Plant macrofossils from the Roman settlement of Terronha de Pinhovelo, northwest Iberia

• DOI: 10.1007/s00334-009-0222-x
• Publication Date: 2009-06-27T03:28:56Z
• Authors: João Pedro Tereso
• Keywords: Macrofossil; Paleoethnobotany; Charcoal; Panicum miliaceum; Pinus pinaster; Quercus robur

Several samples were collected during the archaeological excavations at the proto-historic and Roman settlement of Terronha de Pinhovelo, northeast Portugal, in order to obtain plant macrofossils. The relevant archaeobotanical data gathered from the Roman structures of Sector B at the site allow a further understanding of the settlement and its community’s daily life between the 4th and 5th centuries a.d. In the charcoal analysis, the main types recovered were Pinus pinaster, Quercus pyrenaica type, Q. faginea type, Q. suber type, Arbutus unedo and Fraxinus angustifolia. The shrubs, significantly less abundant in the samples, were represented by Cistus sp., Leguminosae and Erica spp. It must be stressed that the samples were taken from well-delimited domestic hearths and the botanical remains result from specific choices of firewood in short episodes of time, and therefore not the most appropriate for palaeoecological approaches, which usually cover a longer time span. The cereals are the most frequent group of plants represented in the fruit and seed assemblages. Triticum aestivum/durum, T. compactum, T. spelta and Hordeum vulgare were the dominant crops, followed by T. dicoccum and Panicum miliaceum. The only pulse identified was Vicia faba var. minor, in quite abundant quantity although it came almost exclusively from just one hearth. Two of the compartments sampled seem to be directly connected to plant processing, but the presence together of several plant taxa in the domestic structures makes their understanding quite difficult. These palaeoeconomic data are consistent with the records already available for northwest Iberia, and are significantly representative of a regular Romanised rural community.