The transition of chestnut (Castanea sativa Miller) from timber to fruit tree: Cultural and economic inferences in the Italian peninsula

Abstract

Anthracological analysis has been carried out in the Medieval site of Miranduolo, a rural settlement in southern Tuscany with a sequence of occupation between the 7th and 14th century AD. Between the 7th and mid-9th century AD, during the phase of a Lombard farming village, the strong presence of Castanea sativa as timber for building showed that chestnut was the preferred species for carpentry and fuelwood, suggesting coppice management of chestnut woods for timber production. The Miranduolo data, set against the archaeobotanical data in the literature, rejected the hypothesis of chestnut cultivation as a fruit tree and corroborated the hypothesis that the plant was initially used for timber production during the Early Middle Ages, continuing the woodworking tradition of the Roman period. From the mid-9th century AD, during the Carolingian feudal system, chestnut in the feudal estate of Miranduolo ceased to be used for building and firewood, while deciduous Quercus was preferred. At the same time, chestnut fruits began to be picked and kept in warehouses at the disposal of the feudal lord, suggesting the management of chestnut woods for fruit production. Comparison with existing archaeobotanical data revealed that chestnut cultivation for fruits began in this period in other Italian regions also, encouraged by different economic systems. From the 10th century, in Miranduolo chestnut was exploited both for timber and fruit suggesting the abundance of this resource in high managed stands. Comparison with coeval archaeological sources, archaeobotanical data and pollen records suggested from this period the strong expansion of this species that gradually took place throughout central and southern Italy, becoming a 'multifunctional' high-forest. The current chestnut forest landscape in central Italy is thus of human origin, expanding and changing over about 1000 years of cultivation.

The contribution of archaeological plant remains in tracing the cultural history of Mediterranean trees: The example of the Roman harbour of Neapolis

“…Finally, the most interesting finding is represented by several fruit shells from edible chestnut ( C. sativa ) in the harbour sediments from the end of the 1st century BC to the 5th century AD because Neapolis harbour is the first site documenting systematic chestnut consumption as food throughout the entire Imperial Age. This strong evidence of fruit consumption constitutes a unicum in Roman Age and predates much of the Carolingian Middle Ages when chestnut actually became a major food resource (Buonincontri et al, 2015).…”

“…Chestnut showed more than other trees a great geographical complexity both in its biogeographical and cultural history, and the study of archaeobotanical remains greatly helped to trace the timing and the routes of chestnut–human interactions (e.g. Allevato et al, 2012; Buonincontri et al, 2015; Di Pasquale et al, 2010; Mercuri et al, 2013).…”

Lifestyle of a Roman Imperial community: ethnobotanical evidence from dental calculus of the Ager Curensis inhabitants

“…The pollen grains embedded in the dental calculus, as a consequence of possible accidental aspiration due to breathing, may testify the existence of the relative plant species in the past environments [19, 36]. Indeed, Juglans regia , Castanea sativa Mill., and Olea europaea L. were already diffused in the Mediterranean landscape and highly appreciated by the Romans for their timber and fruits [48, 49]. However, pollen could also be remained entrapped in tartar after ingestion processes.…”

Shaping Mediterranean landscapes: The cultural impact of anthropogenic fires in Tyrrhenian southern Tuscany during the Iron and Middle Ages (800–450 BC / AD 650–1300)

“…Public interest in the Pecora river valley increased from the 10th century AD. At the same time, new areas for the storing of resources appeared in rural settlements and higher quality agri-food resources were collected in the form of crops producing large-kernelled cereals, such as naked wheat, and new edible fruits, such as chestnuts (Bianchi and Grassi, 2013; Buonincontri et al, 2015, 2017). The discovery of charred glume fragments and cereal caryopses in the palaeochannel deposits, identified as H. vulgare and T. cf.…”

“…These events created progressively more arable lands that would become the future agricultural landscape after the mid-10th century AD, as recorded in the pollen sequence AC3/4 of the Lake Accesa (Figure 6). The simultaneous rise of NAP, Castanea and Olea (for the first time in two thousand years) would pinpoint this precise strategy aimed at the improvement and cultivation of new agri-food resources (Buonincontri et al, 2015; Di Pasquale et al, 2014).…”