Archaeobotanical and palaeoenvironmental analyses from the easternmost Early Neolithic sites at Kamyane-Zavallia (Ukraine) and Nicolaevca V (Moldova)

Abstract

Recent archaeological excavations at two Early Neolithic settlements at Kamyane-Zavallia (Ukraine) and Nicolaevca V (Moldova) have provided new plant assemblages. The sites belong to the Linearbandkeramik culture (LBK) and represent its easternmost settlements. In these regions, charred plant macro-remains are still very rarely sampled for and investigated, so these results may shed light on the plant-based economy of the first farmers of this area. Both sites are located in the area of loess soils, in the border zone between deciduous woodland, woodland steppe and steppe. A dominance of Triticum monococcum (einkorn) was evident at both sites, preserved both as grains and chaff (spikelet bases and glume base). Other cereals, including cf. T. dicoccum (emmer), cf. T. timopheevii and Hordeum vulgare (barley) were less frequent. Among wild herbaceous plants, ruderal and segetal communities were represented by species commonly found at LBK sites, including Chenopodium album type, Fallopia convolvulus, Echinochloa crus-galli and Lapsana communis. The majority of these plants are edible and it is also likely that they were used as food. At both sites, remains of awns of Stipa sp. (feather grass) were found, which indicate the existence of grasslands and/or open woodlands in the vicinity. The charcoal assemblages were dominated by a few taxa, such as Fraxinus sp., Quercus sp. and Cornus sp., suggesting that there were some wooded steppe and deciduous forests. Selected plant macro-remains were radiocarbon dated and the results show that they are from ca. 5200 − 5000 cal bc. From the same archaeobotanical samples, snails were analysed and the resulting malacofauna shows a dominance of open-country snails as well as those which might indicate local agricultural practices at both settlements.