Environment and Economy of Terramaras in the Central/Southern Po Plain.

The archaeobotanical research which has been recently carried out in terramara settlements and necropolis located in central/southern Po Plain is giving information on the plant landscape evolution and economy of people living in northern Italy during the Bronze age. Terramaras must have been extremely close to each other as, at present, hundreds of sites have been discovered by archaeologists. In particular, the largest settlements and the civilization of terramaras mainly developed in the Po Plain during the Middle and Recent Bronze age (respectively MBA, and RBA; ca. 1650 - 1170 B.C.). Each site consisted of both rows of houses, surrounded by an embankment and a ditch, and a territory out of the ditch. This territory was an area devoted to the exploitation of subsistence resources, and was more or less extended depending on the size of the settlement, its distance from other existing sites and the chronological phase. The natural environment probably influenced the main type of exploitation of the area of influence.Pollen was collected from on-site and off-site short sequences from three sites – that, in chronological order, are Terramara di Baggiovara (MBA), Terramara di Montale (MBA-RBA)1,2 and Necropoli di Casinalbo (RBA). Plant macroremains were also studied from the Terramara di Montale. Analyses permitted local reconstructions of the distribution of lands in the open environment spread around the settlements from the Middle to Recent Bronze age. Main environmental changes were also observed in pollen data from layers preceding and following the Bronze age depositional phase.Results showed similarities in the general trends in exploitation of resources and environmental changes suggesting that economic activities mainly consisted of cereal field cultivation (especially barley and wheats) and animal breeding. Charred caryopses of Hordeum vulgare, Triticum aestivum/durum and T. dicoccum were prevalent in the carpological spectra of Montale. Moreover, woods were important resources and managed as coppices to provide timber, charcoal and other products. A mixed deciduous Quercus-Carpinus betulus wood, with Acer, Ostrya, Fraxinus, Tilia and Ulmus, was scattered in the plain, while mixed coniferous and broadleaved woods were mainly spread in the hill and mountain belts. Environmental changes were induced by human activities and climate changes. Climate changes could have acted as a trigger to cultural change or an amplifier of human impact3. 1 Mercuri A.M., Accorsi C.A., Bandini Mazzanti M., Bosi G., Cardarelli A., Labate D., Trevisan Grandi G., 2006 - Economy and environment of Bronze Age settlements - Terramaras - in the Po Plain (Northern Italy): first results of the archaeobotanical research at the Terramara di Montale. Vegetation History and Archaeobotany, 16: 43-60.2 Mercuri A.M., C.A. Accorsi, M. Bandini Mazzanti, G. Bosi, G. Trevisan Grandi, A. Cardarelli, D. Labate, L. Olmi, P. Torri, 2006 - Cereal fields from the Middle-Recent Bronze Age, as found in the Terramara di Montale, in the Po Plain (Emilia Romagna, Northern Italy), based on pollen, seeds/fruits and microcharcoals. In: J.P. Morel, Tresserras J. and Matalama J.C. (Eds.), The Archaeology of Crop Fields and Gardens, ISBN: (10) 88-7228-482-1, Centro Studi Europei per I Beni Culturali, Ravello, Edipuglia: 251-270.3 Mercuri A.M., Sadori L., Uzquiano Ollero P., in press. Mediterranean and north-African cultural adaptations to mid-Holocene environmental and climatic changes. The Holocene (2010), doi: 10.1177/0959683610377532.