NetFoodIt · Networking food plant imports in Roman Italy

Networking food plant imports in Roman Italy

The NetFoodIt initiative aimed to explore the intersection of Roman food commerce and socioeconomic dynamics, focusing on the introduction and spread of new food plants across modern-day mainland Italy. As Rome expanded, technical advancements facilitated more frequent and accessible connections with distant regions, including the introduction of new food plants. Despite their potential, introduced food plants have been underutilized as proxies for analyzing commerce in the Roman world. Traditional research has predominantly centered on roads, inscriptions, pottery, and other material culture. However, food plants offer a different altogether perspective due to their perishable nature and their status, often as luxury items, that allow insights into the sociocultural and economic factors that influenced their accessibility and adoption. Dr. Livarda’s pioneering work laid the groundwork for studying introduced food plants as markers of trade. Her database of such plants in Roman northwestern Europe offered an initial view of their access and distribution in the provinces. Later, Drs. Livarda and Orengo expanded this approach to explore Roman Britain’s urbanization processes and their influence on modern population patterns. Yet, few studies have followed this methodology, and most have combined other proxies with transport network analyses. In recent years, research into food plant circulation in Italy has progressed through initiatives like the Botanical Records of Archaeobotany Italian Network (BRAIN). Established in 2015 by Mercuri et al., BRAIN compiles archaeobotanical data from Italian archaeological sites, enabling comprehensive studies of Roman foodways. For example, Bosi et al. (2020, 2023) conducted regional analyses, while Rottoli and Castiglioni (2011) focused on burial sites in northern Italy. Feito’s 2022 study examined plant macroremains from 100 Italian sites spanning the 5th century BC to the 5th century AD. The findings highlighted agricultural diversity and the distribution of key crops like grapes and olives. Similarly, Bosi et al. (2023) analyzed macroremains from 155 northern Italian sites dating from the 2nd century BC to the 12th century AD. Their findings emphasize the evolution of food practices over time in this area and the role of newly introduced species in reshaping diets. NetFoodIt aimed to build upon previous research, update it and combine it with the investigation of food movement and commerce to deepen our understanding of Roman food economy and associated sociocultural dynamics. By synthesizing data on food plant origins, distribution, and network, this initiative offered a different perspective on foodways during one of history’s most dynamic periods. NetFoodIt determined which food plants were introduced in Italy during the Roman period and when, by a relational object-oriented geo-database of introduced food-plants in Roman Italy, prepared to be used in standard GIS software and queried with advanced data analysis methods.

Текст от CORDIS, на английски · Данни: CORDIS, © Европейски съюз