
Anna Maria MercuriUniversity of Modena and Reggio Emilia | UNIMO · Department of Life Sciences
Anna Maria Mercuri
Professor
About
372
Publications
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Introduction
My interests are on Long-Term perspective on human impact for Environmental Change (LoTEC) in the Mediterranean and Sahara, from the Lateglacial. Biology must have a key role in the study of past/present vegetation, landscape and land use, resource exploitation, plant-human relationships and human behaviour.
"Palynology is a trans- / inter-disciplinary science. A gap exists between study 'on pollen' as an object (basic p.) and 'with pollen' as a measurement tool (applied p)." (Aerobiologia 2015, 31 (3)). TOPICS: Palynology as the research on pollen markers of past and present environment and climate changes; archaeobotany as the study of human behaviour, and the relationships between humans and plants; ethnobotany; studies on cultural landscape onset and evolution in the Mediterranean
Additional affiliations
January 2002 - December 2013
Education
September 1986 - September 1987
Università degli Studi di Modena
Field of study
- Biology
November 1980 - March 1985
Università degli Studi di Modena
Field of study
- Biology, Botany, Palynology
Publications
Publications (372)
The effectiveness of surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy (SERS) spectrocsopy on Ag colloids has been successfully demonstrated for the identification of a yellow dye in two ancient wool threads found in the Royal Tumulus of In Aghelachem, Libyan Sahara, belonging to the Garamantian period (2nd–3rd century A.D.). High-performance liquid chromatograp...
The paper presents the large set of basketry and other worked fibre artefacts constituting the perishable artefacts assemblage from the Takarkori rock shelter. This site is located in southwestern Libya, central Sahara. Its well-preserved Holocene stratigraphy testifies to human occupations by foraging groups (Late Acacus culture; ca. 9000e7400 unc...
Modern pollen spectra are an invaluable reference tool for paleoenvironmental and cultural landscape reconstructions, but the importance of knowing the pollen rain released from orchards remains underexplored. In particular, the role of cultivated trees is in past and current agrarian landscapes has not been fully investigated. Here, we present a p...
The human selection of food plants cannot always have been aimed exclusively at isolating the traits typical of domesticated species today. Each phase of global change must have obliged plants and humans to cope with and develop innovative adaptive strategies. Hundreds of thousands of wild cereal seeds from the Holocene ‘green Sahara’ tell a story...
This is not the first time the Earth has to experience dramatic environmental and climate changes but this seems to be the first time that a living species-humanity-is able to understand that great changes are taking place rapidly and that probably natural and anthropogenic forces are involved in the process that is under way. Interdisciplinary res...
This study investigates botanical remains from the Takarkori site in the Tadrart Acacus region (SW Libya) to reconstruct socio-economic and cultural characteristics of human groups during the Holocene. By analyzing micro- and macrofossils of plant origin, we aim to understand the availability and management of environmental resources and how plant...
The possible co-variation of human occupation and vegetation from the Middle Neolithic to the beginning of the Iron Age (7.5–2.8 ka BP) in Central Sicily in the context of the central Mediterranean between Middle and Late Holocene are analysed in this paper to provide new insights on Sicilian prehistoric demography. The demographic and economic tre...
In the field of botany applied to archaeological and palaeoecological studies, the multi- and inter-disciplinary nature of this research produces a lack of data sharing and scattered articles in the specialty literature or in national and international journals. The vast production of archaeobotany and palynology data makes it necessary to develop...
This article deals with the integration of palaeoecological and archival data as an effective approach to evaluate land use legacy in shaping contemporary landscapes and support their informed management. There is a large amount of palaeoecological research data stored in free access databases/repositories. Also, the current availability of archiva...
In central Italy, the Charterhouse of Calci hosts the Natural History Museum of the University of Pisa. This monumental monastery was founded in 1366 by Carthusian monks. The Charterhouse has experienced various transformations over the centuries, until its abandonment in the 1970s. Since 2018, interdisciplinary archaeological research focused on t...
Nowadays, wild grapevine populations are quite limited and sporadic mainly due to habitat destruction, land-use change, and the spread of pathogens that have reduced their distribution range. Palaeoecological, archaeobotanical, and genetic studies indicate that modern cultivars of Vitis vinifera are the results of the domestication of the dioecious...
An integrated floristic and palynological approach was carried out at the site of national interest “Laghi di Mantova e Polo Chimico” to obtain an environmental assessment useful for monitoring polluted sites. The flora of highly contaminated sectors (area A and area B) was surveyed, and the floristic composition and ecological strategies of the sp...
This paper presents palynological data obtained from a trench excavated at the Neolithic pile-dwelling archaeological site of Palù di Livenza (northeastern Italy). The site is in a wetland located in a tectonic basin at the foot of the Cansiglio plateau, crossed by the Livenza river. Environmental conditions have made this wetland a suitable area f...
This paper proposes new anthropogenic pollen indicators for the Balearic Islands and attempts to assess gradients of human impact on vegetation in Mediterranean islands. A combination of modern pollen analogue studies, complemented by phytosociological descriptions and ordination techniques using quantitative and presence/absence data was used. Red...
Palynological and archaeobotanical analyses have been carried out as part of the interdisciplinary project of Colombare di Negrar, a prehistoric site in the Lessini Mountains (northern Italy). The palaeoenvironmental and economic reconstruction from the Late Neolithic to the beginning of the Early Bronze Age was based on 16 pollen samples and three...
(Forthcoming 2021/2022) Current environmental methods and survey of environmental analyses in Etruscan archaeology. Geomorphology, Palynology, Archaeobotany, Zooarchaeology
This paper reports on the most ancient unusual morphological trait of the apertures of Poaceae pollen found in archaeological layers. In Poaceae, high levels of hybridization, polyploidy, apomixis, and multiporate pollen are often related. Multiple genomes in polyploids are critical for the adaptation of plant species to stresses and could be revea...
This paper presents the study of modern pollen analogs from the Balearic Islands. While similar studies have been largely applied to mainland areas, research focused on modern vegetation dynamics on Mediterranean islands remains very rare. In this research, we combine vegetation surveys, pollen analysis and multivariate statistics to understand lan...
Quantitative reconstructions of past land cover are necessary to determine the processes involved in climate-human-land-cover interactions. We present the first temporally continuous and most spatially extensive pollen-based land-cover reconstruction for Europe over the Holocene (last 11 700 cal yr BP). We describe how vegetation cover has been qua...
The Black Death (1347–1352 ce ) is the most renowned pandemic in human history, believed by many to have killed half of Europe’s population. However, despite advances in ancient DNA research that conclusively identified the pandemic’s causative agent (bacterium Yersinia pestis ), our knowledge of the Black Death remains limited, based primarily on...
KEYWORDS Paleo-environmental research; multi-and interdisciplinary methodology; archaeobotany; zooarchaeology; flint; vine. RIASSUNTO Il sito delle Colombare di Negrar di Valpolicella, oggetto di ricerche all'inizio degli anni Cinquanta del secolo scorso, è ora al centro di un progetto di indagini archeologiche e paleoambientali a cura dell'Univers...
The paper presents the results of palynological and geoarchaeological investigation carried out on the Greek-Roman site of Pantanello – ancient Metapontum – in the Metaponto Plain (southern Italy). This area, archaeologically investigated since the ‘70s, is an example of the long-term interaction between human communities and the environment. A tot...
It is an honour and pleasure to invite you to the 19th Conference of the International Work Group for Palaeoethnobotany (IWGP) which will be held in České Budějovice (Budweis in German), the capital of South Bohemia region and centre of academic life. IWGP in České Budějovice will offer the results of archaeobotanical research on a global scale at...
The history of the migration and spread of Cannabis, a genus of the Cannabaceae family, from its center of origin is still uncertain. While its sister-genus Humulus is acknowledged to have naturally dispersed from Asia to Europe prior to human agency, Cannabis is commonly thought to have been spread by humans when cultures began to enjoy the multip...
Significance
Forest conservation and restoration are important means to counter threats caused by habitat fragmentation and global change. Diverse and resilient forests can only be maintained if we understand their sensitivity to past climate change. The sedimentary record of the oldest extant lake in Europe, Lake Ohrid (North Macedonia, Albania),...
Lycopus is a widespread herbaceous plant, currently part of European flora. Fossil remains of fruits (nutlets or mericarps) attributed to this genus are frequently found in European archaeological and palaeontological sites, being easily preserved in sedimentary deposits. In a worldwide context, the oldest fossils are from the early Oligocene (ca....
The Black Death is the most reknown pandemic in human history, believed by many to have killed half of Europe's population. However, despite the advances in ancient DNA research that allowed for the successful identification of the pandemic's causative agent (bacterium Yersinia pestis), our knowledge of the Black Death is still limited, based prima...
The recovery of inaperturate pollen from functionally female flowers in archaeological layers opens the question of a possible pollen-based discrimination between wild and domesticated Vitis vinifera in prehistoric times. Pollen analysis applied to archaeology has not routinely considered the existence of pollen dimorphism in Vitis, a well-known tr...
This is a dissemination paper published in the UNIMORE web-magazine "FOCUS" regarding "Mediterranean mosaic landscape research in the Balearics as cultural and climate laboratories. An EU-funded H2020-MSCA individual fellowship project in UNIMORE"
The early consumption of wine or other grape derivatives (such as vinegar or must) is suggested from organic residues analysis conducted on Bronze Age pottery recovered from two sites in north-eastern Italy, Pilastri di Bondeno (Ferrara) and Canale Anfora (Aquileia, Udine). Pilastri is part of the Terramare culture of the Po plain, from which the a...
been known since the early 1990s when its outstanding buildings attracted local interest. However, no stratigraphic investigation has been promoted until 2019, when the site was chosen as the first case-study of a wider project aimed at analysing patterns of change occurred at settlements, economy and the cultural landscape between the second Iron...
The Eurasian (née European) Modern Pollen Database (EMPD) was established in 2013 to provide a public database of high-quality modern pollen surface samples to help support studies of past climate, land cover, and land use using fossil pollen. The EMPD is part of, and complementary to, the European Pollen Database (EPD) which contains data on fossi...
OPEN-ACCESS, SEE https://rdcu.be/b6e3t FOR FULL LIST OF AUTHORS
Broomcorn millet (Panicum miliaceum L.) is not one of the founder crops domesticated in Southwest Asia in the early Holocene, but was domesticated in northeast China by 6000 BC. In Europe, millet was reported in Early Neolithic contexts formed by 6000 BC, but recent radiocarbon dating...
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-020-70495-z
The archaeological landscape of the Tadrart Acacus massif (SW Libya, central Sahara) is made of sites testimony of complex systems of cultural-specific settlement and economic strategies stretching over millennia of occupation. Here, caves and rock shelters represent the main physiographic features exploited by prehistoric herders. Climate fluctuat...
The hyperarid climate of the central Sahara precludes permanent agriculture, although occasional temporary ponds, or etaghas, as a result of rain-fed flooding of wadi beds in the Tadrart Acacus Mountains of the Libyan Sahara allow the pastoral Kel Tadrart Tuareg to cultivate cereals. Geoarchaeological and archaeological data, along with radiocarbon...
Following the 2011 ‘Arab spring’, archaeological research in large parts of
the Sahara is still at a halt, except for a few areas where it is possible to foresee the
possibility of resuming field research at a full capacity in the near future. Nevertheless,
the complex and dynamic post-revolutionary socio-political evolution of the countries
involv...
Abstract. The Eurasian (née European) Modern Pollen Database (EMPD) was established in 2013 to provide a public database of high-quality modern pollen surface samples to help support studies of past climate, land-cover and land-use using fossil pollen. The EMPD is part of, and complementary to, the European Pollen Database (EPD) which contains data...
This paper presents the results obtained from palynological research carried out at the archaeological site of San Vincenzo-Stromboli (Aeolian Islands, Sicily) during seven fieldwork seasons (2009–2015). The site has had discontinuous occupation since the Neolithic; the main remains are dated to the Bronze Age, late Roman and late Medieval phases....
Biology is among the best trans-disciplinary sciences with a strategic role for developing a sustainable strategy of life. The students of the Master degree in Applied and Experimental Biology of Modena University have cooperated to prepare this paper after the course of Applied Botany and Palynology of 2019. In this synthesis, three chapters repor...
Mediterranean climates are characterized by strong seasonal contrasts between dry summers and wet winters. Changes in winter rainfall are critical for regional socioeconomic development, but are difficult to simulate accurately¹ and reconstruct on Quaternary timescales. This is partly because regional hydroclimate records that cover multiple glacia...
This paper presents the first pedoanthracological study carried out on two mountains of the Northern Apennines, Monte Cimone, and Corno alle Scale, where the results provided new palaeoenvironmental data. The pedoantracological sampling followed an elevation gradient from the current timberline to the highest possible elevation, also adapted to the...
Archaeobotany is used to discover details on local land uses in prehistoric settlements developed during the middle and beginning of late Holocene. Six archaeological sites from four countries (Spain, Italy, Greece, and Turkey) have pollen and charcoal records showing clear signs of the agrarian systems that had developed in the Mediterranean basin...
Archaeological deposits in rock shelters have enormous informative potential, particularly in arid environments where organic materials are well preserved. In these areas, sub-fossilized coprolites and dung remains have been identified as valuable proxies for inferences about past environments, subsistence economies and cultural trajectories. Here...
Cultivation of broomcorn millet (Panicum miliaceum L.) was a widespread practice in later European prehistory. When and how this ‘crop from the East’ was introduced to the continent and spread across it has not been determined. So far, based on the relative chronology of millet finds and a small set of radiocarbon-dated caryopses, it has been sugge...
The high-resolution Adriatic RF93-30 core shows changes in its microcharcoal record, which correlate to terrestrial fires from the last 7000 years. Pollen and microcharcoals were transported by wind and fluvial transport from the sedimentary basin, including the Po River and other rivers flowing into the sea off the Italian east coast. Charcoal par...
This paper compares changes in vegetation structure and composition (using synthetic fossil pollen data) with proxy data for population levels (including settlements and radiocarbon dates) over the course of the last 10 millennia in Tyrrhenian central Italy. These data show generalised patterns of clearance of woodland in response both to early agr...
We present the multidisciplinary investigation of
pigments and artefacts with traces of colour from the Early-
Middle Holocene site of Takarkori, located in the Tadrart
Acacus Mountains (central Sahara, SW Libya). Here, geological, archaeological, taphonomic and chemical studies
(Raman, Fourier-transform infrared, X-ray powder diffraction,
gas...