Viticulture in Iron Age and Roman southeastern France: A reconstruction based on charcoal and seed-fruit data compared to archaeological evidence and wine yields modelling

Abstract

Winegrowing has dramatically shaped the landscapes as well as the culture and economy of societies in the Mediterranean region. It is generally accepted that it appeared and expanded in Mediterranean France during the Iron Age and the Roman period (ca 750 BCE − 500 CE). Viticulture flourished massively during the Early Roman Empire, when wine was widely exported throughout the Empire.

The objective of this paper is to propose an updated overview of the history of viticulture based on a multidisciplinary survey combining archaeobotanical, archaeological data and modelling of wine potential yields. We aim to compare the information provided by seed-fruits and by charcoal, and to better understand how these data can be used to trace ancient viticulture in relation to other archaeological data.

We collected and entered into a database all available results of charcoal and seed-fruit analyses from Mediterranean France and the middle Rhône valley. Seed and fruits provide evidence of fruit consumption and processing (table vs. pressing), while charcoal remains are stronger indicators of local cultivation. We also included published archaeological information about wineries and amphorae factories. This provides another way of identifying areas of cultivation and processing into wine, and gives hints on the scale of production and the possible destination for export. The reconstructions based on the multi-proxy information contained in the database are compared to the climate-vegetation LPJmL model estimates of wine potential yields and their variations over space and time.

Charcoal and seed evidence concur to show that viticulture started in the 6th-5th c. BCE and developed with the progressive increase of potential wine yields throughout the Iron Age and then with the Roman Climatic Optimum. In the Roman period, the development of specialised winemaking facilities provides impressive evidence of viticulture, but is at the same time less favourable to its record by archaeobotany. Apparently, charcoals and seeds are more frequently preserved in rubbish assemblages when winemaking activities are still associated with domestic activities. While wineries and amphorae factories bear witness to a wine crisis in the Late Roman period, archaeobotanical remains indicate that viticulture persisted, probably in a less specialised mode, and modelling suggests that potential wine yields did not decline in comparison with the heyday of regional viticulture. Archaeobotany also provides consistent evidence of the existence of grapevine cultivation in urban Roman contexts.