Food, economy, and identity in the Sangro River Valley, Abruzzo, Italy, 650 B.C.-A.D. 150

361 Pages·5.46 MB·English

by  China P Shelton

BOSTON UNIVERSITY
GRADUATE SCHOOL OF ARTS AND SCIENCES
Dissertation
FOOD, ECONOMY, AND IDENTITY IN THE SANGRO RIVER VALLEY,
ABRUZZO, ITALY, 650 B.C.-A.D. 150
by
CHINARSHELTON
B.A., University of California at Santa Barbara, 2001
Submitted in partial fulfillment of the
requirements for the degree of
Doctor of Philosophy
2009
UMI Number: 3345586
Copyright 2009 by
Shelton, China P.
All rights reserved.
INFORMATION TO USERS
The quality of this reproduction is dependent upon the quality of the copy
submitted. Broken or indistinct print, colored or poor quality illustrations and
photographs, print bleed-through, substandard margins, and improper
alignment can adversely affect reproduction.
In the unlikely event that the author did not send a complete manuscript
and there are missing pages, these will be noted. Also, if unauthorized
copyright material had to be removed, a note will indicate the deletion.
®
UMI
UMI Microform 3345586
Copyright 2009 by ProQuest LLC.
All rights reserved. This microform edition is protected against
unauthorized copying under Title 17, United States Code.
ProQuest LLC
789 E. Eisenhower Parkway
PO Box 1346
Ann Arbor, Ml 48106-1346
© Copyright by
CHINA P. SHELTON
2009
Approved by
First Reader J£/&£--• H UsUMi
^mes R. Wiseman, Ph.D.
Founder's Professor of Archaeology, and Professor of Art History and
Classics
/^
Second Reader £uL,€M*lC phmyt
Ksenija Borojevic, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor of Archaeology
Acknowledgments
I would like to thank my advisor, Professor James Wiseman of Boston University
for assistance over the years and with editing the dissertation for substance and quality of
writing. Professor Ksenija Borojevic, also of Boston University, was indispensible in
teaching and guiding seed identifications, interpretations, and photos. I thank the Sopri-
tendenza per i beni Archeologici dell'Abruzzo, and Amalia Faustoferri and Maria Isabella
Pierige in particular, for their support and helpful collaboration. I would like to thank
Susan Allen for teaching me field procedures. Drs. Susan Kane, Sam Carrier, and Edward
Bispham of the Sangro Valley Project provided a place for me to carry out this study and
have given much support and advice. I could not have found a more fun, interesting field
project. That is in part due to the SVP Staff: I thank Dr. Scott Pike for valuable conversta-
tion about the geology of the area, and Lesley-Ann Mather and Andy Thomas have my
gratitude for guiding the collection of samples and their transport up from Acquachiara.
Thanks also to the junior staff (Bradley Sekedat, Martin Sterry, Neville McFerrin,
Christina Triantafillou, Tom Leppard, and Chris Noon), and to the field school students
from 2005 to 2007. Marta Ostovich has my sincere thanks for doing a very substantial
amount of the flotation and heavy fraction sorting in Tornareccio in 2006 and 2007. Fi
nancial support was provided by the William D. Ruf Foundation and the Center for Ar
chaeological Studies at Boston University, the BU Graduate Research Abroad Fellowship
program, and the Sangro Valley Project. Finally, Ben Vining gave moral support, proof
reading, and much help with figures—thank you very much for everything. I would like
to thank my family for being so supportive through this process, despite its length, and
my friends in the BU Department of Archaeology; without you, I admit I might have fin-
iv
ished writing this dissertation more quickly, but it wouldn't have been nearly so much
fun.
FOOD, ECONOMY, AND IDENTITY IN THE SANGRO RIVER VALLEY,
ABRUZZO, ITALY, 650 B.C.-A.D. 150
(Order No. )
CHINA SHELTON
Boston University Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, 2009
Major Professor: James R. Wiseman, The Founder's Professor of Archaeology, and
Professor of Art History and Classics
ABSTRACT
The Iron Age to the early Roman Empire (ca. 8th century B.c.-lst century A.D.)
was a period of dynamic social change in the central Apennine Mountains of Italy, as it
was on the entire peninsula. The Sammites, who inhabited this area, put up protracted re
sistance to Roman hegemony. Most of what has been known about Samnite lifeways,
however, has come from Classical literature and excavations of funerary and ritual sites.
Little direct evidence has been available regarding the character of Samnite subsistence,
and by extension the economy that supported extensive Samnite military activity. This
dissertation presents paleoethnobotanical evidence collected from excavations at the site
of Acquachiara on Monte Pallano undertaken by the Sangro Valley Project. Excavations
of an agricultural terrace dating from the 7th to the 5th century B.C. produced plant re
mains resulting from domestic activity and consumption. These remains are pertinent to
reconstructing subsistence in the central Apennines during the period when the Samnite
social group coalesced. Plant remains from a nearby farmhouse dating from the 1st to 2nd
vi
centuries A.D. were also analyzed, but proved of only limited use in examining diachronic
changes in economy.
The plant assemblage from the 7th to the 5th century B.C. proved unusual in the
apparent importance for human culinary use of Vicia ervilia (bitter vetch). It was also
possible to demonstrate, via comparison with paleoethnobotanical remains from approxi
mately contemporary sites throughout Italy, that consumption practices at Acquachiara si
multaneously resemble different traditions in central and southern Italy. Specifically,
Acquachiara shares a relatively high proportion of legumes with sites in Southern Italy,
but in the choice of emmer wheat over barley, Acquachiara is more closely related to
Rome. Additional evidence from classical commentary and 20th-century anthropological
studies demonstrates that the inhabitants of Acquachiara shared in a long-term tradition of
dependence on a diverse and flexible mountain subsistence base that often included non-
traditional staple crops. The close theoretical relationship between food and social differ
entiation leads to the conclusion that it was in part differences in subsistence and
environment that supported the construction and maintenance of a powerful Samnite
group identity.
vn
Table of Contents
Page
Chapter 1 1
Introduction: The Purpose of this Dissertation, the History of the Sangro Valley
Project, Its Environmental Setting, and Archaeology at Acquachiara
Chapter 2 41
Group Identity, Environment and Subsistence, and the Ancient Economy
Chapter 3 105
Historical, Archaeological, and Anthropological Perspectives on Subsistence
in the Central Apennines
Chapter 4 169
Paleoethnobotany at Acquachiara in the Sangro River Valley
Chapter 5 253
Food Consumption at Acquachiara and Patterns of Subsistence on the
Italian Peninsula
Chapter 6 284
Discussion and Conclusions: Considering Subsistence at Acquachiara
within a Larger Social Context
References 306
Curriculum Vitae 343
Vlll
List of Tables
Page
Table 1.1. Phases mentioned in the text. 2
Table 1.2 Acquachiara trenches. 32
Table 4.1. AMS Radiocarbon dates from Acquachiara. 170
Table 4.2. Parts list to construct the Sangro Valley Project flotation tank. 174
Table 4.3. Contexts and phases for trench 10000. 188
Table 4.4. Contents of trench 10000 phase 2a presented by sample. 190
Table 4.5. Measurements of Vitis vinifera seeds. 194
Table 4.6. Contents of trench 10000, Phase 2b, by sample. 197
Table 4.7. Contents of trench 10000, Phase 3, by sample. 199
Table 4.8. Contents of trench 10000, Phase 4, by sample. 201
Table 4.9. Summary of plant remains recovered from trench 10000, all phases. 202
Table 4.10. Ubiquity values for species recovered from trench 10000. 206
Table 4.11. Contexts and phases for trench 8000. 210
Table 4.12. Contents of trench 8000, Phase 2, by sample. 216
Table 4.13. Contents of trench 8000, Phase 3a west, by sample. 220
Table 4.14. Contents of trench 8000, Phase 3a center, by sample. 221
Table 4.15. Contents of trench 8000, Phase 3a center-south, by sample. 223
Table 4.16. Contents of trench 8000, Phase 3b, by sample. 225
Table 4.17. Contents of trench 8000, Phase 4a, by sample. 226
Table 4.18. Contents of trench 8000, Phase 4b, by sample. 227
Table 4.19. Contents of trench 8000, Phase 5 southeast, by sample. 230
Table 4.20. Contents of trench 8000, Phase 5 northeast, by sample. 230
ix