Uno sguardo al passato della Sapienza. Il paesaggio della città universitaria in età repubblicana e imperiale

The cultural landscape of the Sapienza campus area was reconstructed using archaeopalynology, the study of pollen in soil from archaeological sites. The experimental work concerns the study of the past pollen rain preserved in the drainage system of the Roman Age site of via de Lollis (Rome). The excavation was carried out by Università “La Sapienza” and Soprintendenza Speciale Archeologia, Belle Arti e Paesaggio di Roma. Despite the well-known difficulty of pollen preservation in archaeological soils, it was possible to characterize the landscape of the site in Republican and Imperial ages, acquiring elements on culture and lifestyle. The area of Sapienza campus was covered by natural arboreal elements typical of deciduous and evergreen vegetation (mainly oaks), ornamental/cultic arboreal elements like fir and beech, and synanthropic plants such as cultivated trees (walnut and chestnut), herbs (cabbages, cereals and legumes), weeds and ruderal plants.