An Investigation of Agricultural Consumption and Production Models for Prehistoric and Roman Britain

Abstract

The paper examines the two existing models for identifying arable 'producers' and' consumers' using archaeobotanical data from sites in southern England. Both models attribute variation between charred assemblages to the role of sites as primary arable producers or those receiving harvested crops. The testing of the models demonstrated that many charred archaeobotanical samples rather than relating to single specific processing activities can be attributed more generally to the waste generated from the routine processing of crops taken from storage throughout the year. The identifiable processing stages seen from most samples composition then represent only those stages conducted after storage. Variation between site assemblages can therefore be attributed to different amounts of processing carried out after harvest before crops were put into storage rather than distinguishing between sites that grew crops and those that did not. As harvesting and processing prior to storage are labour demanding, charred assemblages have the potential to reveal differences within the social organisation of past farming communities. Two patterns were distinguished: one where the organisation of agricultural labour appeared to be conducted at a household level, the second where larger scale or communal organisation appeared to be present.