Farming and stock-breeding in the La Tène culture communities in Poland

Abstract

In this article, the basic information on the research on the economy of the La Tène culture communities living in the southern part of Poland in the early and middle La Tène period is presented. The analysis of natural data shows that the local economy of the Celtic settlers from Silesia and Lesser Poland did not differ in quality from that of their countrymen from the area south of the Carpathians and the Sudetes. Agriculture was based on the cultivation of cereals, among which different varieties of wheat dominated with a relatively small share of barley and common millet. Contrary to earlier opinions, rye and oat cultivation was not widespread. In typical rural settlements, cattle farming was by far the dominant activity. Breeding swine and small ruminants were in the second position, but the proportion between these species varied from region to region. The very small proportion of wild animal bones known from the surveyed settlements indicates an advanced process of deforestation of the inhabited area and well-developed domestic animal husbandry.