Mutina splendidissima: archaeobotanical data reveal the history of a town

Modena, situated on the via Emilia, was founded in 183 BC. Described as firmissima et splendidissima by Cicero, the Roman Mutina was one of the most important urban centre of northern Italy. In 2017, on the anniversary of 2200 years from its founding, many events tried to highlight the strong imprint left by the Roman world in the history of the city to the present day. The Laboratory of Palynology and Palaeobotany has cooperated for a long time with the Superintendence of Emilia Romagna and with the Archaeological Ethnological Museum of Modena; on this celebratory occasion the Laboratory contributed to different activities planned with a synthesis of the data obtained from the numerous archaeobotanical analyses performed over the last 20 years on urban and peri-urban sites of the city. ... Archaeobotanical researches carried out on the sites of Modena provided many information useful to reconstruct the environment, farming practices, diet and ritual uses associated to plants in Roman period. Thanks to these data, in addition to products targeted to the scientific community (papers on international journals and conference speeches), it was possible to communicate the results obtained from a rigorous and exhaustive scientific research to a wider and varied audience.