Food transformed? Taphonomical investigation into a potentially symbolic role of crops at two Neolithic settlements in northern Germany

Abstract

Abstract The two studied Neolithic sites in northern Germany, Oldenburg LA232 and Oldenburg LA191, yielded remains of residential architecture and evidence of every-day activities, including food storage and processing. None of the excavated features were attributed a symbolic or ritual meaning. However, in more than one case relatively large amounts of food have been found in contexts unlikely to contain food, even as a result of post-depositional disturbance. These contexts are postholes, and this phenomenon is also seen at some other sites in the region from this and later periods. Was food intentionally deposited in these features and was it given a different meaning? Was it transformed into a symbolic object, perhaps with a role in a ritual performed during house construction or demolition? We try to answer these questions by studying the quantity and taxonomic range of the plant remains recovered from these and other plant-rich deposits at the two sites, and by analysing the nature of the context and of the associated ecofacts and artefacts. We highlight possible symbolic or ritual aspects of behaviour by the residents of the two Neolithic settlements and we put forward the idea of a potential house closure act in which plants seem to have played a part.