Sie befinden Sich nicht im Netzwerk der Universität Paderborn. Der Zugriff auf elektronische Ressourcen ist gegebenenfalls nur via VPN oder Shibboleth (DFN-AAI) möglich. mehr Informationen...
At the origins of Pompeii: the plant landscape of the Sarno River floodplain from the first millennium bc to the ad 79 eruption
Ist Teil von
Vegetation history and archaeobotany, 2022-04, Vol.31 (2), p.171-186
Ort / Verlag
Berlin/Heidelberg: Springer Berlin Heidelberg
Erscheinungsjahr
2022
Link zum Volltext
Quelle
SpringerNature Journals
Beschreibungen/Notizen
The
ad
79 eruption of the Vesuvius severely affected the floodplain surrounding the ancient city of Pompeii, i.e. the Sarno River floodplain. The landscape was covered with volcaniclastic materials that destroyed the ecosystem but, at the same time, preserved the traces of former environmental conditions. This study provides—for the first time—a pollen sequence reconstructing the environmental evolution and the plant landscape of the Sarno floodplain between 900 and 750 cal
bc
and
ad
79, i.e. before and during the foundation of the city, and during its life phases. Previous geomorphological studies revealed that the portion of the Sarno floodplain under the “Pompeii hill” was a freshwater backswamp with patchy inundated and dry areas. Palynology depicts a thin forest cover since the Early Iron Age, suggesting an open environment with a mosaic of vegetation types. The local presence of Mediterranean coastal shrubland, hygrophilous riverine forest and mesophilous plain forest is combined with the regional contribution of mountain vegetation through the sequence. Oscillations between inundated and wet ground characterized the studied area until the
ad
79 eruption. Such a natural environment shows anthropogenic traits since pre-Roman times: pasturelands, cultivated fields and olive groves, which probably occupied drier soils. The most important change in the land use system was the introduction of cabbage cultivation in the fourth century
bc
and its intensification from the second century
bc
, when Roman influence grew. The presence of tree crops and of ornamental trees reveals the opulence of the Imperial age until the catastrophic eruption.