The use of plants by Mediterranean civilizations: an archaeobotanical perspective between the 2nd millennium BC and the 1st millennium BC

This study focuses on the archaeobotanical analysis of plant macro-remains (seeds/fruits and charcoal) from various Mediterranean sites between the 2nd millennium BC and the 1st millennium BC. These sites are of great archaeological significance as they provide valuable interdisciplinary information about ancient civilizations that thrived on the Mediterranean coasts. Archaeobotanical analysis allows the reconstruction of the relationship between humans and nature, starting from the earliest agricultural societies of the Levant during the Bronze Age to the populations that inhabited the coasts of the western Mediterranean. The obtained results contribute to the assessment of the use of plants in the Mediterranean region, taking the first steps in the reconstruction of ancient diets, agricultural practices (which played a crucial role in the development of Levantine civilizations, as demonstrated in the sites of Tell es-Sultan and Khirbet al-Batrawy) and trade routes. Moreover, the results allow to trace the ancient globalization process that involved Mediterranean civilizations starting from the 18th century BCE, facilitating communication between geographically distant and culturally diverse societies, a process that continues today on a much larger scale. One of the aims of this work is to catalogue published and unpublished archaeobotanical data from coastal sites in theMediterranean, obtaining an overview on the entire region.