Dipartimento di Scienze dell'Antichità

The application of biomolecular approaches to Neolithic sites has been recognised as a particularly exciting prospect for assessing the socio-economic impact of agriculture and pastoralism and for determining the socio-biological processes of domestication. Despite wide-spread and successful application of the molecular methods to Northern and Western Europe, Southern Europe has been notably ignored. We propose a detailed survey of the dietary status, time of domestication and diffusion of crop species, the genetic composition and mobility of the inhabitants of the Southern Italy from 9,000 and 7,000 years ago.

The transition from hunting-gathering to food producing economy, which involved South-central Italy from the end of VIII millennium BP, is a challenging field of research with many questions still open. Evidence of Mesolithic occupation is scanty and limited to a few sequences; on the contrary Ancient Neolithic settlement is well attested, testifying a deep rooted subsistence strategy based on husbandry and cultivation. With reference to this wide research domain, our main project aims to point out genetic and nutritional modifications, connected to changes in life styles and economic systems, through the new power of inference of biomolecular analysis of bioarchaeological records.

As the competence of this Research Unit concerns archaeology and palaeoeconomy, the project will be carried out according to the following tasks: this Unit is in charge of the selection of pre-neolithic and Neolithic contexts to be sampled and analysed. Selection will be based on strict parameters such as presence of anthropological, archaeozoological and palaeobotanical remains, excavations with stratigraphic method and detailed digging documentation. Another task is the palaeobotanical research activity which will focus on two lines: analysis of the carpological remains from the selected Neolithic sites; interpretation of the carpological remains in the context of archaeobotanical data so far collected from central-southern Italy, considering morphobiometrical characters, location and age of archaeological sites. Part of the selected material will be used for AMS radiometric dating by the CEDAD Laboratory of the Salento University (Lecce)and part for molecular and SEM analyses by the other Unit of Tor Vergata University.

The work of this Unit will also focus on functional and organic residues analyses of lithics and pottery. This study will be carried out by means of different methods, some of them (FTIR) were recently tested by our research team in collaboration with CNR. These methods allow to identify the materials worked and preserved and to understand the use of the implements, which are traditionally analysed from the typological and stylistic point of view. Besides, pottery sherds will be sampled in order to detect lipids residues by means of GC-MS analysis (task of "Tor Vergata" Unit). Our results will be usefully compared with the biomolecular ones by the "Tor Vergata" Unit.