LAND USE FROM SEASONAL ARCHAEOLOGICAL SITES: THE ARCHAEOBOTANICAL EVIDENCE OF SMALL ROMAN FARMHOUSES IN CINIGIANO, SOUTH-EASTERN TUSCANY - CENTRAL ITALY

Abstract

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 parasite eggs point to the presence of excrements in the sites suggesting that the small buildings were used as small barns for domestic animals, or a temporary shed.