Abstract
Agriculture is a complex and dynamic socio-ecological system shaped by environmental, economic, and social factors. The crop resource pool is its key component and one that best reflects environmental limitations and socio-economic concerns of the farmers. This pertains in particular to small-scale subsistence production, as was practised by Neolithic farmers. We investigated if and how the environment and cultural complexes shaped the spectrum and diversity of crops cultivated by Neolithic farmers in the central-western Balkans and on the Hungarian Plain. We did so by exploring patterns in crop diversity between biogeographical regions and cultural complexes using multivariate statistical analyses. We also examined the spectrum of wild-gathered plant resources in the same way. We found that the number of species in Neolithic plant assemblages is correlated with sampling intensity (the number and volume of samples), but that this applies to all archaeological cultures. Late Neolithic communities of the central and western Balkans exploited a large pool of plant resources, whose spectrum was somewhat different between archaeological cultures. By comparison, the earliest Neolithic tradition in the region, the Starčevo-Körös-Criş phenomenon, seems to have used a comparatively narrower range of crops and wild plants, as did the Linearbandkeramik culture on the Hungarian Plain.
Highlights
The crop resource pool is a fundamental component of plant-producing farming systems, one around which such systems are designed
In order to further explore this suggested relationship between sampling intensity and species richness, we plotted the number of samples as arbitrary bins, to identify whether or not this signal was associated with any particular archaeological culture, or evenly distributed across the entire dataset (Figure 4)
Samples as arbitrary bins, to identify whether or not this signal was associated with any particular archaeological culture, or evenly distributed across the entire dataset (Figure 4)
Summary
The crop resource pool is a fundamental component of plant-producing farming systems, one around which such systems are designed. With regard to crop diversity, cultural choices, underpinned by ecological and economic realities, are often seen as especially relevant in small-scale farming systems Such was the case for the Early Neolithic agricultural niches, which were modified as they were transported into new/different environments [5]. Traditional and other small subsistence agricultural regimes teach us that the initial establishment and subsequent maturation of agriculture in new areas require implementing adaptive strategies to account for distinct physical, ecological, and social circumstances. These include adjustments in the choices of cultivars, based on learning from trying or from collective knowledge transmitted through social networks [1] It may have been a necessary reaction to changing environmental and social conditions
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