New synthesis shows Italians exploited olive trees for 6,000+ years and produced oil 4,000 years ago, far earlier than once thought. Evidence challenges colonial narratives. #Archaeology #AncientHistory #RomanItaly #Paleobotany #Archaeobotany https://www.anthropology.net/p/the-italian-olive-goes-back-further

#Rome #villa #RomanItaly #centuriatio Mummy, where do Roman villas come from? Well, wenn a Roman farmer and a Roman field. 🙂 Seriously? Most Roman Villa studies in Italy happily tell us that you have to wait until the 1st century BC to find villas with architectural pretensions. But that's like saying you can only have country houses in the North of England from the 18th century. It doesn't explain where they come from or why they spread so widely. So why not start at the other end? 1/3