The Representativeness of Olea Pollen from Olive Groves and the Late Holocene Landscape Reconstruction in Central Mediterranean

Frontiers in Digital Humanities

Messora, Rita¹  Mercuri, Anna Maria¹  Rattighieri, Eleonora¹  Arru, Laura²  Florenzano, Assunta²  Fornaciari, Rita²  Rinaldi, Rossella² 

[1] di Modena e Reggio Emilia, Italy;Laboratorio di Palinologia e Paleobotanica, Dipartimento di Scienze della Vita, UniversitàPlant Physiology Lab, Dipartimento di Scienze della Vita, Università

关键词: Olea europaea L.;    Pollen;    Surface soil;    Archaeological site;    Basilicata;    Tuscany;    Roman landscape;   

DOI  :  10.3389/feart.2017.00085

学科分类：社会科学、人文和艺术（综合）

来源: Frontiers

【 摘 要 】

Modern pollen spectra are an invaluable reference tool for paleoenvironmental and cultural landscape reconstructions, but the importance of knowing the pollen rain released from orchards remains underexplored. In particular, the role of cultivated trees is in past and current agrarian landscapes has not been fully investigated. Here, we present a pollen analysis of 70 surface soil samples taken from 12 olive groves in Basilicata and Tuscany, two regions of Italy that exemplify this cultivation in the Mediterranean basin. This study was carried out to assess the representativeness of Olea pollen in modern cultivations. Although many variables can influence the amount of pollen observed in soils, it was clear that most of the pollen was deposited below the trees in the olive groves. A rapid decline in the olive pollen percentages (c. 85% on average) was found when comparing samples taken from IN vs. OUT of each grove. The mean percentages of Olea pollen obtained from the archaeological sites close to the studied orchards suggest that olive groves were established far from the Roman farmhouses of Tuscany. Further south, in the core of the Mediterranean basin, the cultivation of Olea trees was likely situated approximately 500–1000 m from the rural sites in Basilicata, and dated from the Hellenistic to the Medieval period.

【 授权许可】

CC BY