Anna Maria Mercuri
Biographic Data
| ID | 216236 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Anna Maria Mercuri |
| GIVEN NAMES | Anna Maria |
| FAMILY NAME | Mercuri |
| SIGNATURE | MERCURI A M |
| AFFILIATIONS | University of Modena and Reggio Emilia |
| ORCID | 0000-0001-6138-4165 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 57 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 307 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 56 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 1 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2002 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2025 |
| H-INDEX | 10 |
Exploring the use of Wild Cereals at Takarkori (Central Sahara, Southwestern Libya) Through Stable Carbon and Nitrogen Isotope Analysis of Prehistoric Desiccated Seeds
Stable isotope analyses of archaeological plant material have increased in the last few decades with questions arising about climate, environment, and subsistence strategies. While the available studies are of great interest in the field, they are still a minority compared to other types of organic material, especially from African contexts. Desiccated plant material in particular has only sporadically been investigated, partly because archaeolog…
Palynology for Sustainability
Palynology deals with several topics closely linked to sustainability [...]
Snapshots from the past
Countryside and woodlands buried by the 79 AD Vesuvius eruption
Flora-vegetation history and land use in Medieval Tuscany
This paper introduces the high resolution palynological analyses carried out on samples from four cores drilled in the coastal plains of the Cornia and Pecora rivers, southern Tuscany, Italy. This study provides new information on the landscape transformations that the area has undergone over the past 7500 years, with focus on Medieval times when settlement patterns and land use contributed the onset of the current landscape. The study area, cons…
Human-induced fires and land use driven changes in tree biodiversity on the northern Tyrrhenian coast
The history of fires in southwestern Tuscany (Italy), from the Colline Metallifere to the coast of northern Maremma, is presented with an observational perspective at local and regional scale. The area was studied as part of the nEU-Med project, which investigates resources management, agricultural practices and political strategies in two coastal plains, the Cornia and Pecora valleys, between the 7th and 12th centuries AD. Four cores, selected f…
The Establishment of the Agricultural Landscape of Central Sicily Between the Middle Neolithic and the Beginning of the Iron Age
The possible co-variation of human occupation and vegetation from the Middle Neolithic to the beginning of the Iron Age (7.5-2.8 ka BP) in Central Sicily in the context of the central Mediterranean between Middle and Late Holocene are analysed in this paper to provide new insights on Sicilian prehistoric demography. The demographic and economic trends during these millennia were reconstructed using archaeological, Accelerator Mass Spectrometry 14…
A Multidisciplinary Study of Wild Grapevines in the River Crati Natural Reserve, South Italy (Calabria)
Nowadays, wild grapevine populations are quite limited and sporadic mainly due to habitat destruction, land-use change, and the spread of pathogens that have reduced their distribution range. Palaeoecological, archaeobotanical, and genetic studies indicate that modern cultivars of Vitis vinifera are the results of the domestication of the dioecious, and sometimes hermaphrodite, wild species standing in riparian zones and wet environments. Wild gr…
Palynology of Gardens and Archaeobotany for the Environmental Reconstruction of the Charterhouse of Calci-Pisa in Tuscany (Central Italy)
In central Italy, the Charterhouse of Calci hosts the Natural History Museum of the University of Pisa. This monumental monastery was founded in 1366 by Carthusian monks. The Charterhouse has experienced various transformations over the centuries, until its abandonment in the 1970s. Since 2018, interdisciplinary archaeological research focused on the monks’ gardens (and particularly: the Prior’s, the Apothecary’s, and the Master’s garden) and the…
Plants, Fire and Landscape at the Prehistoric Pile-Dwelling Village of Palù di Livenza (PaluON1), Unesco Site in the Italian Alps
This paper presents palynological data obtained from a trench excavated at the Neolithic pile-dwelling archaeological site of Palù di Livenza (northeastern Italy). The site is in a wetland located in a tectonic basin at the foot of the Cansiglio plateau, crossed by the Livenza river. Environmental conditions have made this wetland a suitable area for settlements since prehistoric times. Thanks to the peaty sediments that characterise the area, ar…
Plant Use
Plant use is a familiar word pair that emphasizes how the great wealth of properties and characters of different botanical species has allowed humans to develop different aspects of their culture. On one hand, plants communicate chemically with each other; on the other hand, their wealth of chemical communication tools has attracted humans, who are interested in colors and smells, taste and food, fuel, wellness, and health. The traces of plants b…
Palaeoenvironment, Settlement, and Land Use in the Late Neolithic—Bronze Age Site of Colombare di Negrar di Valpolicella (N Italy, On-Site)
Palynological and archaeobotanical analyses have been carried out as part of the interdisciplinary project of Colombare di Negrar, a prehistoric site in the Lessini Mountains (northern Italy). The palaeoenvironmental and economic reconstruction from the Late Neolithic to the beginning of the Early Bronze Age was based on 16 pollen samples and three samples of macroremains taken from two contiguous trenches. The landscape reconstruction shows the …
Multiporate Pollen of Poaceae as Bioindicator of Environmental Stress
This paper reports on the most ancient unusual morphological trait of the apertures of Poaceae pollen found in archaeological layers. In Poaceae, high levels of hybridization, polyploidy, apomixis, and multiporate pollen are often related. Multiple genomes in polyploids are critical for the adaptation of plant species to stresses and could be revealed by anomalies in pollen development. Therefore, the paleoenvironmental research can gain great be…
Environmental and land use changes in a Mediterranean landscape
Modern analogs for understanding pollen-vegetation dynamics in a Mediterranean mosaic landscape (Balearic Islands, Western Mediterranean)
This paper presents the study of modern pollen analogs from the Balearic Islands. While similar studies have been largely applied to mainland areas, research focused on modern vegetation dynamics on Mediterranean islands remains very rare. In this research, we combine vegetation surveys, pollen analysis and multivariate statistics to understand landscape composition. The main objectives of are: (1) to examine pollen-vegetation relationships in re…
Forging the Roman Rural Economy
n Contains fulltext :\n 252761.pdf (Publisher’s version ) (Open Access)\n
New AMS 14C dates track the arrival and spread of broomcorn millet cultivation and agricultural change in prehistoric Europe
Broomcorn millet ( Panicum miliaceum L.) is not one of the founder crops domesticated in Southwest Asia in the early Holocene, but was domesticated in northeast China by 6000 bc . In Europe, millet was reported in Early Neolithic contexts formed by 6000 bc , but recent radiocarbon dating of a dozen 'early' grains cast doubt on these claims. Archaeobotanical evidence reveals that millet was common in Europe from the 2nd millennium bc , when major …
Palynology of San Vincenzo-Stromboli
Wine consumption in Bronze Age Italy
The Visibility of Mobility
The archaeological landscape of the Tadrart Acacus massif (SW Libya, central Sahara) is made of sites testimony of complex systems of cultural-specific settlement and economic strategies stretching over millennia of occupation. Here, caves and rock shelters represent the main physiographic features exploited by prehistoric herders. Climate fluctuations, settlement patterns and economic strategies regulate the depositional and post-depositional pr…
Land-use and cultivation in theetaghasof the Tadrart Acacus (south-west Libya)
The hyperarid climate of the central Sahara precludes permanent agriculture, although occasional temporary ponds, oretaghas,as a result of rain-fed flooding of wadi beds in the Tadrart Acacus Mountains of the Libyan Sahara allow the pastoral Kel Tadrart Tuareg to cultivate cereals. Geoarchaeological and archaeological data, along with radiocarbon dating and evidence from rock art, however, suggest a much greater antiquity for the exploitation of …
The 4.2 ka BP Event in the Mediterranean region
The Mediterranean region and the Levant have returned some of the clearest evidence of a climatically dry period occurring around 4200 years ago. However, some regional evidence is controversial and contradictory, and issues remain regarding timing, progression, and regional articulation of this event. In this paper, we review the evidence from selected proxies (sea-surface temperature, precipitation, and temperature reconstructed from pollen, δ1…
The Late Antique plant landscape in Sicily
The origin and spread of olive cultivation in the Mediterranean Basin
Olive ( Olea europaea L.) was one of the most important fruit trees in the ancient Mediterranean region and a founder species of horticulture in the Mediterranean Basin. Different views have been expressed regarding the geographical origins and timing of olive cultivation. Since genetic studies and macro-botanical remains point in different directions, we turn to another proxy – the palynological evidence. This study uses pollen records to shed n…
Tyrrhenian central Italy
This paper compares changes in vegetation structure and composition (using synthetic fossil pollen data) with proxy data for population levels (including settlements and radiocarbon dates) over the course of the last 10 millennia in Tyrrhenian central Italy. These data show generalised patterns of clearance of woodland in response both to early agriculturalists and urbanism, as well as the specific adoption of tree crops and variations in stock g…
Mediterranean and north-African cultural adaptations to mid-Holocene environmental and climatic changes
In Mediterranean and north-African regions, cultural trajectories have shown trends sometimes coincident with climatic changes. The mid Holocene was a period of intense changes in climate, and in environmental and cultural systems. This paper reports pollen and charcoal studies from these areas aiming at presenting how impressive cultural changes frequently coincided with critical climate oscillations. Three of the main dry events of key relevanc…
Economy and environment of Bronze Age settlements – Terramaras – on the Po Plain (Northern Italy)
A marine/terrestrial integration for mid-late Holocene vegetation history and the development of the cultural landscape in the Po valley as a result of human impact and climate change
Seeds/fruits, pollen and parasite remains as evidence of site function
The origin and spread of olive cultivation in the Mediterranean Basin
Olive ( Olea europaea L.) was one of the most important fruit trees in the ancient Mediterranean region and a founder species of horticulture in the Mediterranean Basin. Different views have been expressed regarding the geographical origins and timing of olive cultivation. Since genetic studies and macro-botanical remains point in different directions, we turn to another proxy – the palynological evidence. This study uses pollen records to shed n…
The Significance of Intestinal Parasite Remains in Pollen Samples from M edieval Pits in the P iazza G aribaldi of P arma, E milia R omagna, N orthern I taly
This paper presents the study of parasite remains recovered in pollen samples collected from archaeological layers. Laboratory treatment enabled us to obtain very high concentrations of both pollen and parasite eggs from the same samples. The case study of the site of P iazza G aribaldi in P arma, a town in the P o plain, is reported. The site was a sacred area in R oman times and a market square in M edieval times (10th–11th century A.D.). Polle…
From influence to impact
Archaeobotany is used to discover details on local land uses in prehistoric settlements developed during the middle and beginning of late Holocene. Six archaeological sites from four countries (Spain, Italy, Greece, and Turkey) have pollen and charcoal records showing clear signs of the agrarian systems that had developed in the Mediterranean basin during different cultural phases, from pre-Neolithic to Recent Bronze Age. A selected list of polle…
The European Modern Pollen Database (EMPD) project
The evolution of Roman urban environments through the archaeobotanical remains in Modena – Northern Italy
Tyrrhenian central Italy
This paper compares changes in vegetation structure and composition (using synthetic fossil pollen data) with proxy data for population levels (including settlements and radiocarbon dates) over the course of the last 10 millennia in Tyrrhenian central Italy. These data show generalised patterns of clearance of woodland in response both to early agriculturalists and urbanism, as well as the specific adoption of tree crops and variations in stock g…
Wine consumption in Bronze Age Italy
When palynology meets classical archaeology
Coprolites from Rock Shelters
Archaeological deposits in rock shelters have enormous informative potential, particularly in arid environments where organic materials are well preserved. In these areas, sub-fossilized coprolites and dung remains have been identified as valuable proxies for inferences about past environments, subsistence economies and cultural trajectories. Here we present a multidisciplinary analysis of bovid (ovicaprine) coprolites collected from the Early Ho…
Plant use in a city in Northern Italy during the late Mediaeval and Renaissance periods
Middle-to late-Holocene environmental changes in the Garigliano delta plain (Central Italy)
Geomorphologic, stratigraphic, faunistic, palynological and 14 C analyses were carried out in the area of the mouth of the Garigliano River characterized by two strand plains that are referred to the Eutyrrhenian and the Holocene, rimming two depressed zones separated by the Garigliano River channel. This study depicts the palaeoenvironmental evolution over the last 8200 years and the landscape context at the time of Minturnae Roman colony. Betwe…
Excavating the Roman peasant II
This report details the survey, excavations and materials analysis carried out at Case Nuove (GR) in Tuscany, a site identified by surface survey as a possible rural house, but which excavation and materials analysis suggest was a small-scale agro-processing point of late Republican date. Through accompanying analysis of pollen and land-use data, the article considers the problems this type of site — the stand-alone agro-processing point — presen…
The Visibility of Mobility
The archaeological landscape of the Tadrart Acacus massif (SW Libya, central Sahara) is made of sites testimony of complex systems of cultural-specific settlement and economic strategies stretching over millennia of occupation. Here, caves and rock shelters represent the main physiographic features exploited by prehistoric herders. Climate fluctuations, settlement patterns and economic strategies regulate the depositional and post-depositional pr…
Snapshots from the past
Forging the Roman Rural Economy
n Contains fulltext :\n 252761.pdf (Publisher’s version ) (Open Access)\n
Humans and Water in Desert “Refugium” Areas
This paper reports on two, very different, examples of evidence concerning "humans and water" as observed in the stratigraphic, archaeological and palynological studies carried out on Holocene deposits at the extreme limits of northern and southern Sahara
The Establishment of the Agricultural Landscape of Central Sicily Between the Middle Neolithic and the Beginning of the Iron Age
The possible co-variation of human occupation and vegetation from the Middle Neolithic to the beginning of the Iron Age (7.5-2.8 ka BP) in Central Sicily in the context of the central Mediterranean between Middle and Late Holocene are analysed in this paper to provide new insights on Sicilian prehistoric demography. The demographic and economic trends during these millennia were reconstructed using archaeological, Accelerator Mass Spectrometry 14…
Modern analogs for understanding pollen-vegetation dynamics in a Mediterranean mosaic landscape (Balearic Islands, Western Mediterranean)
This paper presents the study of modern pollen analogs from the Balearic Islands. While similar studies have been largely applied to mainland areas, research focused on modern vegetation dynamics on Mediterranean islands remains very rare. In this research, we combine vegetation surveys, pollen analysis and multivariate statistics to understand landscape composition. The main objectives of are: (1) to examine pollen-vegetation relationships in re…
Land-use and cultivation in theetaghasof the Tadrart Acacus (south-west Libya)
The hyperarid climate of the central Sahara precludes permanent agriculture, although occasional temporary ponds, oretaghas,as a result of rain-fed flooding of wadi beds in the Tadrart Acacus Mountains of the Libyan Sahara allow the pastoral Kel Tadrart Tuareg to cultivate cereals. Geoarchaeological and archaeological data, along with radiocarbon dating and evidence from rock art, however, suggest a much greater antiquity for the exploitation of …
Middle- to late-Holocene fire history and the impact on Mediterranean pine and oak forests according to the core RF93-30, central Adriatic Sea
The high-resolution Adriatic RF93-30 core shows changes in its microcharcoal record, which correlate to terrestrial fires from the last 7000 years. Pollen and microcharcoals were transported by wind and fluvial transport from the sedimentary basin, including the Po River and other rivers flowing into the sea off the Italian east coast. Charcoal particles and pollen were counted in the same samples, and the maximum breadth and length of charcoal p…
Palynology of San Vincenzo-Stromboli
The long history of Cannabis and its cultivation by the Romans in central Italy, shown by pollen records from Lago Albano and Lago di Nemi
Plant use in a city in Northern Italy during the late Mediaeval and Renaissance periods
Economy and environment of Bronze Age settlements – Terramaras – on the Po Plain (Northern Italy)
Lakeside Cemeteries in the Sahara
BACKGROUND: Approximately two hundred human burials were discovered on the edge of a paleolake in Niger that provide a uniquely preserved record of human occupation in the Sahara during the Holocene ( approximately 8000 B.C.E. to the present). Called Gobero, this suite of closely spaced sites chronicles the rapid pace of biosocial change in the southern Sahara in response to severe climatic fluctuation. METHODOLOGY/PRINCIPAL FINDINGS: Two main oc…
Plant exploitation and ethnopalynological evidence from the Wadi Teshuinat area (Tadrart Acacus, Libyan Sahara)
Luxury food and ornamental plants at the 15th century a.d. Renaissance court of the Este family (Ferrara, northern Italy)
Fossil leaves and sporomorphs in the museological Coppi Collection, originally from the Plio–Pleistocene Argille Azzurre formation (San Venanzio, Northern Italy)
Seeds/fruits, pollen and parasite remains as evidence of site function
Mediterranean and north-African cultural adaptations to mid-Holocene environmental and climatic changes
In Mediterranean and north-African regions, cultural trajectories have shown trends sometimes coincident with climatic changes. The mid Holocene was a period of intense changes in climate, and in environmental and cultural systems. This paper reports pollen and charcoal studies from these areas aiming at presenting how impressive cultural changes frequently coincided with critical climate oscillations. Three of the main dry events of key relevanc…
Saharan prehistoric basketry. Archaeological and archaeobotanical analysis of the early-middle Holocene assemblage from Takarkori (Acacus Mts., SW Libya)
A marine/terrestrial integration for mid-late Holocene vegetation history and the development of the cultural landscape in the Po valley as a result of human impact and climate change
The Significance of Intestinal Parasite Remains in Pollen Samples from M edieval Pits in the P iazza G aribaldi of P arma, E milia R omagna, N orthern I taly
This paper presents the study of parasite remains recovered in pollen samples collected from archaeological layers. Laboratory treatment enabled us to obtain very high concentrations of both pollen and parasite eggs from the same samples. The case study of the site of P iazza G aribaldi in P arma, a town in the P o plain, is reported. The site was a sacred area in R oman times and a market square in M edieval times (10th–11th century A.D.). Polle…
The European Modern Pollen Database (EMPD) project
Excavating the Roman peasant II
This report details the survey, excavations and materials analysis carried out at Case Nuove (GR) in Tuscany, a site identified by surface survey as a possible rural house, but which excavation and materials analysis suggest was a small-scale agro-processing point of late Republican date. Through accompanying analysis of pollen and land-use data, the article considers the problems this type of site — the stand-alone agro-processing point — presen…
The evolution of Roman urban environments through the archaeobotanical remains in Modena – Northern Italy
Regional Vegetation Histories
Vegetation patterns during the 1st millennium AD in the central Mediterranean, exhibit a great variability, due to the richness of these habitats and the continuous shaping of the environment by human societies. Variations in land use, witnessed in the pollen record, reflect the role that local vegetation and environmental conditions played in the choices made by local societies. The interdisciplinary study of off-site cores remains the key evide…
Humans and Water in Desert “Refugium” Areas
This paper reports on two, very different, examples of evidence concerning "humans and water" as observed in the stratigraphic, archaeological and palynological studies carried out on Holocene deposits at the extreme limits of northern and southern Sahara
Earliest direct evidence of plant processing in prehistoric Saharan pottery
Realising consilience
This paper reviews the methodological and practical issues relevant to the ways in which natural scientists, historians and archaeologists may collaborate in the study of past climatic changes in the Mediterranean basin. We begin by discussing the methodologies of these three disciplines in the context of the consilience debate, that is, attempts to unify different research methodologies that address similar problems. We demonstrate that there ar…
Colour in context. Pigments and other coloured residues from the Early-Middle Holocene site of Takarkori (SW Libya)
Palynological evidence of cultural and environmental connections in Sudanese Nubia during the Early and Middle Holocene
Middle-to late-Holocene environmental changes in the Garigliano delta plain (Central Italy)
Geomorphologic, stratigraphic, faunistic, palynological and 14 C analyses were carried out in the area of the mouth of the Garigliano River characterized by two strand plains that are referred to the Eutyrrhenian and the Holocene, rimming two depressed zones separated by the Garigliano River channel. This study depicts the palaeoenvironmental evolution over the last 8200 years and the landscape context at the time of Minturnae Roman colony. Betwe…
Plants and People in the African Past
Plants and People in the African Past
The Role of Morphometry to Delineate Changes in the Spikelet Shape of Wild Cereals
Geography (53 works) · Archaeology (46 works) · Biology (35 works) · Archaeology and ancient environmental studies (33 works) · Ecology (32 works) · Pollen (27 works) · Palynology (25 works) · Geology and Paleoclimatology Research (22 works) · Geology (19 works) · Holocene (19 works)