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Arboreal imperialism in the ancient eastern Adriatic, ca. 600 BCE-600 CE : New paleoethnobotanical investigations at Nadin- Gradina, Croatia

Recent work in environmental archaeology has shown ancient empires to be significant agents of ecological change, reorganizing human and non- human populations, resource flows, and landscapes, with complex long-term legacy effects beyond the historical duration of imperial political institutions (Morrison 2018, Rosenzweig & Marston 2018). This paper presents new paleoethnobotanical research on the dynamics of empire and environment in the central Mediterranean from late prehistory through late antiquity at the Liburnian hillfort/Roman municipium of Nadin-Gradina (Nedinum), located near present day Zadar, Croatia. We argue that Roman colonization of the eastern Adriatic entailed reconfigurations of plant cultivation that intensified agricultural specialization and dependence on commercial production and exchange, potentially reducing local subsistence autonomy and agricultural biodiversity. Between 2015-2019, the Nadin-Gradina Archaeological Project (NGAP) conducted excavations within the main settlement area of Nadin to investigate processes of urbanization and environmental change in the eastern Adriatic over the last 2500 years (Zaro and Čelhar 2018). NGAP is one of the first projects in the region to undertake systematic sampling for plant remains at a late prehistoric and classical period settlement site, contributing new data to an archaeobotanically under- represented period. Preliminary analysis of macrobotanical remains from all occupational levels indicates a pre-Roman agricultural economy based on diversified cereal agriculture, viticulture, and regular use of wild tree species (Cornus and Quercus). We see significant transformation in plant use in the early 1st millennium CE, especially in relation to tree crop cultivation, with a pronounced shift to intensive olive cultivation, probably for commercial production. Several other cultivated tree species are also introduced at this time, suggesting a general reconfiguration of local practices of arboriculture under the Roman Empire that continue to characterize the landscape today. Certain configurations of land use and biodiversity seen as traditionally “Mediterranean” may thus prove to be a more specifically Roman legacy.

Nadin-Gradina, Liburnia, Iron Age, Antiquity, archaeobotany, plant cultivation, agricultural specialization

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