The application of biomolecular techniques for the study of food practices in the Italian Bronze Age has revealed an interesting complexity. This is particularly true for the Po plain, in northern Italy, where the use of “alternative” grains (i.e., the millets) has been assessed isotopically through the measurement of stable carbon (δ13C) and nitrogen (δ15N) isotope ratios in human and animal bone collagen at the site of Olmo di Nogara (Verona). This work provides new isotopic data from 12 Early, Middle, and Late Bronze Age sites from western Veneto and Friuli. Data obtained contribute to the understanding of mode and tempo of the spread of new crops in northeastern Italy, which appears to be a hotspot for the study of Bronze Age farming economies in Europe. We have successfully analyzed 146 specimens to find that δ13C values are higher, in a way that we interpret as indicative of C4 plant consumption. Four of the sites analyzed, with a specific chronological indication, show this evidence. We explain this phenomenon as the result of a discontinuous spread of new crops in northeastern Italy at a very specific moment of the Bronze Age. The data presented might call for a reconsideration of food production and consumption among Bronze Age groups of southern Europe.

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During the Middle and Recent Bronze Age, the Po Plain and, more broadly Northern Italy were populated by the so-called “Terramare”, embanked settlements, surrounded by a moat. The buried remains of these archaeological settlements are characterized by the presence of a system of palaeo-environments and a consequent natural gradient in soil moisture content. These differences in the soil are often firstly detectable on the surface during the seasonal variations, with aerial, satellite, and Laser Imaging Detection and Ranging (LIDAR) images, without any information on the lateral and in-depth extension of the related buried structures. The variation in the moisture content of soils is directly related to their differences in electrical conductivity. Electrical resistivity tomography (ERT) and frequency domain electromagnetic (FDEM), also known as electromagnetic induction (EMI) measurements, provide non-direct measurements of electrical conductivity in the soils, helping in the reconstruction of the geometry of different buried structures. This study presents the results of the multidisciplinary approach adopted to the study of the Terramare settlement of Fondo Paviani in Northern Italy. Remote sensing and archaeological data, collected over about 10 years, combined with more recent ERT and FDEM measurements, contributed to the analysis of this particular, not yet wholly investigated, archaeological site. The results obtained by the integrated multidisciplinary study here adopted, provide new useful, interesting information for the archaeologists also suggesting future strategies for new studies still to be conducted around this important settlement.