Renato Nisbet - Academia.edu (original) (raw)

Papers by Renato Nisbet

OLTRE LE STRATIGRAFIE. STORIE DI SITI, AMBIENTI E POPOLI Omaggio a Lanfredo Castelletti nel 2022, 2022

The paper shortly resumes the archaeobotany (seeds, fruits, charcoal) of a Recent and Final Bronz... more The paper shortly resumes the archaeobotany (seeds, fruits, charcoal) of a Recent and Final Bronze Age settlement in Aosta (Aosta valley, N.W. Italy). The excavation was carried out on the village and on the wide adjacent field, which shows clear traces of an important agricultural management (ard marks, field and ductwork system). Crops were made of einkorn, emmer, naked wheat, spelt and barley. Millet is also present, a grain of which gave one of the earliest dates for N Italy.

Rivista di Scienze Preistoriche, 2023

Arene Candide cave (Finale Ligure, Liguria) is one of the key Neolithic sites in the North-Wester... more Arene Candide cave (Finale Ligure, Liguria) is one of the key Neolithic sites in the North-Western Mediterranean. We discuss in this paper the archaeobotanical (charred wood, seeds and fruits) content of the Early Neolithic occupation layers mostly obtained from the 2012 excavation. Important results were provided thanks to a high-resolution stratigraphy, extensive flotation of the sediment and new radiocarbon AMS dates. The first farmers of the Impressa Culture arriving from the South around 5800 BC found a landscape formed by a mixed oak woodland, with both deciduous and holm oak, and open areas with light-demanding species. Hulled and naked wheat, barley and horse bean (together with wild plants: grape, wild legumes, hazelnuts and blackberries), are the first documented evidence of agriculture and harvesting during the AC1A cultural phase (5800-5650 BC), the earliest phases being mostly characterized by the presence of barley. During the subsequent Cardial Culture (5500-5300 cal BC) a similar agricultural economy continues, both glume and naked wheats are present, with a little prevalence of emmer. It is during this late phase that a consistent quantity of crop-related weeds appears, maybe suggesting the presence of more permanent fields closer to the site. It has been proposed that in these early phases a “regional” difference, with “western” Tyrrhenian groups centered more on wheats and barley, and “eastern” Adriatic groups with a higher proportion of legumes, would be already established.

Archaeologia Polona, 1999

Flora Mediterranea, 2018

online. The BRAIN (Botanical Records of Archaeobotany Italian Network) database and network was d... more online. The BRAIN (Botanical Records of Archaeobotany Italian Network) database and network was developed by the cooperation of archaeobotanists working on Italian archaeological sites. Examples of recent research including pollen or other plant remains in analytical and synthetic papers are reported as an exemplar reference list. This paper retraces the main steps of the creation of BRAIN, from the scientific need for the first research cooperation to the website which has a free online access since 2015.

Lithics: The Journal of the Lithic Studies Society, Jan 25, 2021

This paper describes and discusses an andesite Middle Palaeolithic Levallois point discovered on ... more This paper describes and discusses an andesite Middle Palaeolithic Levallois point discovered on the surface of Javakheti Highland in the Lesser Caucasus of Georgia at 2130 m of altitude during the surveys carried out in the summer of 2017. Though andesite Acheulian hand-axes were already recovered along the slopes of Mt. Chikiani during the Soviet period, the new find shows that this raw material was employed also for knapping Levallois tools, despite the rich obsidian sources available from the volcano. The discovery would suggest that the tool is older than the beginning of exploitation of the obsidian sources that, according to the available data, started to be utilised around the end of the Middle Palaeolithic.

Charcoal analysis at Lagorara site (Eastern Ligurian Apennine) provides evidence of diverse forms... more Charcoal analysis at Lagorara site (Eastern Ligurian Apennine) provides evidence of diverse forms of Copper Age wood. The presence of beech in Iron Age levels seems to point to the contraction of the beech forest only since that period, due to intensified human action to expand cultivated space. Nevertheless, this association was not completely destroyed, since fir and beech charcoal were found again in the Late Roman levels. At this time chestnut, which is dominant today, is not yet present in the charcoal record.

Over the last millennia, the land between the Alps and the Mediterranean sea, characterized by ex... more Over the last millennia, the land between the Alps and the Mediterranean sea, characterized by extraordinary habitat diversity, has seen an outstanding cross-cultural development. They cover a large time scale, from the prehistoric through the protohistoric Iron Age, right up to the historical and modern times, and a variety of contexts that make this land one-of-a-kind. For this reason, a huge number of studies on plant records from archaeological contexts are carried out in Italy since the second half of the last century (e.g.: Follieri 1975; Castelletti 1976; Bakels 2002). This data record synthesis (Mercuri et al. submitted) reports for the first time the census of the Holocene archaeological sites that have been studied for archaeobotany in Italy over the last quarter in a century. Sites are typical on-site contexts where samples for botanical analyses were collected during stratigraphical excavation fieldwork. Pollen, seeds and fruits, woods/charcoals and other plant remains w...

Data concerning the colonisation of the Cottian Alps at the end of the Neolithic are few and limi... more Data concerning the colonisation of the Cottian Alps at the end of the Neolithic are few and limited to the region North of Mount Viso, i.e. the Chisone and Susa Valleys. Geological resources of the region soon attracted Neolithic human groups. In the second half of the 3rd millennium BC, a mixed economy of gathering, hunting and farming - within q mobile pastoral system - gradually led to the human occupation of mountain areas located at the upper limit of the forests.

Antiquity

Discovery of high altitude chert outcrops exploited during the Middle Palaeolithic in the Pindus ... more Discovery of high altitude chert outcrops exploited during the Middle Palaeolithic in the Pindus range of Western Macedonia (Greece)

The Arabian Seas: Biodiversity, Environmental Challenges and Conservation Measures, 2021

This chapter is a review of the prehistory of the fisher-gatherers who settled along the coasts o... more This chapter is a review of the prehistory of the fisher-gatherers who settled along the coasts of the Arabian Sea and the Gulf of Oman. Previous research and studies have been centred mainly on the western coasts of the Indian Ocean. They have presented and discussed the general patterns and chronological frame of the coastal human adaptation since the early Holocene, and the recurrent presence of shell middens located close to mangrove environments. More recent research has been focussed on the northern shores of the Arabian Sea. From this region we have new evidence of the presence of fisher-gatherers communities that seasonally settled along the ancient coastline and islands of south-western Sindh and Las Bela (Balochistan) since the end of the eighth millennium BP indicating that early navigation already took place in that period. According to the archaeological evidence, the subsistence activities of these human groups were varied though seasonally based mainly on fishing and ...

The first radiocarbon date from charcoal included in the mortar of a collapsed pillar lying overt... more The first radiocarbon date from charcoal included in the mortar of a collapsed pillar lying overturned in the riverbed at Sann (Eastern) Gate, Ranikot, confirms that at least this sector of the fort was built, or repaired, between the beginning of the XVIII and the beginning of XIX century AD, that is between the beginning of the Kalhoras and the beginning of the Talpurs rule. The present note, without positively solving the much debated issue of the age of the fort, points to a new line of research on the topic, which deserves future work, in order to collect more organic material for absolute dating.

[Voir plus bas pour le résumé en français]. The Punta Corna mining complex (Turin, Italy), near t... more [Voir plus bas pour le résumé en français]. The Punta Corna mining complex (Turin, Italy), near the French border, extends over 10 km² at an altitude ranging from 2250 to 2900 m. The extraction activities involved a system of post-metamorphic hydrothermal veins almost completely included within the metabasites of the Piemonte Zone. In the western sectors, the veins are rich in siderite, while in the east there are significant concentrations of Co-Fe-Ni arsenides. The exploitation of cobalt-bearing veins began in the mid 18th century, but iron ore was already being mined in the middle ages (13th-15th century) with the opening of large open-air trenches where veins emerged and of a lot of ditches, descending galleries and pits where veins were covered with debris. Over their entire length, the excavations, with entrances protected by horizontal slabs, are flanked with spoil banks, remnants of rough-stone buildings, terraces for treating minerals, rock shelters enclosed by walls. The dating is based on written sources (1264-1515) and on artefacts found near the excavations (12th-14th century); Beech wood charcoal from a forging area produced an initial mining 14C date of 970±30 uncal BP = 1016-1155 cal AD (GrA-56663). The enriched mineral was treated by the blast furnace and by the forges of Forno di Lemie: the semi-worked products were sent to building sites in Turin and to the metallurgy workshops of the lower Susa valley, that supplied an international market extending to southeast France. Le complexe minier de Punta Corna (Turin, Italie) s’étend sur 10 km², entre 2250 et 2900 m de hauteur, près de la frontière française. Les travaux extractifs ont intéressé un système de veines hydrothermales post-métamorphiques comprises presque totalement dans les métabasites de la Zone Piémontaise. Dans les secteurs Ouest les veines sont riches en sidérite, alors que dans les secteurs Est elles ont des concentrations importantes d’arséniures de Co-Fe-Ni. L’exploitation des filons cobaltifères n’a débuté qu’au milieu du XVIIIe s., mais celui des minerais de fer a eu lieu déjà au moyen âge (XIIIe-XVe s.), avec ouverture de larges tranchées à ciel ouvert là où les filons étaient à jour et d’une grande quantité de fosses, galeries descendantes et puits là où ils étaient couverts de détritus. Les excavations, aux entrées protégées par des dalles, sont accompagnées sur toute leur extension de haldes, ruines de cabanes en pierre sèche, terrasses de traitement du minerai, abris sous roche fermés par des murs. La datation s’appuie sur les sources écrites (1264-1515) et sur le mobilier retrouvé près des excavations (XIIe-XIVe s.); un charbon de bois de Hêtre d’une zone de forge a restitué pour le début de l’exploitation la date 14C GrA-56663, 970±30 uncal BP = 1016-1155 cal AD. Le minerai enrichi était traité par le haut fourneau et les fusines de Forno di Lemie: les demi-produits étaient destinés aux chantiers de construction de Turin et aux entreprises sidérurgiques de la basse vallée de Suse, qui alimentaient un marché international s’étendant jusque dans la France du Sud-Est.

1. Preface In the course of the 2010 survey of the Italian Archaeological Mission in Sindh, trave... more 1. Preface In the course of the 2010 survey of the Italian Archaeological Mission in Sindh, traveling south from Hyderabad to Jhimpir, we daily crossed two distinct areas where some kilns for the production of lime were constantly active. As one of our purposes was to evaluate the relationship between plants and man in past and present times, and in order to assess the importance of this wood-consuming economy, we planned a visit to the local workers, as the surrounding environment looked rather unsuitable for a large firewood collection. The visited sites are placed along the route south of Kotri. The first (Site A), larger productive unit, is located few kms south of Bholari

OLTRE LE STRATIGRAFIE. STORIE DI SITI, AMBIENTI E POPOLI Omaggio a Lanfredo Castelletti nel 2022, 2022

The paper shortly resumes the archaeobotany (seeds, fruits, charcoal) of a Recent and Final Bronz... more The paper shortly resumes the archaeobotany (seeds, fruits, charcoal) of a Recent and Final Bronze Age settlement in Aosta (Aosta valley, N.W. Italy). The excavation was carried out on the village and on the wide adjacent field, which shows clear traces of an important agricultural management (ard marks, field and ductwork system). Crops were made of einkorn, emmer, naked wheat, spelt and barley. Millet is also present, a grain of which gave one of the earliest dates for N Italy.

Rivista di Scienze Preistoriche, 2023

Arene Candide cave (Finale Ligure, Liguria) is one of the key Neolithic sites in the North-Wester... more Arene Candide cave (Finale Ligure, Liguria) is one of the key Neolithic sites in the North-Western Mediterranean. We discuss in this paper the archaeobotanical (charred wood, seeds and fruits) content of the Early Neolithic occupation layers mostly obtained from the 2012 excavation. Important results were provided thanks to a high-resolution stratigraphy, extensive flotation of the sediment and new radiocarbon AMS dates. The first farmers of the Impressa Culture arriving from the South around 5800 BC found a landscape formed by a mixed oak woodland, with both deciduous and holm oak, and open areas with light-demanding species. Hulled and naked wheat, barley and horse bean (together with wild plants: grape, wild legumes, hazelnuts and blackberries), are the first documented evidence of agriculture and harvesting during the AC1A cultural phase (5800-5650 BC), the earliest phases being mostly characterized by the presence of barley. During the subsequent Cardial Culture (5500-5300 cal BC) a similar agricultural economy continues, both glume and naked wheats are present, with a little prevalence of emmer. It is during this late phase that a consistent quantity of crop-related weeds appears, maybe suggesting the presence of more permanent fields closer to the site. It has been proposed that in these early phases a “regional” difference, with “western” Tyrrhenian groups centered more on wheats and barley, and “eastern” Adriatic groups with a higher proportion of legumes, would be already established.

Archaeologia Polona, 1999

Flora Mediterranea, 2018

online. The BRAIN (Botanical Records of Archaeobotany Italian Network) database and network was d... more online. The BRAIN (Botanical Records of Archaeobotany Italian Network) database and network was developed by the cooperation of archaeobotanists working on Italian archaeological sites. Examples of recent research including pollen or other plant remains in analytical and synthetic papers are reported as an exemplar reference list. This paper retraces the main steps of the creation of BRAIN, from the scientific need for the first research cooperation to the website which has a free online access since 2015.

Lithics: The Journal of the Lithic Studies Society, Jan 25, 2021

This paper describes and discusses an andesite Middle Palaeolithic Levallois point discovered on ... more This paper describes and discusses an andesite Middle Palaeolithic Levallois point discovered on the surface of Javakheti Highland in the Lesser Caucasus of Georgia at 2130 m of altitude during the surveys carried out in the summer of 2017. Though andesite Acheulian hand-axes were already recovered along the slopes of Mt. Chikiani during the Soviet period, the new find shows that this raw material was employed also for knapping Levallois tools, despite the rich obsidian sources available from the volcano. The discovery would suggest that the tool is older than the beginning of exploitation of the obsidian sources that, according to the available data, started to be utilised around the end of the Middle Palaeolithic.

Charcoal analysis at Lagorara site (Eastern Ligurian Apennine) provides evidence of diverse forms... more Charcoal analysis at Lagorara site (Eastern Ligurian Apennine) provides evidence of diverse forms of Copper Age wood. The presence of beech in Iron Age levels seems to point to the contraction of the beech forest only since that period, due to intensified human action to expand cultivated space. Nevertheless, this association was not completely destroyed, since fir and beech charcoal were found again in the Late Roman levels. At this time chestnut, which is dominant today, is not yet present in the charcoal record.

Over the last millennia, the land between the Alps and the Mediterranean sea, characterized by ex... more Over the last millennia, the land between the Alps and the Mediterranean sea, characterized by extraordinary habitat diversity, has seen an outstanding cross-cultural development. They cover a large time scale, from the prehistoric through the protohistoric Iron Age, right up to the historical and modern times, and a variety of contexts that make this land one-of-a-kind. For this reason, a huge number of studies on plant records from archaeological contexts are carried out in Italy since the second half of the last century (e.g.: Follieri 1975; Castelletti 1976; Bakels 2002). This data record synthesis (Mercuri et al. submitted) reports for the first time the census of the Holocene archaeological sites that have been studied for archaeobotany in Italy over the last quarter in a century. Sites are typical on-site contexts where samples for botanical analyses were collected during stratigraphical excavation fieldwork. Pollen, seeds and fruits, woods/charcoals and other plant remains w...

Data concerning the colonisation of the Cottian Alps at the end of the Neolithic are few and limi... more Data concerning the colonisation of the Cottian Alps at the end of the Neolithic are few and limited to the region North of Mount Viso, i.e. the Chisone and Susa Valleys. Geological resources of the region soon attracted Neolithic human groups. In the second half of the 3rd millennium BC, a mixed economy of gathering, hunting and farming - within q mobile pastoral system - gradually led to the human occupation of mountain areas located at the upper limit of the forests.

Antiquity

Discovery of high altitude chert outcrops exploited during the Middle Palaeolithic in the Pindus ... more Discovery of high altitude chert outcrops exploited during the Middle Palaeolithic in the Pindus range of Western Macedonia (Greece)

The Arabian Seas: Biodiversity, Environmental Challenges and Conservation Measures, 2021

This chapter is a review of the prehistory of the fisher-gatherers who settled along the coasts o... more This chapter is a review of the prehistory of the fisher-gatherers who settled along the coasts of the Arabian Sea and the Gulf of Oman. Previous research and studies have been centred mainly on the western coasts of the Indian Ocean. They have presented and discussed the general patterns and chronological frame of the coastal human adaptation since the early Holocene, and the recurrent presence of shell middens located close to mangrove environments. More recent research has been focussed on the northern shores of the Arabian Sea. From this region we have new evidence of the presence of fisher-gatherers communities that seasonally settled along the ancient coastline and islands of south-western Sindh and Las Bela (Balochistan) since the end of the eighth millennium BP indicating that early navigation already took place in that period. According to the archaeological evidence, the subsistence activities of these human groups were varied though seasonally based mainly on fishing and ...

The first radiocarbon date from charcoal included in the mortar of a collapsed pillar lying overt... more The first radiocarbon date from charcoal included in the mortar of a collapsed pillar lying overturned in the riverbed at Sann (Eastern) Gate, Ranikot, confirms that at least this sector of the fort was built, or repaired, between the beginning of the XVIII and the beginning of XIX century AD, that is between the beginning of the Kalhoras and the beginning of the Talpurs rule. The present note, without positively solving the much debated issue of the age of the fort, points to a new line of research on the topic, which deserves future work, in order to collect more organic material for absolute dating.

[Voir plus bas pour le résumé en français]. The Punta Corna mining complex (Turin, Italy), near t... more [Voir plus bas pour le résumé en français]. The Punta Corna mining complex (Turin, Italy), near the French border, extends over 10 km² at an altitude ranging from 2250 to 2900 m. The extraction activities involved a system of post-metamorphic hydrothermal veins almost completely included within the metabasites of the Piemonte Zone. In the western sectors, the veins are rich in siderite, while in the east there are significant concentrations of Co-Fe-Ni arsenides. The exploitation of cobalt-bearing veins began in the mid 18th century, but iron ore was already being mined in the middle ages (13th-15th century) with the opening of large open-air trenches where veins emerged and of a lot of ditches, descending galleries and pits where veins were covered with debris. Over their entire length, the excavations, with entrances protected by horizontal slabs, are flanked with spoil banks, remnants of rough-stone buildings, terraces for treating minerals, rock shelters enclosed by walls. The dating is based on written sources (1264-1515) and on artefacts found near the excavations (12th-14th century); Beech wood charcoal from a forging area produced an initial mining 14C date of 970±30 uncal BP = 1016-1155 cal AD (GrA-56663). The enriched mineral was treated by the blast furnace and by the forges of Forno di Lemie: the semi-worked products were sent to building sites in Turin and to the metallurgy workshops of the lower Susa valley, that supplied an international market extending to southeast France. Le complexe minier de Punta Corna (Turin, Italie) s’étend sur 10 km², entre 2250 et 2900 m de hauteur, près de la frontière française. Les travaux extractifs ont intéressé un système de veines hydrothermales post-métamorphiques comprises presque totalement dans les métabasites de la Zone Piémontaise. Dans les secteurs Ouest les veines sont riches en sidérite, alors que dans les secteurs Est elles ont des concentrations importantes d’arséniures de Co-Fe-Ni. L’exploitation des filons cobaltifères n’a débuté qu’au milieu du XVIIIe s., mais celui des minerais de fer a eu lieu déjà au moyen âge (XIIIe-XVe s.), avec ouverture de larges tranchées à ciel ouvert là où les filons étaient à jour et d’une grande quantité de fosses, galeries descendantes et puits là où ils étaient couverts de détritus. Les excavations, aux entrées protégées par des dalles, sont accompagnées sur toute leur extension de haldes, ruines de cabanes en pierre sèche, terrasses de traitement du minerai, abris sous roche fermés par des murs. La datation s’appuie sur les sources écrites (1264-1515) et sur le mobilier retrouvé près des excavations (XIIe-XIVe s.); un charbon de bois de Hêtre d’une zone de forge a restitué pour le début de l’exploitation la date 14C GrA-56663, 970±30 uncal BP = 1016-1155 cal AD. Le minerai enrichi était traité par le haut fourneau et les fusines de Forno di Lemie: les demi-produits étaient destinés aux chantiers de construction de Turin et aux entreprises sidérurgiques de la basse vallée de Suse, qui alimentaient un marché international s’étendant jusque dans la France du Sud-Est.

1. Preface In the course of the 2010 survey of the Italian Archaeological Mission in Sindh, trave... more 1. Preface In the course of the 2010 survey of the Italian Archaeological Mission in Sindh, traveling south from Hyderabad to Jhimpir, we daily crossed two distinct areas where some kilns for the production of lime were constantly active. As one of our purposes was to evaluate the relationship between plants and man in past and present times, and in order to assess the importance of this wood-consuming economy, we planned a visit to the local workers, as the surrounding environment looked rather unsuitable for a large firewood collection. The visited sites are placed along the route south of Kotri. The first (Site A), larger productive unit, is located few kms south of Bholari

The paper reports the results of excavations on the Copper Age occupation of the Balm'Chanto rock... more The paper reports the results of excavations on the Copper Age occupation of the Balm'Chanto rock shelter. These provided evidence of an integrated economy with the utilization of a broad spectrum of resources, supported by extensive land-use and localized pastoralism

Early domestication discussed in its wider context, taking into cosideration zooarchaeology and a... more Early domestication discussed in its wider context, taking into cosideration zooarchaeology and archaeobotany, soil development, mobility and technological aspects

Vislario. Archeologia e paleoecologia di un terrazzamento alpino, 1983

Iron Age terrace in the Western Italian Alps