New radiocarbon data to study the history of roman and medieval Florence

Florence is a town worldwide known for its Renaissance masterpieces. It is often forgotten that it was founded during Roman times and remained a small village until the end of the early Middle Ages, practically confined within the ancient Roman boundaries. Since 2003, an extended archaeological research executed by the University of Sienna has studied the most ancient layers in the centre of Florence with the aim to enhance both the archaeological and paleo-environmental reconstruction of this area. One of the peculiarities of these excavations is that the early medieval layers were poor in datable ceramics, thus charcoals were sampled from different stratigraphic layers in order to contribute to the dating. Several data have already been published; here we focus on the excavation site of Palazzo Vecchio, now the seat of the municipality of Florence. This area is located close to the Arno river, along the eastern margin of the slightly elevated height upon which the Roman town was founded; actually, in the layers beneath the surface, the Roman theatre is still preserved. Radiocarbon dating of charcoals was performed in the LABEC laboratory in Florence, at the AMS beam line of the AMS-IBA 3 MV Tandetron accelerator. Comparison of these new data with the former ones and with the archaeological and geological data adds new information especially on natural phenomena like floods and on the human occupation of this area in the past.