Identification of the semideciduous and deciduous Oak species of the Salento Peninsula and their relevance to archaeological contexts: A metric approach

Oak charcoals recovered from archaeological sites can yield information of fundamental importance to our understanding of human economic and cultural development over time and the ecological setting in which this took place. To this end, the present paper describes the anatomical patterns of modern semideciduous and deciduous oaks and those of charcoals of semideciduous and deciduous oaks found in archaeological contexts in the Salento Peninsula. The preliminary results indicate that the oak species of the past could be different from those of today, and that different species seem to have been used for different purposes. For example, a post in the fortification walls probably is of a different species from the wood used to build the monumental gate in the same fortifications (Roca, Middle Bronze Age).