Grapes and vines of the Phoenicians: morphometric analyses of pips from modern varieties and Iron Age archaeological sites in the Western Mediterranean

The present study aims to contribute to the investigation of the role of Phoenicians in the spreading and trade of the grapevine through the morphometric analysis of grape pips. Waterlogged and charred samples were selected from three Iron Age sites in the Western Mediterranean: Motya (Sicily, Italy), Nuraghe S’Urachi (Sardinia, Italy) and Huelva (Andalusia, Spain). While only Motya is a Phoenician foundation, all three were nevertheless associated with Phoenician expansion and cultural interaction. Ten cultivars from the “Vivaio Federico Paulsen” in Marsala (western Sicily) were chosen as modern reference material. The key challenge was the comparison of archaeological pips preserved through different fossilization processes, which was overcome using two reference datasets of the same modern cultivars, one uncharred and one charred. Statistical analyses of pip outlines show that archaeological remains from these sites is morphologically comparable to that of modern varieties, suggesting that the archaeological finds represent domesticated grapevines. PCA analyses allowed an inter-site comparison, showing that samples from the three sites are clearly distinguishable based on their morphology. This indicates the use of different varieties which may be due to different factors. Our analysis represents a first step towards a better understanding of diachronic and synchronic relationship between vines grown in the ancient West Mediterranean, which could be expanded by analysing grape pips from more contexts and more sites, compared against a wider selection of modern cultivars.