“The archaeobotanical archive: plants used by man (which, were, how, when?)”. What fruits did Romans eat in Emilia Romagna (Northern Italy)? Some responses from seeds and fruits

In the last ten years, an increasing number of studies concerning seeds and fruits recorded in archaeological sites of the Emilia Romagna region were carried out thanks to the co-operation between our laboratory and the Soprintendenza Archeologica. The archaeological sites involved dated from the Neolithic to the Modern Age. On the whole, the seeds and fruits studied were several hundred thousands and their floristic list includes hundreds of species/carpological types. Many of them belong to plants producing ‘fruits’ (in the common – not strictly botanical - sense of the word). In the Roman times, these records increased suggesting that fruit became an important and habitual food on the tables of Emilia Romagna, during that period. This paper presents a brief review of the ‘fruit’ records found in 11 archaeological sites of the region dated in the Roman period, based on published and unpublished data. Other information and references can be found in a more detailed paper