Dati archeobotanici e offerte votive dallo scavo

The paper presents pollen and seed/fruit analyses carried out on the site Piazza Garibaldi of Parma (Emilia Romagna, Northern Italy), dated to the 4th - 3rd/2nd centuries BC, i.e. around the time of Roman foundation of this town. The site was probably a sacral area. Archaeobotanical samples were collected from two layers: L325 (pollen samples Pro1, Pro2, and carpological sample Cro1); L320 (Pro3, Cro2). Data are useful both for palaeoenvironmental reconstructions and to make hypotheses about the divinities to which plant votive offerings were offered. Around the site, oak woods and hygrophilous woods were not extended. The plant landscape was probably dominated by herbs, and human activities highly influenced environmental features. In fact, cultivations including cereals, legumes, hemp, with possibly chestnut tree and vinegrape among woody plants, and especially a number of medicinal/vegetables/spices plants characterized the archaeobotanical record. Ficus, Vitis and Pomoideae, together with a number of other fruits, cereals and wild anthropogenic plants were well represented. In particular, Papaver somniferum, Coriandrum sativum, together with Fragaria vesca, are peculiar in the carpological record, while pollen of entomophilous plants are common and sometimes abundant in the spectra. Altogether, they well correspond to votive offerings to several gods, and particularly some of them including opium poppy and cereals would have been offered to Demeter/Ceres, the goddess of crops and soil fertility.