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For millennia, the Mediterranean Area has been a crossroads where humans, animals, and plants have repeatedly migrated and settled, forging its biological and cultural characteristics. Its rich biodiversity, initially, was the result of plant movements from the East. Exotic plants adapted to new environments or interbred with local plants, increasing and diversifying agricultural production and improving the health of the populations that inhabited it. In ancient times, from the Near East, the cultivation of cereals, several fruit trees and aromatic plants spread to the Mediterranean, some of which originated in East Asia. However, only some of the latter managed to adapt to the new ecosystems while others continued to cross the globe in the form of commercial products. In this process, starting from the first millennium BCE, Phoenician and Greek traders and settlers played a pivotal role as intermediaries between the eastern and western Mediterranean, initiating 'mediterraneanisation' and the sharing of crops and techniques throughout its basin. Rome’s eastern expansion promoted the diffusion of new plants within the borders of the Roman Empire. New fruit trees began to be cultivated, thanks also to more favorable climatic conditions and advances in agricultural techniques. Spices originating from Southern Asia became part of Roman trade, increasing the interconnections between various parts of the globe. After the fall of the Western Roman Empire, Constantinople emerged in the East as the main commercial center of the 'Great Sea', while staple foods and spices from the East continued to reach the Western Mediterranean thanks to the settlement of Byzantine merchants along its coast. The process of plant globalization that took place in ancient times in the Old World was slower and more irregular than that which began with the era of great geographical explorations but no less decisive for the growth of the European population.
Vegetation History and Archaeobotany
Spicing up life in northwestern Europe: exotic food plant imports in the Roman and medieval world2010 •
Plant Ecology
The historical role of agriculture and gardening in the introduction of alien plants in the western Mediterranean2009 •
2020 •
This paper explores the first maritime westward expansion of crops across the Adriatic and the northern coast of the western Mediterranean. Starting in Greece at c.6500 cal BC and following the coastline to the Andalusian region of Spain to c.4500 cal BC, the presence of the main cereal, pulse, oil and fibre crops are recorded from 122 sites. Patterns in the distribution of crops are explored through ubiquity scores, correspondence analysis and Simpson's diversity index. Our findings reveal changes in the frequencies of crops as farming regimes developed in Europe, and show how different crops followed unique trajectories. Fluctuations in the diversity of the crop spectrum between defined areas are also evident, and may serve to illustrate how founder effects can explain some of the patterns evident in large-scale spatio-temporal evaluations. Within the broader westward expansion of farming, regionalism and multi-directional maritime networks described through archaeological materials are also visible in the botanical records.
Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports
De Vareilles et al. 2020 One sea but many routes to Sail. The early maritime dispersal of Neolithic crops from the Aegean to the western MediterraneanThis paper explores the first maritime westward expansion of crops across the Adriatic and the northern coast of the western Mediterranean. Starting in Greece at c.6500 cal BC and following the coastline to the Andalusian region of Spain to c.4500 cal BC, the presence of the main cereal, pulse, oil and fibre crops are recorded from 122 sites. Patterns in the distribution of crops are explored through ubiquity scores, correspondence analysis and Simpson's diversity index. Our findings reveal changes in the frequencies of crops as farming regimes developed in Europe, and show how different crops followed unique trajectories. Fluctuations in the diversity of the crop spectrum between defined areas are also evident, and may serve to illustrate how founder effects can explain some of the patterns evident in large-scale spatio-temporal evaluations. Within the broader westward expansion of farming, regionalism and multi-directional maritime networks described through archaeological materials are also visible in the botanical records.
M.M. Urteaga Artigas, M.J. Noain Maura (eds): Mar Exterior. El Occidente Atlántico en época romana. Actas del Congreso Internacional. Pisa, 6-9 noviembre 2003. Escuela Española de Historia y Arqueología en Roma-CSIC, Roma, 2005, 169-177
Trade and New Plant Foods in the Western Atlantic Coast: the Roman Port of Irun (Basque Country)2005 •
The analysis of plant remains from Irun has provided an important assemblage of more than 6000 remains from which a large part is composed of economic species. The assemblage includes many fruits and nuts well documented also in the literary sources. Looking at the possible origin of the species, we put forward the following classification: Imported species: olives. Species likely to have been imported, although they may have been already introduced, and therefore, locally cultivated: plums, cherries, peaches, almonds and figs. Species cultivated from prehistoric times, but that could have been subjected to trade: wheat and grapes. Species gathered in the surroundings from wild stands of managed plants: sloes, walnuts, pine, hazelnuts, acorns, Rubus sp.
Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Environmental Science
Agricultural Dispersals in Mediterranean and Temperate Europe2017 •
2016 •
VNU Journal of Science: Policy and Management Studies
Policy for Developing Excellence Research Group in Vietnam National University, Hanoi: Reality and Solutions2019 •
2023 •
Progress In Electromagnetics Research Letters
A Compact N-Way Wilkinson Power Divider Using a Novel Coaxial Cable Implementation for VHF Band2016 •
ARCHIVIO DI FILOSOFIA
Die Kritik zur «Phrase» und die «monumentale» Theologie2023 •
2016 •
Contaduría y Administración
Assessment of a credit scoring system for popular bank savings and credit2016 •
Biochemical Systematics and Ecology
Character coding of secondary chemical variation for use in phylogenetic analyses2001 •
2012 •