Abstract
The ad 79 eruption of the Vesuvius severely affected the floodplain surrounding the ancient city of Pompeii, i.e. the Sarno River floodplain. The landscape was covered with volcaniclastic materials that destroyed the ecosystem but, at the same time, preserved the traces of former environmental conditions. This study provides—for the first time—a pollen sequence reconstructing the environmental evolution and the plant landscape of the Sarno floodplain between 900 and 750 cal bc and ad 79, i.e. before and during the foundation of the city, and during its life phases. Previous geomorphological studies revealed that the portion of the Sarno floodplain under the “Pompeii hill” was a freshwater backswamp with patchy inundated and dry areas. Palynology depicts a thin forest cover since the Early Iron Age, suggesting an open environment with a mosaic of vegetation types. The local presence of Mediterranean coastal shrubland, hygrophilous riverine forest and mesophilous plain forest is combined with the regional contribution of mountain vegetation through the sequence. Oscillations between inundated and wet ground characterized the studied area until the ad 79 eruption. Such a natural environment shows anthropogenic traits since pre-Roman times: pasturelands, cultivated fields and olive groves, which probably occupied drier soils. The most important change in the land use system was the introduction of cabbage cultivation in the fourth century bc and its intensification from the second century bc, when Roman influence grew. The presence of tree crops and of ornamental trees reveals the opulence of the Imperial age until the catastrophic eruption.
Highlights
The palynology of river floodplains is a powerful tool for the reconstruction of past vegetation and landscape evolution of these highly attractive environments for humanCommunicated by W
This interval has been selected for palaeoenvironmental investigations with pollen analyses and new radiocarbon dates integrating the sedimentological, micromorphological, and diatom analyses published in Nicosia et al (2019)
The results suggested a cautious approach and the main zones highlighted by pollen analysis were labelled with rather generic chronological periods:
Summary
The palynology of river floodplains is a powerful tool for the reconstruction of past vegetation and landscape evolution of these highly attractive environments for humanCommunicated by W. In the Vesuvius region (Campania, Italy) the floodplain of the Sarno River represents a crucial context for studying how human peopling left a mark on the fluvial ecosystem. This territory was occupied since prehistory thanks both to its strategic position, amidst terrestrial, fluvial and marine trading routes of the Italian Peninsula, and to the fertility of its volcanic soils (Cicirelli and Livadie 2012). It was chosen by Italic populations such as Etruscans, Greeks, and Romans throughout the first millennium bc. In ad 79 the whole floodplain was buried by pyroclastic deposits of the explosive volcanic eruption of Vesuvius, a
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