The first millennium AD climate fluctuations in the Tavoliere Plain (Apulia, Italy): New preliminary data from the 14C AMS-dated plant remains from the archaeological site of Faragola

Abstract

The identification of ancient climate fluctuations represents an hard challenge for studies intended to outline the human–environment interaction in fragile ecosystems. The aim of this work is to test the potentialities of carbon stable isotopic content of AMS-dated archaeological plant remains as tool to infer variations in rainfall/temperature regimes. The results obtained in the analysis of the carbon stable isotopic content of 10 plant remains selected among the archaeobotanical remains collected at the archaeological site in Faragola (Apulia, Italy) and radiocarbon-dated by AMS are presented. The variation of δ13C values was considered on a chronological scale covering a time range comprised between the II century BC and the VII century AD. The obtained patterns were also compared with local and global-scale palaeoclimatic records.