Study of Grapevine (Vitis vinifera L.) Seed Morphometry and Comparison with Archaeological Remains in Central Apennines

Abstract

Studying the evolution of seed morphology and, in turn, the evolution of cultivars across time and space is of fundamental importance to agriculture and archaeology. The identification of ancient and modern grapevine (Vitis vinifera L.) cultivars is essential for understanding the historical evolution of grape cultivation. Grape seed morphology provides valuable information to explore the evolution of grape cultivars over time and space. The main aim of our study was to build a comprehensive regional database of grape seed morphological traits from modern and archaeological wine cultivars and wild grape species. We aimed to identify which seeds of modern grape cultivars exhibited morphological similarities to archaeological cultivars. This study focused on fifteen distinct modern types of seeds and two archaeological samples from the Byzantine-to-Early Medieval period. We acquired digital images of seeds using a flatbed scanner. For each sample, 100 seeds were randomly selected, and morphometric data on each seed were gathered using ImageJ. Differences among the seed cultivars were investigated using linear discriminant analysis. Archaeological seeds were found to be more similar to cultivated V. vinifera cultivars rather than V. sylvestris populations. Among the cultivated cultivars, Sangiovese and Tosta antica resulted to be cultivars most similar cultivars to the archaeological ones. The morphometric analysis of grape seeds proved to be a valuable resource for investigating the evolution of vine cultivars throughout history. Combining image analysis techniques with genetic data will open new perspectives for studying the origins of and variations in grape cultivars, contributing to the conservation and enhancement of viticultural heritage.