Archaeobotanical evidences of food plants in northern Italy during the Roman Age

This paper is a review of carpological records obtained from about one hundred archaeological sites of the Roman Period (3th century BC – 6th century AD) located in Northern Italy (Piedmont, Lombardy, Trentino – Alto Adige, Veneto, Friuli – Venezia Giulia, Liguria, Emilia Romagna) and in the Republic of San Marino. The types of deposit are various, such as necropolis, sacred areas, inhabited and productive structures. The aim of this study is to highlight carpological remains of food plants that have been found in Roman archaeological sites of this area. Only the cultivated and wild plants reported as food by the Latin literary sources were considered. The result is a list of about 100 taxa of plants that can be used for food. There are several categories; cereals (ruling naked wheats, einkorn, emmer and barley; broomcorm millet prevalent among the minor cereals), pulses (mostly faba bean – Vicia faba var. minor – and lentil), more than thirty taxa of fruits (besides versatile grape, also walnut, hazelnut, fig and peach are the species with the highest frequency), vegetables (including bottle gourd and chicory), condiments (dill, celery, coriander, mint, savory, cultivated poppy,…) and plants for beverages, oils and food dyes. Moreover, findings of food preparations (eg. bread) were found in several sites. Ethnobotanical information about the use of the plants recognised in this study are collected to show how traditions sometimes has persisted to the present day and in the same areas of archaeological sites.