Archaeobotanical consideration of the development of Pre-Roman Iron Age crop growing in the region of Hesse, Germany, and the question of agricultural production and consumption at hillfort sites and open settlements

Abstract

Archaeobotanical investigations into centralisation processes and related social developments between 800 and 400 b.c. are part of a supra-regional interdisciplinary research program. A diachronous approach is used to reconstruct Late-Bronze Age/Early Iron Age agriculture and food production and to investigate agricultural developments. In addition the results from assumed “central places”, the hillfort sites, are compared with those of open rural settlements in their surroundings. The charred plant assemblages give evidence of an increase in diversity of crop species at the beginning of the 5th century b.c. This change may indicate an alteration in the agricultural system to allow an increase in and/or a minimisation of risk to food production.