
the spread of intensive land exploitation in most of the available land. The aim of this contribution is to
explore whether for the Campania region (Southern Italy) archaeoenvironmental data would support
continuity or change in the cultural landscape of Roman tradition in the 4th and 5th centuries. To do so,
new data from two sites located on the northern slopes of the Vesuvius, both buried by the AD 472
eruption have been investigated. Charcoal analysis, 14C dating, and chemical analysis of organic residues
were carried out in order to study the landscape and the food production at these sites. The results
suggest the persistence of the Roman cultural landscape until the 4th and 5th centuries in this area. The
landscape is in fact strongly marked both in agriculture and woodland exploitation and management,
being characterized by managed chestnut forests as well as valuable cultivations of walnut, large vineyards, olive groves, and probably orchards and crops. The integrated approach with archaeobotanical and
archaeometric analyses proves to be a powerful method for the study of the past landscapes, providing
a good insight into the environment. Furthermore, this study provided the most ancient evidence of
chestnut silviculture for wood.
Ó 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
Keywords:
Charcoal analysis
Residue analysis
AMS radiocarbon dating
Wine
5th century
Timber
1. Introduction
A cultural landscape is a landscape designed and intentionally
created by man where mankind’s activities affected both natural
processes and primeval vegetation patterns (Berglund, 1991). Such
landscapes became particularly prominent during the Roman
period, when technological advancement and agronomic knowledge increased the exploitation of most available land.
In Late Antiquity, among other aspects, economy and settlement
patterns underwent a series of different transformations in many
Italians regions (Francovich and Hodges, 2003). In Apulia, Lucania,
and Sicily, the number of settlements increased and several villas
were restored and enlarged between the 4th and the 6th c. AD
* Corresponding author. Tel.: þ39 081 25 39 237.
E-mail address: [email protected] (E. Allevato).
0305-4403/$ e see front matter Ó 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
doi:10.1016/j.jas.2011.09.026
(Brogiolo and Chavarría, 2005). In Campania region pottery findings
provide evidence of an active economic system (Arthur, 1985;
Arthur and Patterson, 1994; Savino, 2005) and, in the Vesuvius
region, of a sudden population rise in the 4th and 5th c. AD (Pagano,
1995). In northern Italy, northern Tuscany, and along the Tyrrhenian coast, since the 3rd c. AD, villas and farms were either
abandoned or underwent several structural declines, although
some of them were later partially recovered. The demise of large
villas was often interpreted as related to land abandonment;
nevertheless, as stated by Christie (2004), there is no reason to
believe this. Archaeoenvironmental studies can be a powerful
method in drawing out the rural landscape dynamics, but the few
studies carried out with this methodological approach, did not
attempt any diachronic analysis. In Southern Italy, archaeobotanical
data from San Giovanni di Ruoti in Lucania, revealed a broad range
of agrarian activities in the 5th c. AD (Monckton, 2002). Between
400
E. Allevato et al. / Journal of Archaeological Science 39 (2012) 399e406
the 4th and the 6th centuries AD, the site Mola di Monte Gelato in
the region of Rome had a rural landscape similar to that characterising the Early Imperial period (Giorgi, 1997). In the same region
for the 5th c. AD, in the site La Fontanaccia (North of Rome), the
recovered carporemains were considered as evidence of an agricultural regression (Sadori and Susanna, 2005). Finally, in Maremma (southern Tuscany - northern Latium), in the villa of
Settefinestre (Orbetello, southern Tuscany), the study of the
botanical remains showed a return to wild vegetation in 3rd and
4th centuries AD (Jones and Sheldon, 1985).
The aim of this contribution was to explore whether archaeoenvironmental data would support stability of the Roman cultural
landscape in the 4th and 5th centuries in Campania region. For this
reason, both charcoal analysis with extensive 14C dating and
chemical analysis of food production residues were carried out at
two sites located on the northern slopes of Vesuvius (Fig. 1).
2. The sites
The two sites under investigation do represent good examples of
still functioning Roman villae, with different transformations until
the 5th c. AD.
Both archaeological sites are situated on the edge of the Vesuvius National Park, on the north-western foothills of the SommaVesuvius volcano (Fig. 1).
The area is characterised by a Mediterranean climate, with mild
rainy winters and relatively arid warm summers. The present
vegetation on the slopes of Mt. Somma is characterised by a mixed
mesophilous forest and abandoned chestnut (Castanea sativa Mill.)
coppices. Quercus ilex L. is present on the steeper inland slopes with
thinner soils.
2.1. Site A: the so-called Villa of Augustus at Somma Vesuviana
In 2002, a JapaneseeItalian multidisciplinary team led by the
University of Tokyo begun the excavation of the so-called Villa of
Augustus at Somma Vesuviana (Site A, 40 520 33.1000 N
14 250 26.5200 E, elev. 133 m). The site was discovered in 1932, when
only a small test trench was carried out and the architectural
remains were interpreted as part of the villa where the Emperor
Caesar Octavianus Augustus died in AD 14. The new evidence rather
suggests that the building belongs to a later phase, from the 2nd c.
AD with later additions (Aoyagi et al., 2010), until the partial burial
of the structures by the AD 472 Vesuvius eruption (Kaneko et al.,
2005; Perrotta et al., 2006). At the end of 4th c. to beginning of
5th c. AD part of the villa begun to be used for the transformation of
agricultural products. Around AD 450 an intensive spoliation begun
(Aoyagi et al., 2005, 2010). The collapsed walls of the villa were
largely re-compacted and showed large trampling evidence, thus
indicating a voluntary reuse and continue frequentation of the site
until the eruption in AD 472.
2.2. Site B: Pollena Trocchia, Masseria De Carolis
The second site lies in Pollena Trocchia, at Masseria De Carolis
(Site B, 40 520 00.2000 N 14 220 33.6300 E, elev. 93 m, roughly 4 km far
from site A).
The site was discovered in 1988 and in 2004, in the framework
of the Apolline Project (De Simone et al., 2009), “Suor Orsola
Benincasa” University in Naples started a new extensive excavation
of the site.
The site consists of a bath complex, probably part of a residential
villa, set in the 2nd c. AD on the ashes of the Pompeian eruption of
79 AD. Most of the anthropic contexts are dated between AD 350 ca.
and AD 472. At that time, the bath complex was no more in use, part
of the structures were spoliated, and three infants were buried. In
AD 472 the eruption buried two thirds of the site. The remaining
structures were later used for a subsequent occupation, until the
whole area was definitively buried in AD 505/512 by a new
eruption.
3. Materials and methods
3.1. Charcoal analyses
Sediment samples, ranging from 5 to 10 kg according to the size
of the archaeological layers (herein- Stratigraphic Units- SU), were
collected from 22 to 6 SU in sites A and B respectively. Sediments
were then sieved by water with 4.0 and 2.0 mm sieves. Charcoal
fragments, sorted in the fraction over 4.0 mm, were identified
(50e350 for each SU), by an incident light microscope working
between 100 and 1000 magnification referring both to wood
atlases (Greguss, 1955, 1959; Schweingruber, 1990) and to the
reference collection of the Centro Museale “Musei delle Scienze
Agrarie” e MUSA, Università di Napoli Federico II. A total of 2848
charcoal fragments were analysed (1821 and 1027 from site A and B
respectively). The percentages of each taxon on total fragments
were calculated for each SU.
Fig. 1. Archaeological sites in Campania region cited in the text.
E. Allevato et al. / Journal of Archaeological Science 39 (2012) 399e406
3.2. Accelerator mass spectrometry (AMS) radiocarbon dating
The contexts were dated through the analysis of pottery and
other artefacts. Fifteen charcoal samples from site A were dated by
AMS dating. In particular, eleven of these fifteen datings were
aimed at better clarifying the use of chestnut (Di Pasquale et al.,
2010). Whereas, other four charcoals of Olea europaea, Juglans
regia, Quercus deciduous type, and Abies alba, were dated to assess
the presence of these other species in the landscape.
The datings were carried out by AMS at the Center for Isotopic
Research on Cultural and Environmental Heritage, INNOVA CIRCE,
Seconda Università di Napoli (Marzaioli et al., 2008; Terrasi et al., 2008)
and at the Laboratory of Human Evolution System/Human Evolution
and Bone Chemistry, University of Tokyo (Yoneda et al., 2004).
The radiocarbon dates were calibrated using OxCal 3.10 calibration program (Bronk Ramsey, 2005) considering the Reimer
et al. (2004) calibration curve.
3.3. Analysis of the organic residues in the vats and dolia
In site A, three vats were discovered in 2006 (Fig. 2). The West
(vat W) and East (vat E) vats are shallow and large, while the North
vat (vat N) is deep and narrow. The East (vat E) and North (vat N)
vats are connected to each other by a channel, which suggests that
some liquid moved from the shallow and large East vat to the deep
and narrow North one. There is no evidence of a connection
between these two vats and vat W.
In 2008e9 the excavation of a lower terrace unearthed seventeen
dolia. Along the wall of the terrace, a narrow channel allowed the
liquid contained in the vats to flow into the dolia. The system of vats
and dolia was dated on the basis of ceramic evidence to the second
half of the 4th c. AD. The comparison with other archaeological sites
401
suggests that this site was used for wine production. In order to
verify this hypothesis samples have been taken from the vats, the
channel, and one dolium to perform organic residue analysis.
Five samples were taken from the plastered coating of the vats:
two from the vat E (samples E1 and E4), two from the vat N
(samples N5 and N6) and one from the vat W (sample W7) (Fig. 2).
One sample was taken from the channel (sample C1), and two
samples from the coating (sample D1) and the ceramic matrix
(sample D2) of one of the dolia.
All samples were grounded and analysed, following Mottram
et al. (1999), to obtain the total lipid extract. For the identification
of wine, a new extraction method with KOH and ethylacetate was
used (Pecci et al., submitted). All the extracts were derivatized
adding 25 ml of N,O-bis (trimethylsilyl) trifluoroacetamide (BSTFA,
SigmaeAldrich) and heating them at 70 C for 1 h. Gas chromatographyemass spectrometry was performed by a gas chromatograph CP3800 (Varian, Walnut Crick, CA, USA), equipped with
a 30 m 0.25 mm (i.d.) 0.25 mm film thickness fused silica
capillary column, and a mass spectrometer Saturn 2000 (Varian,
Walnut Crick, CA, USA), operated in the electron ionization mode
(70 eV) in a mass range m/z 40e650.
4. Results
4.1. Charcoal and wood analysis
The analysis of the charcoal provided the identification of 24
taxa (Table 1); 11 are common to both sites.
C. sativa represents the most abundant taxon: chestnut wood is
the most attested in all SU of site A, and it is often the only wood
used as construction material. This wood was largely employed for
architectural structures and probably as firewood.
Fig. 2. Plane of the site A: sampling for the organic residues analyses in vats and dolium.
402
E. Allevato et al. / Journal of Archaeological Science 39 (2012) 399e406
Table 1
Result of charcoal analysis at site A and site B. At the head of table, main features and archaeological dating of the contexts (SU).
Among the other trees used as construction material in site A,
there are Abies alba, Pinus pinea, and Fraxinus ornus, found in small
quantities in one roof (SU 220), while Quercus deciduous was
employed to replace a marble threshold (T 6/7).
In site B, together with chestnut as structural timber in a roof,
Quercus deciduous was used (SU 108). In this site there is also a high
percentage of Arundo, which was probably used for the creation of
a false-ceiling (incannucciata).
Corylus avellana, Ulmus, Ostrya carpinifolia, Ostrya/Carpinus and
Populus are also present in both sites, together with chestnut, ash,
and deciduous oak, representing typical elements of the mixed
deciduous forest.
The presence in site A of typical mountain vegetation trees, like
A. alba, Fagus sylvatica, and Acer pseudoplatanus/platanoides, is quite
remarkable.
On the other hand, the Mediterranean evergreen vegetation is
scarcely represented: Quercus evergreen type is attested in the mud
flow associated with the AD 472 eruption and in a waste dump of
site A; while the taxon Phillyrea/Rhamnus was discovered in two
fireplaces at site B, both the plants are maquis shrubs.
The most abundantly cultivated tree is O. europaea, which is
attested in both sites (up to 60% in site A and up to 27% in site B),
J. regia and Pinus pinea are scarce. Vitis vinifera up to 20% and a small
amount of Ficus carica were found only in site B. Moreover, several
types of Rosaceae and a coniferous were also identified, but for
them it was not possible to reach the genus/species identification
level.
4.2. Dating
The results of the radiocarbon dating are summarized in Table 2.
Both sigma 1 (68,2% probability) and sigma 2 (95.4 probability)
calibration intervals are shown.
Radiocarbon dates of chestnut (S1eS7, S12eS15) range along
a large time interval (Table 2) spanning over the entire lifetime of
the site.
The oldest date (BC 363eBC 3 at 95.4% confidence level)
corresponds to a beam of A. alba (S8) (Table 2). The date of deciduous Quercus threshold (S9) spans between the 1st and the 3rd c.
AD; J. regia (S10) and O. europaea (S11) can be referred to the same
period; both the date intervals are very large (Table 2), but they are
compatible with the archaeological dating of the fireplace from
which the samples were taken.
4.3. Residue analyses
The identification of tartaric acid, which is considered to be the
marker of wine (Guash-Jané et al., 2004; Mc Govern, 2004) in the
pitch coating of the dolium analysed (Fig. 3), allows confirming the
archaeological hypothesis that the installation was actually used for
the production of wine. No traces of wine markers were identified
in the ceramic matrix of the same dolium, which only preserves
traces of the resin/pitch of the coating. This could be due to the
thickness of the coating that stopped the liquid substance to get
into the porous matrix.
E. Allevato et al. / Journal of Archaeological Science 39 (2012) 399e406
403
Table 2
Radiocarbon and calibrated ages of selected charcoals. Radiocarbon dates have been calibrated by using OxCal 3.10 (Bronk Ramsey, 2005) and the Reimer et al. (2004) calibration curve. Samples ID with stars (*) were dated by AMS at the Center for Isotopic Research on Cultural and Environmental Heritage, INNOVA CIRCE, Seconda Università di
Napoli (Marzaioli et al., 2008; Terrasi et al., 2008); samples with plus (þ) at Laboratory of Human Evolution System/Human Evolution and Bone Chemistry, University of Tokyo
(Yoneda et al., 2004).
Sample Id
US
Taxa
Contexts
Lab code
Radiocarbon age
þS1
þS2
*S3
*S4
*S5
*S6
þS7
þS8
þS9
þS10
þS11
þS12
þS13
þS14
þS15
107
107
403
403
402
220
220
220
t6/7
318
318
318
208e317
215
215
Castanea sativa
Castanea sativa
Castanea sativa
Castanea sativa
Castanea sativa
Castanea sativa
Castanea sativa
Abies alba
Quercus deciduous type
Juglans regia
Olea europaea
Castanea sativa
Castanea sativa
Castanea sativa
Castanea sativa
Beams of the roof
Beams of the roof
Collapse of the roof
Collapse of the roof
Wooden structures
Collapse of the roof
Collapse of the roof
Collapse of the roof
Treshold
Fireplace
Fireplace
Fireplace
Trunk next a fireplace
Infiling of a waste dump
Infiling of a Waste dump
YM-Somma6
YM-Somma8
dsh715
dsh718
dsh716
dsh717
YM-Somma2
YM-Somma3
YM-Somma1
YM-Somma12
YM-Somma10
YM-Somma11
YM-Somma9
YM-Somma5
YM-Somma7
1814
1947
1681
1910
1519
1836
2000
2130
1917
1721
1697
1930
1777
1861
1941
In the sample taken from the West vat (W7), tartaric acid is
present together with several acids that are found in modern wine,
such as succinic, malic, acetic, and benzoic acids (Flamini, 2003),
suggesting the storage of wine also in this vat. No traces of any
possible content were identified in the other two vats (North and
East), nor in the channel that connected the vats and the dolia.
Nevertheless, the connection with the dolia containing wine
suggests that they were used for the production of this substance.
Probably grapes were pressed in the East vat and the liquid
produced passed to the North vat to carry out the fermentation
process. Afterwards it was distributed to the dolia.
In samples taken from the western vat, dehydroabietic acid was
identified suggesting the presence of Pinaceae resin. In the
Northern vat, retene and metildehydroabietic acid were also found,
indicating that pitch was obtained directly from the wood (Mills
and White, 1977; Colombini et al., 2005). These substances were
probably used to coat the vats. Columella suggests that barrels, jars,
and other vessels (in which wine has to be stored), should be
treated with pitch forty days before the vintage (De Re Rustica
12.18.5). Than it is possible to suggest that the same lining was
applied to the vats.
Fig. 3. Chromatogram obtained by ethylacetate hydrolysis extract of the dolium
encrustations.
58
55
26
22
40
25
58
58
56
59
56
57
56
56
56
Calibrated age
1 Sigma
2 Sigma
AD 127eAD 316
BC 17eAD 125
AD 341eAD 406
AD 71eAD 124
AD 442eAD 601
AD 134 eAD 214
BC 86eAD 70
BC 347eBC 55
AD 4eAD 200
AD 254eAD 386
AD 259eAD 408
AD 3eAD 130
AD 139eD 335
AD 85eAD 219
AD 3eAD 126
AD 72eAD 377
BC 84eAD 216
AD 259eAD 422
AD 29eAD 132
AD 430eAD 619
AD 90eAD 241
BC 165eAD 124
BC 363eBC 3
BC 39eAD 227
AD 138eAD 428
AD 219eAD 532
BC 45eAD 223
AD 93eAD 396
AD 23eAD 322
BC 51eAD 220
5. Discussion
The charcoal assemblages clearly demonstrate the dominance of
a cultural landscape consisting in a mixture of intensively managed
woodland and cultivated lands, reflecting strong interactions
between man and natural resources.
5.1. Woodlands
In both sites, C. sativa was the main taxon largely used both for
both structures and firewood. Radiocarbon dates from site A indicate that this wood was almost exclusively regularly used for the
entire lifetime of the building.
Two 14C dates from a fireplace (S12 and S13) and two from the
infilling of a rubbish dump (S14 and S15), all archaeologically dated
to the 5th c. AD, were found unexpectedly older than their recovery
contexts (SU 318, SU 208e317 and SU 215). This testified for either
timber reuse as fuel or for contamination of the layers by collapsed
roof structures; thus these samples are not used to assess wood
exploitation for fuel in the 5th c. AD.
However, the latest dating from chestnut structural timber (S5)
testifies that this tree was still present in the landscape, at least
until the 5th c. AD.
C. sativa is traditionally considered coming from Asia Minor and
its diffusion is ascribed to the Romans for fruit production; these
assumptions are regularly quoted in botanical textbooks, such as
several Florae as well as in palaeoethnobotanical and biogeographical treatises (Di Pasquale et al., 2010 and reference therein).
The large time range of obtained 14C dates, together with the
large amount of chestnut charcoal in the assemblages, testifies for
uninterrupted exploitation of a local resource between the 1st BC
and the 5th AD. This evidence suggests the existence of chestnut
forest before the Villa construction, but also unvaried extent of
chestnut wood usage with probable no changes in management.
Furthermore, chestnut timber has been also found in the LongolaPoggiomarino Iron Age site (Fioravanti, pers. com), located on the
South Eastern slope of the Vesuvius, confirming its early presence
in the area before the Roman period.
The big sized timber assortments needed for the beams of the
building led us to hypothesise that chestnut forest was managed as
a high forest for timber production. In fact, if chestnuts are
exploited for wood they cannot be used for fruit production. From
404
E. Allevato et al. / Journal of Archaeological Science 39 (2012) 399e406
a cultural perspective, this evidence suggests that, at least in this
area, the Romans regarded this tree as a wood rather than cultivated for wood, thus disproving the traditional idea on the reason
for its introduction by the Romans (Di Pasquale et al., 2010). This
fact is confirmed by the evidence of use of chestnut as fuel in site B
too. On the whole, these data point out the first clear case of
chestnut silviculture in Western Europe (Di Pasquale et al., 2010).
Other trees of mixed deciduous forest are scarce and limited, in
both sites, to deciduous Quercus, F. ornus, and Corylus avellana
(Table 1). In particular, the percentages of deciduous oak are very
low in site A and hardly reach 25% in site B. This fact can be
considered a further prove of the chestnut forest dominance.
F. sylvatica charcoals were found in site A as main firewood in an
oven for cooking built in the last decades of the 5th c. AD, just
before the eruption buried the site. It is very likely that the firewood
was collected in proximity to the site. The discovery of F. sylvatica
waterlogged branches in the mud flow associated with the AD 472
eruption suggests that probably these trunks and branches were
carried towards the plain from the slopes of the volcano.
Nowadays, beech is absent on the Mt. Vesuvius while it spreads
on the Lattari Mts (20 km from Mt. Vesuvius) above 750 m of
altitude (Fig. 1). Other archaeobotanical data from Vesuvius region
already suggested the presence of beech at lower altitude in the 1st
c. AD (Castelletti, 1984). Furthermore, anthracological data from the
Pompeii area (1st c. AD) proved that beech was the main firewood in
the city (Robyn Veal, pers. comm.), thus suggesting its large availability in the surrounding area. The data provided by this work
strengthen the hypothesis of the presence of beech on the North
slope of Vesuvius until the 5th c. AD.
A. alba wood has been exclusively found in site A; it was identified in small quantities in a collapsed roof, coherently with its
technological properties and with its wide use as construction
timber in Roman Age (Allevato et al., 2009). Fir was also identified
in one of the infilling layers of a storage pit used in the 5th c. AD as
waste dumps. The 14C dating of a fir charcoal coming from the
collapsed roof (S8, Table 2) is older than the building age and could
testify for a reuse of this timber.
In the Roman Period, fir was vastly used for ship construction: in
Campania fir is attested in all the shipwrecks (1ste3rd c. AD)
discovered in Neapolis’ harbour (Allevato et al., 2009, 2010 and
references therein). The extensive analyses of the beams at Herculaneum are revealing a large use of this tree (Moser, pers. com).
On the whole, the wood and charcoal data from this area clearly
suggest a wide presence of fir at least in the Early Roman period in
Central-Southern Italy and brings into question Kuniholm’s idea of
the Alpine provenance of this timber (Kuniholm, 2002).
C. avellana is scarcely attested in the wooden log depot of site B,
while it reaches 30% in one of the waste dumps at site A. Hazelnut
was already cultivated in Roman times (White, 1970 in Zohary and
Hopf, 2000), but in Italy the wild form of this plant is very common
in the mixed deciduous woodland. Due to the weakness of wood
anatomy in distinguishing the wild hazelnut from the cultivated
one, our data cannot be securely interpreted. Archaeobotanical data
from Campania confirm that hazelnut was part of Roman food:
great amount of shells (food leftovers) have been discovered in the
harbour of Neapolis from the 1st c. AD to mid-5th c. AD; similarly,
shells and casts of hazelnut were also discovered in sites buried by
the AD 79 eruption in the Vesuvius surroundings (Jashemski, 1979;
Meyer, 1988).
One last problem deals with the deforestation occurred in
Roman times. Several historians (Delano-Smith, 1979; Braudel,
1987) and ecologists (Quézel and Médail, 2003; Thirgood, 1981)
suggest the hypothesis of a huge impact of humans over the
Mediterranean woods in this period; while Meiggs (1982), and
Grove and Rackham (2001) minimize the implication of wood
exploitation on forest decrease. However, the debate about
deforestation is still open (Hughes, 2010); our data encourage the
idea of a certain stability of the forest cover in Campania
throughout the Roman period and Late Antiquity until the
5th c. AD.
5.2. The cultivated landscape
P. pinea is a forest tree, but in Italy it is part of the cultivated
landscape. It was introduced and widely cultivated for ornamental
purposes (Meiggs, 1982) and for its edible seeds (Kislev, 1988;
Quézel and Médail, 2003) and its cultivation is traditionally
ascribed to the Etruscan civilisation (Quézel and Médail, 2003).
Pinewood remains have been found in a small percentage in
a collapsed roof in site A. This is in agreement with its mechanical
properties. The pinewood is in fact light and elastic, and the trunk
straightness, with few branches in its lower part, are good qualities
for timber use (Nardi Berti, 2006). This wood was also recovered
among the charcoal remains of a fireplace at site A (Table 1) and in
the bath complex in site B (Table 1); consequently, to be used as
fuel, pinewood should have been easily available near the sites.
Stone pine macroremains are commonly attested in the Vesuvius
area in the 1stc. AD (De Fiore, 1916; Meyer, 1988; Ciaraldi, 2000;
Jashemski et al., 2002; Robinson, 2002). Pinecones and scales are
the most frequent fruit in the Neapolis’ harbour sediments (1st c.
BCe 5th c. AD) testifying also its trade and the wide use of this fruit.
Here, the use of pine timber was also documented in three shipwrecks (Allevato et al., 2010).
Olive and walnut were cultivated on the North slope of Mt.
Vesuvius, as clearly attested by the wood remains in several SU
(Table 1). O. europaea is the most abundant tree after the chestnut,
up to 60% in site A (Table 1), where it is frequently associated with
olive stones. Olive charcoals were also found in four out of six SU in
site B, with percentages around the 20%. If the presence of olive
stones exclusively testifies its alimentary use, the abundance of
wood in both sites testifies the olive growing in the area. Furthermore, part of the olive charcoal remains in the site B fireplaces
belong to small branches, and can be interpreted as pruning residues used as fuel.
The selection and cultivation of the olive tree is well documented in the Roman period by several historical sources (i.e. Pliny
the Elder in the 1st c. AD lists several varieties of olives for many
different uses). Olive macroremains (leaves, fruits, and stones) are
frequently attested from the 2nd c. BC (Robinson, 2002) to the 1st c.
AD at Herculaneum, Oplontis, and Pompeii (Meyer, 1988). The use of
pruned olive branch for weaving a fish pot and the presence of
some varieties of olives were recently documented at Pompeii (1st
cent. AD, Di Pasquale et al., in press). Pollen data from the Salerno
gulf (50 km South of Naples), show that massive Olea cultivation
starts in Campania region, only in the Middle Ages (Russo Ermolli
and Di Pasquale, 2002). Furthermore, the arrival of large quantities of oil from northern Africa (Savino, 2005; Arthur, 1985; 1994)
suggests that olive stands were probably little sized and were used
mainly for the production of table olives. The highly fertile Vesuvius
area, due to the volcanic nature of the soils, was mainly used to
cultivate crops with higher incomes.
Archaeobotanical evidence for J. regia generally consists in
macroremains, thus this tree had been commonly considered by
scholars for fruit production (Zohary and Hopf, 2000). In Pompeii
walnut remains are attested also as offerings to the gods and for
medicinal preparation (Meyer, 1988; Ciaraldi, 2000; Robinson,
2002). However, in sites A and B (Table 1) the contemporary
presence of fruit remains (unpublished data) and charcoals
suggests that this tree was cultivated for both food and wood and
that it was present in the landscape in the 5th c. AD.
E. Allevato et al. / Journal of Archaeological Science 39 (2012) 399e406
Walnut is also attested in Herculaneum as timber for furniture
(Mols, 2002) and in Neapolis for naval construction (Allevato et al.,
2009, 2010). Furthermore, pollen data from Pontecagnano (40 km
South of our sites) clearly show that walnut was cultivated since the
3rd c. BC (Amato et al., 2009). Also in this case, the archaeological
and the radiocarbon dates clearly demonstrated the presence of
this tree in the North slope of Vesuvius until mid-5th c. AD.
At site B, several kinds of rosaceae were found, but the
anatomical features of this family are very homogeneous, making
hard to identify them to species level. Then, species belonging to
this group could be ascribed to both the wild landscape and to the
orchards. Some charcoals of F. carica were detected at site B where it
was probably present as scattered trees of the agrarian landscape.
5.3. Vineyards and wine production: chemical and
archaeobotanical data
It is well known that Ancient Rome played an essential role in
the history of wine. In Campania, the major archaeological studies
on wine-making in the Roman period mostly rely on the evidence
coming from the Ager Pompeianus, where several vineyards and
wineries have been unearthed (i.e. Jashemski, 1979; 2002; De Caro,
1994).
Archaeological data from Naples reveal that after the AD 79
eruption, wine production and exports decreased abruptly (Arthur,
1991, 2002). In the 3rd c. AD, the wine produced in Campania was
still exported to the Roman legions in Britannia and to the western
borders of the Empire (Arthur and Williams, 1992). In the 4th c. AD
the wine production in the region was probably enough for local
consumption and to fulfil the payment of taxes in nature to Rome
(annona), while high quality wine was exported to Eastern provinces and, in lower quantities, to Rome (Savino, 2005 and references therein). In general, the Ager Falernus, the Phlegraean Fields,
and the surroundings of Vesuvius were still valuable wine regions
of Campania in the 4th c. AD (Savino, 2005).
The data coming from sites A and B provide new evidence and
shed new light on the vineyard cultivation and wine production in
the Vesuvius area in Late Antiquity. Charcoals of Vitis vinifera were
in fact identified among the firewoods in site B up to 20%, and few
pips were found in both sites, suggesting the cultivation of vitis in
the surrounding area. Moreover, the archaeological evidence in site
A (dolia and vats) shows that wine was produced on an industrial
scale at least until AD 450, as 17 dolia were unearthed until now and
probably many more are still under the debris of the Vesuvius
eruption (Aoyagi et al., 2010). The chemical analyses of the residues
allow confirming that the installation found in site A was devoted to
the production of wine on analytical base. Wine residues were in
fact identified in the sample of the coating of the dolium. Although
no trace of the content were identified in the East and North vats,
these were linked to each other and to the dolia, suggesting their
use for wine production shown by their typical arrangement for
such use. On the other hand, the identification of wine markers in
West vat suggests a similar use, even if any structural connection to
the dolia seems to be lacking.
In general, the large-scale production of wine at site A agrees
with the historical frame and indicates that in the 5th c. AD the
Roman cultural landscape in this area of Campania was not lost yet.
6. Conclusion
The integrated combination of archaeobotanical and archaeometric analyses (radiocarbon dating and chemical analysis of
organic residues) proved to be a powerful approach to create a new
interpretative framework for the study of past landscapes.
405
More than just dates, 14C analyses helped to trace and explain
the use of wood, the chemical analyses of residues confirmed that
wine was produced in site A, and the charcoal analysis provided
a good insight of a marked cultural landscape.
On the whole, the provided data, attest the presence of a stable
chestnut high forest used for wood exploitation and of a remarkable agrarian landscape, characterised by large vineyards, valuable
cultivation of walnut, little sized olive grows for fruit production,
and orchards.
This landscape agrees with what emerges from written sources
suggesting that, in the 4th c. AD, the Campania region was capable
to fulfil the annona with several kinds of foodstuffs (Savino, 2005).
This is also consistent with the archaeological evidence indicating
the presence of an active economic system in the 4th and 5th c. AD
(Arthur, 1985; Arthur and Patterson, 1994; Savino, 2005; Mukai
et al., 2010; Martucci et al. in press).
Acknowledgements
The authors acknowledge the financial support of the “Restoration of cultural and natural environment of the area covered by
volcanic eruptions project” - Tokyo University.
Organic residue analyses were performed at the Centro di
Analisi e Determinazioni Strutturali (CIADS) of the Siena University.
Part of this work was performed in the framework of the project
“Production, trade and consumption of food in Late Antiquity”,
PIEF-GA-2009-235863 funded by the Marie Curie actions and of the
project LRCWMED (HAR200908290/HIST) Spanish Ministerio de
Ciencia e Innovación, Subdirección General de Proyectos de Investigación, with contribution of FEDER funds.
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