The memory of water: Archaeobotanical evidence of wetland plants from Modena (Emilia-Romagna, northern Italy) and palaeoecological remarks

Abstract

Modena, founded by the Romans (183 BC), has always been conditioned by water in all its urban history. In the city, numerous archaeobotanical investigations have been carried out in order to reconstruct the natural landscape and human–environment interactions over time. During these investigations, four archaeological sites (two Roman and two medieval) have revealed deposits with a marked character of palaeobiocoenosis, largely resulting from the natural environment surrounding the sites, due to natural “seed rain”. These deposits are characterized by widespread evidence of plants related to water, constituting a valuable archive to investigate habitats which currently have become very rare and threatened, if they have not completely disappeared. The present paper aims to reveal the peculiarities of the Roman/medieval archaeocarpological floristic lists (through a comparison with the flora over the last two centuries in the area of Modena) and highlight the possible causes explaining the presence or the demise of several taxa, considering also the palaeoecological reconstruction of the environment in which they have been found.

Keywords::

• Archaeobotany/ecology
• seeds/fruits
• wetland
• Roman/medieval/recent

Acknowledgements

The authors thank Donato Labate, exceptional “archaeological watchman” of the Modena area, and the Soprintendenza per i Beni Archeologici dell'Emilia Romagna for the samples provided. Prof. Andrea Mary Lord of Modena and Reggio Emilia University revised the original English text.