Paleobotany/Palynology | American Journal of Archaeology

The Archaeology of Olive Oil Production in Roman and Pre-Roman Italy

website — Tue, 16 Dec 2025 22:12:36 +0000

This article provides a comprehensive synthesis and re-evaluation of the archaeological evidence for olive cultivation and oil production across Italy from prehistory through the Roman era. Italy is often neglected in studies of ancient olives and oil, with greater focus given to the eastern Mediterranean or Gaul, Spain, and North Africa. Extant studies on Italian regions fail to capture broader patterns and transregional developments. Scientific advancements, more rigorous sampling strategies, and a rapidly expanding paleoenvironmental and archaeological dataset encourage an updated state of the field. Traditional assumptions regarding the sparse prehistory of olive exploitation prior to Greek or Phoenician contact are challenged by growing paleoenvironmental evidence highlighting Neolithic and Bronze Age activity. This is complemented by indications of pre- and early Roman oil production sites, including perhaps the earliest rotary olive crusher. Substantial Roman-era oil production was not confined to southern Italy but occurred more widely across the peninsula using a diverse range of facilities, including large villas, farms, and rudimentary rural installations. Regional biases remain along with significant gaps in evidence, both geographically (e.g., Sardinia) and in terms of material culture (e.g., a notable scarcity of milling apparatus) compared with other regions.

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Ancient Diet and Agricultural Economy in the Levant: An Archaeobotanical Study

website — Tue, 17 Jun 2025 15:22:09 +0000

This study utilizes archaeobotanical macroremains to explore the impact of integration into the Roman empire on foodways and agriculture in the Levant. Published and unpublished data from 65 sites dating from 1000 BCE to 500 CE are subjected to meta-analysis in order to shed light on patterns according to chronological and social variations. Additional archaeological evidence and literary comparisons are integrated throughout. Results reveal the unique character of consumption patterns in the region. The data reflect a variety of phenomena, including agricultural expansion, shifts in crop choices and cultural preferences, dietary regionalism, and the use of agricultural by-products and alternative fuel sources. Findings ultimately shift the narrative from Roman impact on provincial consumption patterns to instead highlight the importance and influence of local food practices. In bringing the eastern provinces into greater focus, the need for a nuanced approach to ancient foodways is emphasized.

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Revisiting the Archaeobotany of Prehistoric Crete

website — Tue, 17 Sep 2024 16:10:50 +0000

This article provides a new archaeobotanical synthesis for prehistoric Crete. It brings together all the published plant records from Neolithic and Bronze Age sites across the island, as well as unpublished archaeobotanical information for nine other prehistoric sites: Aposelemi, Chalepa, Mesorachi, Mesorachi Akri, Sopata, Chryssi, Chalasmenos, Juktas, and Alonaki. Following a previous synthesis in 2013, the records were compiled into a single database and the data synthesized according to plant type (cereals, legumes, fruits and nuts, oily plant taxa/condiments, and other wild/herbaceous plant taxa). The results of this synthesis are presented in comparison with those from the earlier one in order to highlight both consistent and new trends evident in recorded plant data over the previous decade. The comparison shows that the number of archaeobotanical records for prehistoric Crete has doubled in the last 10 years, augmenting plant data for certain cultural periods (such as Postpalatial) and types of contexts (such as ritual). This synthesis also reviews the methodological practices and lines of research associated with the new records, providing an up-to-date account of the archaeobotanical discipline. Overall, this synthesis acts as a current and comprehensive base reference point for both archaeologists and archaeobotanists studying prehistoric Crete.

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Archaeobotanical Research in Classical Archaeology

website — Sat, 01 Oct 2022 04:00:00 +0000

The recovery, identification, and analysis of archaeobotanical remains can help address a wide range of archaeological and historical research questions, from foodways, to the agricultural economy, to ritual practice and social identity. This state of the discipline article reviews the application of archaeobotanical techniques to classical archaeology from historical, regional, and thematic perspectives. It also highlights current challenges and limitations in the field of archaeobotany. The article concludes with some suggestions for future directions to improve the practice and outcomes of the discipline. Classicalperiod archaeobotanical research has not yet reached its full potential, and despite facing some internal and external issues, we envision a bright future for both archaeobotanical and classical archaeological research with a greater degree of communication and collaboration between the two fields.

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The Archaeology of Wine Production in Roman and Pre-Roman Italy

website — Fri, 01 Jul 2022 04:00:00 +0000

The world of vinicultural archaeology has expanded exponentially over the past two decades, adding novel discoveries, methodologies, theories, and new archaeological evidence. Despite this, focused regional or site-specific approaches and syntheses dominate scholarship. This article provides an alternate, macroperspective via a comprehensive update and overview of the archaeological evidence for the entire Italian peninsula. When considered as a whole, the sheer quantity of evidence is simply a starting point for future research directions. New data from pre-Roman Italy might suggest localized indigenous winemaking experimentation, contrasting with traditionally dominant east–west colonial diffusionist models. Detailed cataloguing and interpretation of Roman wineries demonstrate that two dominant press types were present simultaneously. Along with these syntheses, previously unpublished evidence is analyzed for the first time, including conspicuous, lavish, and theatrical wine production at the Villa dei Quintili just outside Rome.

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Olive Oil Pressing Waste as a Fuel Source in Antiquity

aja — Tue, 22 Sep 2015 14:52:14 +0000

The recovery of large quantities of fragmented carbonized olive stones from archaeological sites around the Mediterranean indicates that olive oil pressing waste (pomace) was used as a domestic and industrial fuel source throughout antiquity. Olive pomace burns at a high and constant temperature, making it an ideal fuel for heating and cooking as well as firing pottery and lime kilns. The Roman period is characterized by an expansion in pomace use both quantitatively and geographically. Beginning in the first century C.E., pomace fuel was introduced into new urban markets and began to play a larger role in industrial production. This article highlights the history of pomace use in antiquity, focusing primarily on the changes that took place during the Roman period. The article also seeks to establish a set of identification criteria that will enable archaeologists to distinguish pomace residue from other sources of carbonized olive stones, including ritual and table waste.

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The Changing Role of Herding in the Early Iron Age of Crete: Some Implications of Settlement Shift for Economy

aja — Thu, 27 Sep 2012 18:06:46 +0000

Various factors, including disruption in sociopolitical systems at the end of the Aegean Bronze Age and a long gap in the textual record during the Early Iron Age, have led some scholars to hypothesize a degree of change in subsistence strategies—in particular, an increased role for pastoralism—for the latter period. In Crete, a shift of settlement occurs from ca. 1200 B.C. to inaccessible sites, often in mountain or foothill locations, which contrast greatly with the former settlement pattern focused on coastal or large arable zones. The notion of subsistence simplification as an after-effect of systems collapse, together with the perception of Crete’s landscape as traditionally determining specific types of herding, have tempted some to suggest an important role for herding in modeling the EIA economy and/or in explaining the settlement relocation. This article examines in more detail the role herding might have played in Crete’s EIA economy and considers its probable character at this time. The settlement record for EIA Crete as a whole, recently enhanced by new data, forms the basis for this investigation. A case study of EIA settlements located in a mountainous landscape in eastern Crete, along with a review of the most recently published EIA faunal evidence, are used to illustrate the discussion. Particular attention is given to the analysis of large-scale socioeconomic context, because the collapse of previous state systems and the emergence of a new state form within this period have very different implications for herding's role and character.

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Agricultural Strategies and Political Economy in Ancient Anatolia

aja — Mon, 04 Jun 2012 13:53:31 +0000

Archaeological study of ancient agriculture in the eastern Mediterranean has traditionally focused on what crops were farmed, at what sites, during which periods. Questions about why farmers adopted specific agricultural strategies, however, have been left to historical analysis. Such an approach divorces the study of the actual residues of farming from the cultural and social environments that contextualize the decision-making processes of farmers. Rich new archaeobotanical and zooarchaeological data sets from the Mediterranean, however, offer an opportunity to reconstruct agricultural and land-use strategies and to study diachronic changes in those practices in relation to contemporary changes in political economy. This article uses the case study of the urban site of Gordion in central Anatolia to illustrate new techniques for reconstructing agricultural decision making from archaeological data and to contextualize diachronic changes in agriculture within their social and economic framework. I argue that several aspects of political economy—namely, taxation, long-distance trade, and settlement patterns—are primary factors in the adoption of specific agricultural strategies at Gordion and beyond. I conclude that states with direct control of agricultural production are more likely to adopt environmentally unsustainable land-use practices than those in which farmers have considerable autonomy. The methods and broader implications developed here have great relevance for the study of agriculture and rural economy at other sites in the Mediterranean and Near East and in other areas of the ancient world.

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From Site to Landscape: Assessing the Value of Geoarchaeological Data in Understanding the Archaeological Record of Domuztepe, Eastern Mediterranean, Turkey

aja — Fri, 01 Jul 2011 13:17:54 +0000

This article discusses the potential value of geoarchaeological and paleoenvironmental data for the contextualization of human activity at the site of Domuztepe, southeast Turkey. The data come from cores excavated on a series of transects centered on the höyük and from samples collected for paleoenvironmental assessment and radiocarbon dating. The results indicate that the site is situated on an alluvial plain of some stratigraphic complexity. Deep (up to 9 m) sediment sequences consisting of peats, marls, silts, clays, sands, and gravels appear on all sides of the höyük. Soil and water conditions during the Holocene on the Narlı plain were quite probably different from present conditions, which are partly attributable to recent drainage and irrigation, with climatic changes also playing a significant role. The evidence suggests there were both periods of relatively wet local conditions with deep freshwater close to the site and episodes of drier, brackish conditions. Episodes of peat formation are recorded during the later Pleistocene (19,000–21,000 b.p. [calibrated]) and Early Holocene (9,500 b.p. [calibrated]). It seems unlikely that the site of Domuztepe was originally located on any topographic high point. While the extent of cultivatable land in the close vicinity of the settlement is unclear on the basis of the current data, local wetlands would have provided a range of resources, including plants, clays, and marls, evidenced in both the architecture and the cultural and environmental material from the excavations. The deposition of the alluvial silts and clays seems to have occurred during the later Holocene, with Roman pottery in these deposits providing a terminus post quem for the uppermost clays. These sediments probably mask the actual depth and extent of the archaeological remains at Domuztepe and might also obscure other early archaeological sites on the Narlı plain.

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