ORIGINS AND SPREAD OF VITICULTURE IN ITALY: A PRELIMINARY STUDY ON THE GRAPE SEEDS OF TERRAMARA DI MONTALE (EMILIA)

Traditionally, the introduction of domestic grape in Italy is traced back to a late stage of early Iron Age in relation with the first Greek colonies which settled in southern Italy during 8th–6th centuries BC. However, some recent findings of grape seeds dated in the archaeological contexts of the Middle and Recent Bronze Age suggest that the beginning of grape cultivation in Italy may be anticipated by several centuries. During the excavations carried out in the Terramara di Montale it was possible to recover a large quantity of grape seeds from two stratigraphic contexts dated to the Late Middle Bronze Age (1438-1321 BC) and to beginning of the Recent Bronze Age (1605-1510 BC).

A morphological comparison of archaeological pips and modern wild and domestic grapes pips was performed to determine the similarities among them. Digital images of archaeological and modern samples were acquired using a flatbed scanner. The images were processed using the software package ImageJ. A total of 26 morphometric features were measured for each pip. The recorded data were statistically analysed, applying the PCA and LDA, to compare the modern cultivars with the archaeological seeds, which were considered as unidentified samples.

The results showed that the archaeological pips found in the two stratigraphic contexts showed a similar morphology to domestic grapes and that only a small percentage were assigned to wild grapes.

Morphometric analyses made it possible to obtain valuable information on the management of plant resources between the end of the Middle Bronze and the beginning of the Recent Bronze Age in Emilia. The high percentage of grape seeds identified as domestic would seem to confirm the presence of the domestic grape in Italy already at the end of the 14th and the beginning of the 13th century BC.