Papers by Anna Maria Mercuri
Plant Biosystems - An International Journal Dealing with all Aspects of Plant Biology, 2015
ABSTRACT Archaeo-environmental data were obtained from five small rural sites excavated as part o... more ABSTRACT Archaeo-environmental data were obtained from five small rural sites excavated as part of the Roman Peasant Project in southern Tuscany. Archaeo-botanical and archaeological data point to a moment of intensive land use in the late Republican/ Early Imperial date and to possible use of convertible agriculture strategies. The diversity of pasture-grazing plant species, the presence of coprophilous fungi, parasite eggs and the high values of pasture indicator pollen suggest that lands devoted to browsing animals covered an important part of the territory all around and in the vicinity of sites. The significant presence of cereals, with occasional presence of vines and olives, attests to the importance of grain agriculture in the same spaces. These data may be read as residues of convertible agricultural strategies in which pasture, including cultivated fodder, alternated with legumes and cereals. Read together, the data thus point to a major moment of intensified use and management of the land.
Mediterranean Palynology Societies Symposium 2021, 2021
The interdisciplinary research project of Colombare di Villa started in 2019 from the excavation ... more The interdisciplinary research project of Colombare di Villa started in 2019 from the excavation made by Francesco Zorzi in the 50s, and included palynology to contribute to the palaeoenvironmental and economic reconstruction of people that settled in the N Italy site from late Neolithic to the beginning of early Bronze Age
Archaeobotanical studies on macro-remains and pollen, carried out within a multidisciplinary rese... more Archaeobotanical studies on macro-remains and pollen, carried out within a multidisciplinary research framework, provided information on the past human-environment relationships and on the Holocene landscape evolution of Central Sahara. This has been repetitively obtained by the studies on rockshelters and caves which are widely distributed in this desert region. The site of Takarkori is a large rockshelter with a well preserved stratigraphic series located in the Acacus Mts. (south-western Libya, central Sahara), not far from the Algerian border. It represents an important source of information about the past Saharan environment and the human-plant relationships in that area. The archaeological excavation of this site ( University of Rome \u201cLa Sapienza\u201d, www.acacus.it) were carried out from 2003 to 2006 over a surface of ca. 120 square metres and brought to light occupation layers radiocarbon dated between ca. 4500 and 8600 uncal. years bp. It hosts a 1.6 m thick archaeological deposit including structures, fireplaces and 15 burials of women and childs buried near the shelter wall.During the excavation 85 accumulation of plants (called \u201cspot\u201d) were listed and about 50 of them contain only carpological macroremains and will be useful for investigations on wild cereals. All these carpological spot samples were calculated by weight and volume; a preliminary analysis on the content was done. Spot analysis of the most interesting (for content and/or position in the archaeological site) is in progress and preliminary data are available. In the Centre for Ancient DNA Research of the University of Copenhagen, the extraction of ancient DNA was carried out on records from three spot samples. Many were the initial doubts about the preservation of DNA material so old (two of the spot samples are dated 8000 uncal. years bp; one is dated ca. 6000-5500 uncal. years bp) and stored in dry condition, but the excellent state of preservation (most of spikelets were wholly intact) has yet to find well-preserved DNA (only one sample did not work). Most of DNA sequences agree with the identifications made on the basis of morphological analysis
In the framework of a multidisciplinary research, pollen data from the site of Gobero and its sur... more In the framework of a multidisciplinary research, pollen data from the site of Gobero and its surroundings were helpful to reconstruct some features of the plant landscape of the region at the time of occupation by Pre-Pastoral and Pastoral populations, in early and mid-Holocene phases, respectively. Samples were collected from the burial excavations and the desiccated lakebeds of the area. The latter ones correspond to layers of lacustrine events stratigraphically determined in the Gobero basin. As usual in arid land deposits, most of the samples did not contain pollen, and others had deteriorated pollen and low concentration values. Nevertheless, pollen spectra were obtained from 39 samples. They showed a low biodiversity. Ficus and Ziziphus-type were the most common woody taxa, together with Capparis, Combretum-type, Myrtus and Salvadora persica. Spectra were herb-dominated, with a prevalence of Poaceae, Chenopodiaceae, and Cyperaceae, together with Asteraceae and Plantago. Hygro-hydrophytes such as Typha, Juncus, Nymphaea and Potamogeton evidenced local wet environments. In fact, the landscape was a mosaic of xeric and wet environments, prevalently covered by a savanna or grassland vegetation. The environment was wetter in the early Holocene than in the midddle Holocene. In a few cases, the pollen from some burials suggested that plants could have been collected to transport grasses, myrtle and capers to the site, in order to lay them near the human bodies, showing a possible thousands-year-old behaviour of using plants as grave goods
Archaeological and Anthropological Sciences, 2015
We present the multidisciplinary investigation of pigments and artefacts with traces of colour fr... more We present the multidisciplinary investigation of pigments and artefacts with traces of colour from the Early-Middle Holocene site of Takarkori, located in the Tadrart Acacus Mountains (central Sahara, SW Libya). Here, geological, archaeological, taphonomic and chemical studies (Raman, Fourier-transform infrared, X-ray powder diffraction, gas chromatography-mass spectrometry) are used to examine a vast range of artefacts (raw materials, grinding stones, painted items, as well as lithic, bone, wooden and ceramic tools) equally distributed from Late Acacus contexts related to hunter-gatherers (ca. 8900-7400 uncal years bp) to pastoral groups (ca. 7400-4500 uncal years bp). The exploited minerals (goethite, hematite, kaolinite and jarosite, among others) are locally procured and processed using quartzarenite grinding stones of different shapes and sizes. Thermal treatment of the minerals is also suggested by X-ray powder diffraction (XRD) and Raman studies. Gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS) analyses show the addition of a lipid binder to small lumps of pigments in order to obtain a sticky product. Their fatty acid distribution differs from the residues on grinding stones, pointing to a specific use of these lumps. The grinding stones have also been used to crush and pulverize the pigments and as base for colour preparation. A sample of colour from a fallen painted slab referable to late pastoral phases shows the Electronic supplementary material The online version of this article
Over the last millennia, the land between the Alps and the Mediterranean sea, characterized by ex... more Over the last millennia, the land between the Alps and the Mediterranean sea, characterized by extraordinary habitat diversity, has seen an outstanding cross-cultural development. They cover a large time scale, from the prehistoric through the protohistoric Iron Age, right up to the historical and modern times, and a variety of contexts that make this land one-of-a-kind. For this reason, a huge number of studies on plant records from archaeological contexts are carried out in Italy since the second half of the last century (e.g.: Follieri 1975; Castelletti 1976; Bakels 2002). This data record synthesis (Mercuri et al. submitted) reports for the first time the census of the Holocene archaeological sites that have been studied for archaeobotany in Italy over the last quarter in a century. Sites are typical on-site contexts where samples for botanical analyses were collected during stratigraphical excavation fieldwork. Pollen, seeds and fruits, woods/charcoals and other plant remains w...
Special issue of Annali di Botanica 2013 from the first meeting of the Italian Groups of Palynolo... more Special issue of Annali di Botanica 2013 from the first meeting of the Italian Groups of Palynology, Ecology and Palaeobotany of the Italian Botanical Society (SBI). The starting point of palynology when dealing with ecology is that 'ecosystems are dynamic and have a history' (Willis & Birks, 2006; Birks, 2012). In a thematic review centred on 'cultural landscapes of the past', recently published, Mercuri, et al. (2010) outlined the essential role of botanists in creating a bridge of knowledge between past and present vegetation and human impact dynamics. This is especially obtained by providing a faithful interpretation of the plant cover developed as a consequence of presence or pressure of both past and modern human activities. These concepts match the assumptions of history as 'change with time' and 'ecology as a historical discipline' by Boero (2010). palynology, joint to archaeobotany, is more and more evidencing that human exploitation of wild ...
The contribution presents the archaeobotanical analyses carried out at the archaeological site of... more The contribution presents the archaeobotanical analyses carried out at the archaeological site of Case Nuove (Tuscany, central Italy) dated from the 1st century BC to the 5th century AD. The site was located at the top of a small hill, today surrounded by fields and vineyards. This study is part of the “Roman Peasant Project”, that combines archaeological excavations with geomorphological, archaeobotanical, zooarchaeological and micro-topographical analyses, focussing on the descriptions of the peasantry in the Roman world: their diet; exploitation of local resources; social dynamics and economy. The results are based on integrated analyses of plant macro-remains, pollen, micro-charcoal particles and Non-Pollen Palynomorphs (NPPs) carried out in different contexts (silo, basin, square pit, cistern and dolium). The archaeobotanical record suggests that Case Nuove was a processing site surrounded by producer sites. In the surrounding lands, cultivated fields with cereals were rotated ...
The human selection of food plants cannot always have been aimed exclusively at isolating the tra... more The human selection of food plants cannot always have been aimed exclusively at isolating the traits typical of domesticated species today. Each phase of global change must have obliged plants and humans to cope with and develop innovative adaptive strategies. Hundreds of thousands of wild cereal seeds from the Holocene “green Sahara” tell a story of cultural trajectories and environmental instability revealing that a complex suite of weediness traits were preferred by both hunter-gatherers and pastoralists. The archaeobotanical record of Takarkori rockshelter in SW Libya covering four millennia of human occupation in the central Sahara gives us a unique insight into long-term plant manipulation and cultivation without domestication. The success of a number of millets was rooted in their invasive-
Interdisciplinaria Archaeologica - Natural Sciences in Archaeology, 2018
This backstory article deals with the SUCCESSO-TERRA Project (2017-2020), an interdisciplinary re... more This backstory article deals with the SUCCESSO-TERRA Project (2017-2020), an interdisciplinary research program aiming at reconstructing the land-use transformations that occurred during the development of the Terramare culture in the southern-central Po Plain of Northern Italy. Topics include climate-environment changes, human impact and exploitation of natural resources that are interconnected topics in human ecology and environmental sciences. These topics can only be understood in a long-term perspective integrating archaeology, geology, botany and other sciences. The text includes the theoretical basis, the research strategy and the main methodological approaches given by geoarchaeology and palynology, the two research sides constituting the partnership of the project.
Nature plants, 2018
The human selection of food plants cannot always have been aimed exclusively at isolating the tra... more The human selection of food plants cannot always have been aimed exclusively at isolating the traits typical of domesticated species today. Each phase of global change must have obliged plants and humans to cope with and develop innovative adaptive strategies. Hundreds of thousands of wild cereal seeds from the Holocene 'green Sahara' tell a story of cultural trajectories and environmental instability revealing that a complex suite of weediness traits were preferred by both hunter-gatherers and pastoralists. The archaeobotanical record of the Takarkori rockshelter in southwest Libya covering four millennia of human occupation in the central Sahara gives us a unique insight into long-term plant manipulation and cultivation without domestication. The success of a number of millets was rooted in their invasive-opportunistic behaviour, rewarded during their coexistence with people in Africa. These wild plants were selected for features that were precious in the past but pernicio...
Archaeological and Anthropological Sciences, 2017
Within the framework of the EU Project Culture 2000 ‘Cultural landscapes of the past: recovering ... more Within the framework of the EU Project Culture 2000 ‘Cultural landscapes of the past: recovering crop fields and gardens in archaeological parks of Europe’ (coord. Jordi Tresserras Juan), the ar- chaeobotanical study of the Terramara di Montale was carried out in a specific attempt to reconstruct cereal fields. The archaeological site of the Terramara di Montale is a key place for understanding the civili- zation which developed in the Po Plain during the Middle and Recent Bronze Age (1650 - 1170 B.C.; Bernabò Brea et al. 1997). As a general rule, terra- maras consisted of a fortified village, with rows of houses, surrounded by an embankment and a ditch. Each site had an area of influence, i.e. a territory devoted to the exploitation of subsistence resour- ces, which was more or less extended depending on the size of the settlement, its distance from other existing sites and the chronological phase (Cardarelli 1988). Pollen data suggested that cereal fields covered approximately 75 ...
Pollen data from twenty-six archaeological sites are reviewed to investigate the development of h... more Pollen data from twenty-six archaeological sites are reviewed to investigate the development of human-induced environments through the presence of selected Anthropogenic Pollen indicators (APi). the sites are located in six italian regions - veneto, emilia romagna, tuscany, Basilicata, calabria, and sicily - and in the republic of san Marino. their chronology spans from the Bronze to the renaissance ages, from approximately 4200 to 500 years BP. the APi which are common in these sites are properly considered important markers of human activity and anthropization in the Mediterranean area. the most frequent APi taxa in pollen spectra are seven: Artemisia, Centaurea, cichorieae and Plantago are ubiquitous and therefore they have the major relevance, followed by cereals and Urtica, and by Trifolium type. the spread of plants producing these pollen grains is sometimes marked by high percentage values in pollen spectra. Pollen records show that, as expected, cereals and wild synanthropic...
this paper focuses on the archaeobotanical study of two Roman small farmhouses, san Martino and p... more this paper focuses on the archaeobotanical study of two Roman small farmhouses, san Martino and poggio dell’amore, located near cinigiano, in the province of grosseto-tuscany. the sites were probably occupied during seasonal agricultural works, a peculiar typology of site that has not been usually identified in Roman sites of central italy. the integrated analyses of pollen, non pollen palynomorphs, charcoal particles and seeds/fruits help to obtain interesting details on the site function, land use and palaeoenvironment of these archaeological contexts. the archaeobotanical reconstruction shows that the landscape was fairly treeless. pastures surrounded the small buildings while cereal fields were probably less extended or further away than legume fields cultivated to forage. shrubs and some fruit trees might mark boundaries of fields, while the woods, including oak woods, were distributed far from the sites. anthropogenic pollen indicators, spores of coprophilous fungi and parasit...
Plant biology (Stuttgart, Germany), 2013
Woody plant performance in a changing global environment has always been at the centre of palaeoe... more Woody plant performance in a changing global environment has always been at the centre of palaeoenvironmental and long-term climate reconstructions carried out by means of pollen analysis. In Mediterranean regions, Taxus constitutes the highest percentage in past pollen diagrams from cold or cool periods, and therefore it is generally considered a good index to infer climate features from past records. However, a comparison of these inferences with the true current trends in pollen production has not been attemped until now. This study reports the decline of airborne pollen of Taxus observed in Emilia Romagna, a region of northern Italy, during the period 1990-2007. Phenological observations on four male specimens and microscopic examination of fresh pollen were made in order to check Taxus flowering time and pollen morphology. Airborne pollen was monitored through continuous sampling with a Hirst volumetric sampler. In the 18-year long period of investigation, Taxus pollen producti...
Landscape Ecology, 2014
ABSTRACT The file provides some pages of the paper. Cultural landscapes are priority research the... more ABSTRACT The file provides some pages of the paper. Cultural landscapes are priority research themes addressed in many fields of knowledge. Botanists can explore the ecological, formal and cognitive level of cultural landscapes with different approaches. Palynologists study both palaeoenvironmental (off-site) and archaeological (on-site) records and are, therefore, in a privileged corner to observe the origin and history of present landscapes, what is their true nature and vocation, what must be preserved or transformed for the future. The study of an archaeological site shows short space–time events and the behaviour of a few people. In order, though, to attain a regional and cross-area cultural landscape reconstruction, many sites must be studied as part of a regional multi-point site and with an interdisciplinary approach. The likelihood to observe human-induced environments in pollen diagrams depends on the nature and productivity of human-related plant species. In the Mediterranean area, many Palaeolithic, Mesolithic and Neolithic sites point to the long-term action on the environment. However, the pollen signal of pre-Holocene and early Holocene human impact is ambiguous or weak. The effects of culture became evident, and possibly irreversible, as a consequence of human permanence in a certain land. In the Bronze age, the establishment of human-induced environments was evident from the combination of decrease of forest cover and increase of cereal and synanthropic pollen types in pollen records.
Quaternary Science Reviews, 2014
ABSTRACT Rock shelters in the central Saharan massifs preserve anthropogenic stratigraphic sequen... more ABSTRACT Rock shelters in the central Saharan massifs preserve anthropogenic stratigraphic sequences that represent both a precious archive for the prehistory of the region and a powerful proxy data for Holocene palaeoenvironments. The geoarchaeological (micromorphology) and archaeobotanical (pollen analysis) approaches were integrated to investigate the anthropogenic sedimentary sequence preserved within the Takarkori rock shelter, a Holocene archaeological site located in the Libyan central Sahara (southern Tadrart Acacus massif). The site was occupied throughout the Early and Middle Holocene (African Humid Period) by groups of hunter–gatherers before and by pastoral communities later. The investigation on the inner part of the sequence allows to recognize the anthropogenic contribution to sedimentation process, and to reconstruct the major changes in the Holocene climate. At the bottom of the stratigraphic sequence, evidence for the earliest frequentation of the site by hunters and gatherers has been recognized; it is dated to c. 10,170 cal yr BP and is characterized by high availability of water, freshwater habitats and sparsely wooded savannah vegetation. A second Early Holocene occupation ended at c. 8180 cal yr BP; this phase is marked by increased aridity: sediments progressively richer in organics, testifying to a more intense occupation of the site, and pollen spectra indicating a decrease of grassland and the spreading of cattails, which followed a general lowering of lake level or widening of shallow-water marginal habitats near the site. After this period, a new occupational phase is dated between c. 8180 and 5610 cal yr BP; this period saw the beginning of the frequentation of pastoral groups and is marked by an important change in the forming processes of the sequence. Sediments and pollen spectra confirm a new increase in water availability, which led to a change in the landscape surrounding the Takarkori rock shelter with the spreading of water bodies. The upper part of the sequence, dating between c. 5700 and 4650 cal yr BP records a significant environmental instability towards dryer climatic conditions, consistent with the end of the African Humid Period. Though some freshwater habitats were still present, increasing aridity pushed the expansion of the dry savannah. The final transition to arid conditions is indicated by the preservation of ovicaprines dung layers at the top of the sequence together with sandstone blocks collapsed from the shelter's vault. On the contrary, the outer part of the sequence preserves a significantly different palaeoenvironmental signal; in fact, the surface was exposed to rainfall and a complex pedogenetic evolution of the sequence occurred, encompassing the formation of an argillic laminar horizon at the topsoil, the evolution of a desert pavement, and the deposition of Mn-rich rock varnish on stones. These processes are an effect of the general environmental instability that occurred in the central Sahara since the Middle Holocene transition. Finally, the local palaeoclimatic significance of the sequence fits well with Holocene regional and continental environmental changes recorded by many palaeohydrological records from North Africa. This highlights the potential of geoarchaeological and archaeobotanical investigations in interpreting the palaeoenvironmental significance of anthropogenic cave sediments in arid lands.
Indagini archeopalinologiche in Sicilia a Taormina, Piazza Armerina e Mozi
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Papers by Anna Maria Mercuri
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