Anthropic pollen and seeds/fruits from the archaeological site of Monte Castellaccio (Imola - Bologna, Northern Italy) - Eneolithic and Bronze Age human influence on vegetal landscape.

Monte Castellaccio is a hillhock, 76 m a.s.l., located in Imola (44°21’N, 11°42’E; Northern Italy). In the 2nd half of the past century, an archaeological site was excavated and studied by G.Scarabelli who collected large amount of materials, seeds/fruits and a stratigraphic sequence of the site, currently kept in the Civic Museum of Imola. The sequence was recently submitted to new studies: a) archaeological studies established that the site mainly dates back to the Bronze Age (from BM1-2 and BM3? to BR), but Eneolithic records of 2600-2400 B.C. have also been found in the oldest layer; b) radiocarbon dates referred the Bronze Age settlement to 3340±50 uncal. bp (cal. from 1680-1524 to 1619-1435 B.C.); c) stratigraphic and micromorphogical analyses evidenced the presence of a forest soil during the Eneolithic, and a next series of layers with hearths and coprolites, straw and organic matter, closed by a surface of trampling, during the Bronze Age; d) pollen data suggested that the Eneolithic occupation occurred in a middle forested environment, characterised by a mixed oak wood that grew in the area during a cool and wet climatic phase of the Early Subboreal. Subsequently, a more open vegetation dominated by Compositae and Gramineae, and a more dry and hot climatic phase occurred during the first step of the Bronze Age settlement (BM 1-2). Only at the end of the Subboreal, Bronze Age 3?, a slight climatic cooling was evident in the simultaneous rise of pine and decline of oak wood. Pollen samples from the youngest occupational phase, BR, were sterile.We focused here on the anthropogenic pollen indicators, i.e. witness of human presence and activities, which are useful to evaluate the human influence on the landscape and the role of plants in human economy and culture. We considered also carpological macroremains of the site as they were essentially cultivated wheat, barley, oat and rye, and few other records of wild plants linked again to human presence in the site. They were attributed by G. Scarabelli to the Bronze Age settlement, without any more information on their stratigraphic position.