A perspective on past landscape in Central Italy: new archaeobotanical data from the Bronze Age site of Monte Croce-Guardia (Arcevia, AN)

In Italy a number of palaeoenvironmental studies have revealed the impact of economic activities on the landscape since the Bronze Age: the expansion of cultivation and grazing strongly modified the forest cover with the use of fire as a common agropastoral practice, in addition to climatic oscillations that could have exacerbated the effects of woodland clearance. We present new archaeobotanical data from the Monte Croce-Guardia (Arcevia, AN) settlement dated to the Late Bronze Age. The site, excavated by the Sapienza University of Rome, is located on the Apennine ridge at 670 m a.s.l. and overlooks a wide territory from the mountain slopes to the Adriatic coast. The occupational sequence covers two centuries, from the 12th to the end of the 10th cent. BC. We identified charred wood remains recovered from primary archaeological deposits corresponding to housing and other activity areas located on artificial terraces, covering the entire occupational sequence. We applied a multidisciplinary analytical approach to reconstruct plant exploitation, as well as climatic and environmental conditions in the surrounding of the site during the settlement period. The identified woody taxa provide a deep overview of the plants present in the surrounding of the site and selected by humans for specific uses. Additional results from the stable carbon isotope analysis reveal the past water availability, necessary for plant growing, and inform us about climatic oscillations that occurred at the end of the Bronze Age. This archaeobotanical assemblage represents an outstanding case-study for the reconstruction of past landscape and its changes under human pressure in Central Italy.