Agriculture in Iron Age and Archaic Italy

Motta, Laura; Beydler, Katherine

doi:10.1002/9781118970959.ch19

Cited by 9 publications

(5 citation statements)

References 36 publications

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“…This landscape, dominated by unstable conditions, undoubtedly influenced the quality and quantity of food available to the population that inhabited this area during the Etruscan Orientalizing period. It was only during the Archaic age (end of the 6th and beginning of the fifth century BCE) that impressive hydraulic works were undertaken at Pontecagnano in order to increase cultivable areas 85 , 87 , 88 .…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Infantile scurvy as a consequence of agricultural intensification in the 1st millennium BCE Etruria Campana

Simonit,

Maudet,

Giuffra

et al. 2023

Sci Rep

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The 1st millennium BCE in Italy was a time of agricultural intensification of staple cereal production which shaped sociocultural, political, and economic spheres of pre-Roman groups. The lifeways and foodways of the Etruscans, the greatest civilization in western Europe before Roman hegemony, are traditionally inferred from secondary written sources, funerary archaeology, archaeobotany, and zooarchaeology. However, no direct data extrapolated from the study of human skeletal remains are available to evaluate the extent to which agricultural intensification and decreased dietary diversity impacted health and the expression of skeletal indicators of metabolic disease. Macroscopic and radiological analyses were conducted on an archaeological skeletal sample of non-adults (n = 29) recovered from Pontecagnano (southern Italy) dating to the Orientalizing period (730–580 BCE). This allowed us to identify five cases of scorbutic non-adults and to assign diagnostic values to skeletal lesions of scurvy that have not been previously described in the literature. The onset of scurvy in the examined sample is related to the increased reliance of Etruscans on crops lacking vitamin C in this period of agricultural intensification. The skeletal expression of scurvy varied among the non-adults, with differences in location and disease severity; these were interpreted considering the age-at-death of the individuals coupled with feeding behaviors and interindividual variability.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Infantile scurvy as a consequence of agricultural intensification in the 1st millennium BCE Etruria Campana

Simonit,

Maudet,

Giuffra

et al. 2023

Sci Rep

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“…The primary source of knowledge about the Etruscans is therefore derived from art and archaeological findings. For example, archaeological excavations have revealed aspects of Etruscan society, including city planning, water management of agrarian territory, the discovery of temples, sacred sites, and votive offerings (e.g., [6,[40][41][42][43][44]). Of equal importance, the exploration of famous necropolises in southern Etruria, such as Cerveteri and Tarquinia (Latium, central Italy), provides insights into funerary practices.…”

Section: Etruscan Society During the Orientalizing Period (730-580 Bce)mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…To date, much of the archaeological research relating to the Etruscans has centred on the investigation of hillfort settlements [5], changes in agricultural practices [3,6], iron metallurgy [3], widespread exchanges of socially valuable or exotic materials, such as ivory and ostrich eggs, and changes in the use of funerary space [7][8][9]. aDNA analysis of Etruscan individuals provides insights into the genetic makeup and mobility of this civilization (e.g., [10][11][12][13][14]).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The diet also included legumes like broad beans, chickpeas, lentils, lupins beans and peas and cabbage [21,22]. The Etruscan diet also included animal terrestrial protein, in particular the consumption of sheep, goats, cattle, boar, and small wild games (birds, hare) [6,23]. Despite this, questions relating to the relationship between diet and health, and changing diet during cultural shifts and changes in social complexity in the 1 st milleniumc BCE, remain largely unexplored at the pre-Classical core of what would later become one of history's largest western empires.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Diets, stress, and disease in the Etruscan society: Isotope analysis and infantile skeletal palaeopathology from Pontecagnano (Campania, southern Italy, 730–580 BCE)

Riccomi,

Simonit,

Maudet

et al. 2024

PLoS ONE

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Susceptibility to morbidity and mortality is increased in early life, yet proactive measures, such as breastfeeding and weaning practices, can be taken through specific investments from parents and wider society. The extent to which such biosocialcultural investment was achieved within 1st millennium BCE Etruscan society, of whom little written sources are available, is unkown. This research investigates life histories in non-adults and adults from Pontecagnano (southern Italy, 730–580 BCE) in order to track cross-sectional and longitudinal breastfeeding and weaning patterns and to characterize the diet more broadly. Stable carbon and nitrogen isotope analysis of incrementally-sampled deciduous and permanent dentine (n = 15), bulk bone collagen (n = 38), and tooth enamel bioapatite (n = 21) reveal the diet was largely based on C3 staple crops with marginal contributions of animal protein. Millet was found to play a role for maternal diet and trajectories of breastfeeding and feeding for some infants and children at the site. The combination of multiple isotope systems and tissues demonstrates exclusive breastfeeding was pursued until 0.6 years, followed by progressive introduction of proteanocius supplementary foods during weaning that lasted between approximately 0.7 and 2.6 years. The combination of biochemical data with macroscopic skeletal lesions of infantile metabolic diseases and physiological stress markers showed high δ15Ndentine in the months prior to death consistent with the isotopic pattern of opposing covariance.

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“…The estimates are an intriguing indication of population growth in archaic Rome, but they vary widely and are based on an uncertain foundation. A more solid starting point for tracking demo graphic growth is the correlation between changes in diet, animal husbandry, and agricultural production, and the rise in population, which are more perceptible in the archaeo logical material (Motta and Beydler 2020). The correlation between pork consumption and population growth is a case in point.…”

Section: Population Growthmentioning

confidence: 99%

Urbanism in Archaic Rome: The Archaeological Evidence

Sauer¹

2021

Journal of Urban Archaeology

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The ancient literary tradition, together with piecemeal archaeo logical evidence, has conventionally served as a basis for investigating the origin of the city of Rome. This study aims to counterbalance earlier studies by using archaeo logical evidence as the main data of the examination, particularly new archaeo logical discoveries and scientific studies. The archaeo logical record from early Rome shows that urbanization was a gradual process taking place over several centuries. However, from the wide range of archaeo logical material studied in this article, it is evident that an intense wave of urbanization emerged in Rome in the archaic period. Certain features conventionally attributed to cities, such as population growth, monumental architecture, urban planning, networks, public inscriptions, and craft specialization, are visible in the archaeo logical material from the sixth and early fifth centuries bc. KEYWORDS Early Rome; archaic period; urbanization; archaeo logy of pre-Roman Italy; archaeological science Acknowledgements and Funding DetailsThis work was supported by the Danish National Research Foundation under the grant DNRF 119 -Centre of Excellence for Urban Network Evolutions (UrbNet). I would like to offer my heartfelt thanks to Rubina Raja, Christopher Smith, and the anonymous reviewers, all of whom made invaluable improvements to this article.

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Agriculture in Iron Age and Archaic Italy

Cited by 9 publications

References 36 publications

Infantile scurvy as a consequence of agricultural intensification in the 1st millennium BCE Etruria Campana

Infantile scurvy as a consequence of agricultural intensification in the 1st millennium BCE Etruria Campana

Diets, stress, and disease in the Etruscan society: Isotope analysis and infantile skeletal palaeopathology from Pontecagnano (Campania, southern Italy, 730–580 BCE)

Urbanism in Archaic Rome: The Archaeological Evidence

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