scholarly journals Plant economy of the Trzciniec culture based on charred plant remains from Pielgrzymowice 9 site, in the context of archaeobotanical finds from southern Poland

2021 ◽  
Vol 61 (2) ◽  
pp. 171-186
Author(s):  
Magda Kapcia

In the paper, new carpological data from Pielgrzymowice site 9 are presented in the context of archaeobotanical finds from southern Poland. The results were obtained from detailed analyses of 45 samples from 38 archaeological features. Only charred plant remains were taken into account as they are considered contemporaneous with the Middle Bronze Age settlement. Among the cultivated plants, Panicum miliaceum, Triticum dicoccum, Triticum monococcum and Triticum sp. were documented. Among wild plants, several taxa were found, including Chenopodium t. album, Chenopodium sp., Melandrium / Silene, Polygonum lapathifolium and Fallopia convolvulus, among others. In archaeobotanical samples, Geranium sp., cf. Lamiaceae also appeared. In addition, plants typical of grasslands, forests and ruderal areas were noted, such as Coronilla varia, Rumex acetosella, Plantago media, Plantago lanceolata, Stellaria graminea and Hypericum perforatum. These results were compared with data coming from nine sites of the Trzciniec culture from Lesser Poland to track the Middle Bronze Age plant-based economy in southern Poland.

2013 ◽  
Vol 53 (2) ◽  
pp. 263-293 ◽  
Author(s):  
Krystyna Wasylikowa ◽  
Rafał Koliński

ABSTRACT Archaeological fieldwork carried out at the Tell Arbid site in north-eastern Syria exposed settlement remains dating from the early 3rd millennium BC to the mid 2nd millennium BC. Recent excavations in Sector P, on the eastern slope of the site, revealed the existence of a significant occupation of the Post-Akkadian/ Early Jazirah V period and of levels dated to the Early and Classic Khabur Ware/Old Jazirah/Middle Bronze Age I-II periods. Cereal remains were dominated by grains and ear fragments of hulled two-rowed barley Hordeum distichon. Less numerous were wheats represented by emmer Triticum dicoccon, einkorn T. monococcum, and macaroni wheat T. durum. The presence of bread wheat T. aestivum and six-rowed barley Hordeum vulgare could not be excluded. The two periods contained similar sets of cereals, but in the Post-Akkadian Period the percentage of hulled wheat remains was higher, while in the Middle Bronze Age (particularly in its younger phase) naked wheat slightly exceeded hulled wheats. Legumes were represented by only very few seeds of lentil Lens culinaris and bitter vetch Vicia ervilia. Diaspores of wild plants were very abundant, particularly those from the families of grasses and legumes. The considerable number of ear and culm fragments probably belonging to cereals as well as numerous seeds/fruits of wild plants suggests that the plant remains originated from fodder or animal dung or belonged to threshing waste. The presence of grass stems with nodes indicated that cereals were reaped low on the straw; occasional use of uprooting was suggested by the occurrence of basal culm fragments with traces of rootlets.


The Holocene ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 29 (4) ◽  
pp. 633-647 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jan Sevink ◽  
Corrie C Bakels ◽  
Peter AJ Attema ◽  
Mauro A Di Vito ◽  
Ilenia Arienzo

Earlier studies on Holocene fills of upland lakes (Lago Forano and Fontana Manca) in northern Calabria, Italy, showed that these hold important palaeoecological archives, which however remained poorly dated. Their time frame is improved by new 14C dates on plant remains from new cores. Existing pollen data are reinterpreted, using this new time frame. Two early forest decline phases are distinguished. The earliest is linked to the 4.2 kyr BP climatic event, when climate became distinctly drier, other than at Lago Trifoglietti on the wetter Tyrrhenian side, where this event is less prominent. The second is attributed to human impacts and is linked to middle-Bronze Age mobile pastoralism. At Fontana Manca (c. 1000 m a.s.l.), it started around 1700 BC, in the higher uplands a few centuries later (Lago Forano, c. 1500 m a.s.l.). In the Fontana Manca fill, a thin tephra layer occurs, which appears to result from the AP2 event (Vesuvius, c. 1700 BC). A third, major degradation phase dates from the Roman period. Land use and its impacts, as inferred from the regional archaeological record for the Raganello catchment, are confronted with the impacts deduced from the palaeoarchives.


2008 ◽  
Vol 74 ◽  
pp. 215-234 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sarah Coles ◽  
Steve Ford ◽  
Andy Taylor ◽  
Sian Anthony ◽  
Rowena Gale ◽  
...  

Excavation on the Thames floodplain in London revealed traces of Early Neolithic occupation and burial on a sand and gravel bar beneath alluvium. A large expanse of peat also buried by alluvium was recorded between these finds and the modern river Thames suggesting that the occupation was situated on or close to the foreshore. A single grave cut into the natural sand contained a poorly preserved crouched inhumation, possibly of a woman. The burial was accompanied by a fragment of carinated bowl, a flint knife, and other struck flints. A radiocarbon date from an oak retaining plank within the grave of 5252±28 BP (4220–3970 cal BC: KIA20157) makes this burial one of the earliest from the British Isles and the earliest known for London. A scatter of struck flint and pottery predominantly of Early Neolithic date was recovered from adjacent areas of the sand. A nearby hearth contained fragments of Early Bronze Age pottery pointing to later prehistoric activity nearby. Charred plant remains indicate both the collection of wild plant foods and cultivated cereals in the Early Neolithic. Radiocarbon dating of the adjacent peat deposits indicated their rapid growth within the Middle Bronze Age with a marked decline in woodland cover at the start of the sequence and a rise in grassland and herb species. Cereal pollen then briefly became a significant component of the sequence before declining to more modest levels.


1993 ◽  
Vol 88 ◽  
pp. 1-3 ◽  
Author(s):  
Glynis Jones ◽  
Paul Halstead

Charred plant remains of middle neolithic to middle bronze age date indicate the processing for storage or consumption of emmer (Triticum dicoccum), hulled six-row barley (Hordeum vulgare), bitter vetch (Vicia ervilia) and acorns (Quercus sp.). Samples of emmer, barley, and bitter vetch from an early bronze age destruction level are valuable evidence for economic diversification at a household level.


1997 ◽  
Vol 63 ◽  
pp. 221-259 ◽  
Author(s):  
M. Parker Pearson ◽  
R.E. Sydes ◽  
S. Boardman ◽  
B. Brayshay ◽  
P.C. Buckland ◽  
...  

The Early Iron Age enclosures and associated sites on Sutton Common on the western edge of the Humberhead Levels contain an exceptional variety of archaeological data of importance not only to the region but for the study of later prehistory in the British Isles. Few other later prehistoric British sites outside the East Anglian fens and the Somerset Levels have thus far produced the quantity and quality of organically preserved archaeological materials that have been found, despite the small scale of the investigations to date. The excavations have provided an opportunity to integrate a variety of environmental analyses, of wood, pollen, beetles, waterlogged and carbonised plant remains, and of soil micromorphology, to address archaeological questions about the character, use, and environment of this Early Iron Age marsh fort. The site is comprised of a timber palisaded enclosure and a succeeding multivallate enclosure linked to a smaller enclosure by a timber alignment across a palaeochannel, with associated finds ranging in date from the Middle Bronze Age to the Roman and medieval periods. Among the four adjacent archaeological sites is an Early Mesolithic occupation site, also with organic preservation, and there is a Late Neolithic site beneath the large enclosure. Desiccation throughout the common is leading to the damage and loss of wooden and organic remains. It is hoped that the publication of these results, of investigations between 1987 and 1993, will lead to a fuller investigation taking place.


1961 ◽  
Vol 11 ◽  
pp. 77-97 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hans Helbaek

During the years 1953 to 1959, under the directorship of Seton Lloyd, with James Mellaart, the British Institute in Ankara carried out excavations in the mound of Beycesultan, the site of successive ancient habitations. The remains of cultivated plants recovered during this operation are the subject of the following communication.Beycesultan is situated some 5 km. west of Çivril in the Denizli Vilayet of south-western Turkey. The locality is a flat upland plain in an intermontane valley at the south-western approach to the Anatolian plateau, some 2,500 feet above sea level. It is enclosed by low hills and watered by the upper reaches of the Meander river. The mountains above the plain are still partly wooded, and the drainage from these tracts accounts for the moisture and fertility which make the cultivation of cereals, pulses, poppy, grapes and fruit possible in the valley plain in spite of the comparatively low precipitation of some 14 to 16 inches. As suggested by the huge quantities of timber employed in the construction of the Middle Bronze Age palace the surrounding hilly area was once generously forested with oak, juniper and fir, but now the area is largely deforested in consequence of overgrazing.


2017 ◽  
Vol 21 (3) ◽  
pp. 251-276 ◽  
Author(s):  
Roman Hovsepyan

Recent archaeobotanical investigations (2013-2015) at three sites situated in the southeastern part of the Lake Sevan basin (Sotk-2, Norabak-1 and Sotk-1 settlements, and Sotk-10 cemetery) revealed important data on plant economy, agriculture, diet, and environment of the region during the Early Bronze Age, Middle-Late Bronze Age and Mediaeval periods. These materials show that agriculture was the main direction of plant economy to gain vegetal food staple, but it was likely accompanied also by gathering of wild plants. The principal direction of agriculture at the studied region was the cultivation of cereals for all the above-mentioned periods. Correspondingly, the main source of vegetal food were cereal-based products (presumably bread, porridges, etc).


Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document