Cereal farming practices in Italy during the 1st millennium CE: An integrated approach to regionality

This study investigates the cereal farming practices of the Italian peninsula during the first millennium CE, with a particular focus on the Early Middle Ages. Using non-parametric multivariate statistics and a dimensionality reduction algorithm (PERMANOVA; nMDS), this research presents and compares 177 archaeobotanical caryopses assemblages from three areas of Italy. The results showed that differences in cereal farming practices between Northern and Southern Italy were not statistically significant during the Roman period, but became significant during the early medieval period. The research suggests that after the collapse of the Roman Empire, northern peasants had more autonomy in selecting their crops, while southern farmers were more resistant to change. These findings challenge the prevailing assumption that early medieval peasants across the entire peninsula uniformly adopted cereal crops like millets and rye. Overall, the study sheds new light on the diversity of cereal farming practices in early medieval Italy and presents a comprehensive collection of cereal macroremains from mainland Italy.