Managing Plants in the Late Bronze Age Central Macedonia, Northern Greece: An Archaeobotanical Approach of Settlement Phase 4 at Thessaloniki Toumba

Burnt offering sites reflect the physical and spiritual aspects of human life in the inner Alps during the Bronze and Iron Ages. Burnt offerings were made in ceremonies with various parts including fire rites, from which the carbonised macro-remains testify to a significant use of plants. The individual finds and records provide information about diet, firewood supply, economic and social behaviour, faith, skills, crafts, and trade. In this study, the focus was on plant uses and in rites at 25 Bronze and Iron Age burnt offering sites in the Eastern Alps. Wood was the basis for the burnt offering rite, similar to the cremation rite, which was also beginning in the Bronze Age. The most consistently found fuel remains were charcoal from coniferous wood, especially Picea/Larix-type (most probably Picea, spruce), probably due to its burning qualities and easy availability during this period. Corylus avellana (hazel) was the commonest deciduous wood. All identified wood taxa correspond with the local natural vegetation types of the time. Overall, they suggest low-density woodland stands and more or less sustainable human land use near the burnt offering sites, in the hill and mountain vegetation zone. The wood for the pyre was collected near the offering sites, so there are variations in firewood taxa resulting from the differences in the local natural landscape, (micro)climate, geology and edaphic conditions. The charred wood, crops and wild fruit and nut remains were ritually deposited in pits after the fire rite, which is another link to cremation. Food plant remains were usually present in low quantities due to the nature of burnt offerings, but their consistent records at the burnt offering sites point to a deep spiritual connection to nature and a high appreciation for plants as sources of food, raw materials and energy. They show that essentials were central elements of the burnt offering rite and that everyday matters overlapped with spiritual or religious concerns. Altogether, the finds of 15 different crops and 15 different edible plant taxa demonstrate a fairly high food plant diversity at the sites during the Bronze and Iron Ages. Hordeum vulgare (barley), Triticum dicoccum (emmer), Panicum miliaceum (broomcorn millet) and Vicia faba (broad bean) were the most consistent and important crops. They reflect a common food trend, which most probably resulted from climate extremes and deterioration. Plants naturally growing outside the Eastern Alpine vegetational zones were nearly absent, showing a lack of trade in food at the time, while native fruits and nuts were often used as ritual plants and played an important role as food plants. They are an argument for local agriculture and economy. Of the wild plants, Corylus avellana (hazel) was the most often found by far, followed by Fragaria vesca (strawberry), Rubus idaeus (raspberry), R. fruticosus (blackberry) and Sambucus nigra (elder). Like the wood taxa, the fruits and nuts indicate a human influenced environment and point to woodland edges, margins and clearings. Some of the firewood and food plants may also have been elements of the offering rite due to their medicinal and psychedelic effects, burning characteristics and symbolic background.

The Bronze Age in Europe is a dynamic time characterised by an increase in long-distance mobility and interaction, changes in social organisation, technological advancements and evolving agricultural practices. In particular, we see an increase in the range of crops grown from the middle Bronze Age, including the introduction of new crops, such as broomcorn millet and broad bean. However, evidence of agricultural practices in Croatia is limited. This paper presents new archaeobotanical data collected from ten Bronze Age settlements and cemeteries in continental Croatia. Overall, the density of plant remains was low and consisted of either cereal grains or wild taxa, with the majority coming from Mačkovac-Crišnjevi. Oats (Avena sp.) and broomcorn millet (Panicum miliaceum) are the most dominant cereals, followed by small numbers of barley (Hordeum vulgare), emmer (Triticum dicoccum) and free-threshing wheat (Triticum aestivum/durum). The composition of the botanical remains are comparable to neighbouring regions, although the occurrence of millet and especially oats are not seen in any significance until the Iron Age.

Archaebotanical evidence for Panicum miliaceum is reviewed for prehistoric Greece including published and unpublished recent finds, providing a basis for exploring the context of the appearance of millet in Greece, the timing of its introduction and cultivation, and its significance in terms of contacts, movement of people, and cultural identity as expressed through culinary practice and food consumption. To this end, the archaeobotanical record is examined together with human isotopic, archaeozoological, and artefactual evidence. Millet is introduced to the northern part of Greece sometime during the end of the 3rd millennium bc and established as a widely used crop during the Late Bronze Age. Isotopic evidence suggests that millet consumption during the Late Bronze Age was not widespread but confined to certain regions, settlements, or individuals. Millet is suggested to reach Greece from the north after its spread westwards from China through Central Asia and the steppes of Eurasia. The timing of the introduction of millet and the horse in northern Greece coincide; the possibility therefore that they are both introduced through contacts with horse breeding cultures cultivating millet in the north and/or northeast is raised. Intensified contact networks during the Bronze Age, linking prehistoric northern Greece to central Europe and the Pontic Steppes, would have opened the way to the introduction of millet, overland via river valleys leading to the Danube, or via maritime routes, linking the Black Sea to the north Aegean. Alternatively, millet could have been introduced by millet-consuming populations, moving southwards from the Eurasian steppes.

Archaeobotanical research in the Aegean has revealed a diversity of crops grown by prehistoric farmers. Ethnographies of recent farmers in the Mediterranean demonstrate the economic and cultural significance of which crops were chosen for cultivation. Crop choice may, therefore, provide insights into various aspects of rural life in the past. To this aim, I synthesise archaeobotanical evidence from the Aegean to reveal trends in crop choice and diversity across the Neolithic and Bronze Age. I find trends in the distribution of crops linked to new introductions, changing environmental conditions and local social and economic factors. I reveal divergence in crop spectra between regions, but convergence within regions, resulting from both top-down and bottom-up social processes. Trends in crop diversity align with evidence for cultivation intensity and indicate the continuation of more intensive farming systems between the Neolithic and Bronze Age in northern Greece and the emergence of more extensive systems around the Final Neolithic/Late Chalcolithic-Early Bronze Age in southern Greece and western Anatolia. This ‘extensification’ may be implicated in transformations in social and political organisation within these regions. Several trends also converge on the Middle Bronze Age, potentially linked to climatic changes around the end of the Early Bronze Age.

Airolo-Madrano (TI): Palaeoenvironment and subsistence strategies of a hilltop settlement in the southern Swiss Alps during the Bronze and Iron Ages

Bronze Age agriculture in Europe is marked by the adoption of new crops, such as broomcorn millet (Panicum miliaceum), broad bean (Vicia faba) and gold-of-pleasure (Camelina sativa). Yet, at a regional level, it is sometimes unclear when, where and why these crops are adopted and whether they were all adopted at the same time. Croatia is one such region where archaeobotanical research is limited, making it difficult to discuss Bronze Age agriculture and diet in more detail. The discovery of a burnt-down house with crop stores at Kalnik-Igrišče provides a unique archaeobotanical assemblage and snapshot of late Bronze Age agriculture (1000–800 BC). From the carbonised plant remains discovered at Kalnik-Igrišče we see a dominance in the crops broomcorn millet, barley (Hordeum vulgare), free-threshing wheat (Triticum aestivum/durum/turgidum) and broad bean. Emmer (Triticum dicoccum), spelt (Triticum spelta), and lentil (Lens culinaris) were also found, suggesting they were probably minor crops, while spatial analysis indicates distinct crop storage areas within the building. Overall, these finds support the adoption and integration of these new crops within northern Croatia by the late Bronze Age, while highlighting implications for seasonal strategies, risk management, and cultural dietary choice.

Radiocarbon dates obtained for the coastal hilltop settlement of Aghios Antonios Potos in south Thasos are statistically treated to define the absolute chronology for the start and the end of the various habitation and cultural phases at the site. The location was first occupied during the Final Neolithic (FN) between 3800 and 3600 BC, extending this much contested phase to the lowest up to now record for Thasos and the northern Greece. The site is continuously inhabited from Early Bronze Age I until the early Late Bronze Age (LBA; 1363 BC) when it was abandoned. Comparison with other sites in Thasos and particularly with the inland site of Kastri Theologos showed that the first occupation at Aghios Antonios came soon after the abandonment of Kastri in the beginning of the 4th millennium. In fact, after the decline and abandonment of Aghios Antonios in the LBA, the site of Kastri was reinhabited, leading to the hypothesis that part of the coastal population moved inland. The presumed chronological sequence of alternate habitation between the two settlements may evoke explanations for sociocultural and/or environmental dynamics behind population movements in prehistoric Thasos. A major conclusion of the project is that the 4th millennium occupation gap attested in many sites of Greece, especially in the north, is probably bridged in south Thasos, when the data from all sites are taken together. The mobility of people in Final Neolithic south Thasos may explain the general phenomenon of limited occupational sequences in the FN of north Greece. DOI: 10.2458/azu_rc.57.17778

This paper reports on seeds of Lallemantia (Lamiaceae) found at Bronze Age sites in northern Greece. At several of these sites, the seeds were found in significant concentrations in storage contexts, suggesting that they were deliberately stored for use by the inhabitants. Oil from the seeds of Lallemantia can be used for a variety of purposes, including food, lighting and medicine. This genus is not native to Greece, the nearest modern occurrences of Lallemantia species being in Anatolia from where they extend further east as far as Iran, or beyond. To date, it has not been found in Neolithic deposits in Greece, despite significant archaeobotanical research, especially in northern Greece. This suggests that it first appeared in Greece in the early Bronze Age, and indicates long distance contacts with communities to the east or north at this time. It is difficult to establish whether its continued use indicates that seeds of this genus were repeatedly brought into Greece throughout the Bronze Age or that the genus was introduced in the early Bronze Age and then locally cultivated. The presence of seeds, however, may suggest that Lallemantia was locally cultivated, as it would have been possible to import it in the form of oil. The appearance of a new import or introduction at this time adds to the evidence for external contact during the Bronze Age. Lallemantia may have been part of a group of oil producing taxa which became significant during the Bronze Age in northern Greece paralleling the increased importance of the olive in southern Greece.

<p>This paper presents the results of the first extensive archaeobotanical research into a Bronze Age site in Croatia. The aim of the study was to reveal what plants were consumed (grown) at Kalnik-Igrišče (NW Croatia) in the Bronze Age and to realize if the plant diet of the local population differed from that of the inhabitants in neighboring countries.</p><p>The results show that all plant macrofossils found at Kalnik-Igrišče can be classified into one of four functional groups: cereals, cultivated legumes, useful trees and weeds. As much as 98% of the findings are of cereals and legumes. The most abundant species found are <em>Panicum miliaceum</em> (millet), <em>Hordeum vulgare</em> (barley), <em>Vicia faba</em> (faba bean), <em>Triticum aestivum</em> ssp. <em>aestivum</em> (bread wheat), <em>Triticum turgidum</em> ssp. <em>dicoccon</em> (emmer wheat) and <em>Lens culinaris</em> (lentils). The findings from Kalnik-Igrišče do not differ from the findings of neighboring countries, indicating that there were similar diets and agricultural/plant-collecting activities throughout the whole of the studied area (Bosnia and Herzegovina, Slovenia, Serbia, Italy, Austria and Hungary).</p>

The Early Bronze Age (EBA) is associated with technological and cultural changes that may suggest the onset of a new culture. The question usually posed is whether the spread of the EBA culture is a matter of contemporary evolutionary practices or a matter of migration of peoples. We contribute to this discussion by tracing the appearance and spread of the EBA in the Aegean using an absolute time-frame provided by more than 200 radiocarbon (14C) dates from 25 different Aegean sites. These have been compiled and statistically treated, individually, and in geographical groups to allow temporal and spatial comparisons. A new model is constructed for the first time for northern Greece. The dates are compared between various settlements and areas in each of the traditional cultural divisions EBA I, EBA II, and EBA III and possible subdivisions. The statistical treatment and comparisons indicate that the EBA appeared slightly earlier, around 3300 BC, in northern Greece than in southern Greece, and the Cycladic Islands and also lasted longer in some areas in northern Greece, ending at around 1900 BC.

Broomcorn millet (Panicum miliaceum) is considered as staple food for Europeans during prehistory. As a matter of fact, the Bronze Age was called Millet Golden Age by Marinval (1995). This cereal is distinct from those domesticated in the Fertile Crescent since its domestication was probably realised in Central Asia or China, and then its cultivation diffused towards the west thanks to population migrations or trades. The exact timing and routes of this diffusion, although documented by a large number of archaeological findings, remain to be precised. This would provide a more detailed picture of trading routes and migration pathways and pace of exchanges, with eventual relationships to climate changes. We have analysed miliacin, a molecular biomarker of millet (Jacob et al., 2008), in sediments from lakes Ledro (Utaly), Le Bourget, Paladru, Aiguebelette and La Thuile (France) in order to precise the timing of millet diffusion during the Neolithic and Bronze Age. The first occurrence of miliacin in Ledro is dated back to 2400 BC. In Le Bourget, Paladru, Aiguebelette and La Thuile, the date of first miliacin appearance is remarkably synchronous around 1500 BC. Miliacin was also detected at low levels in all older sediments in La Thuile. This could result either from laboratory contamination or from the presence of an alternative miliacin source in the catchment. Indeed miliacin is found in low amounts in several other Poaceae (Bossard et al., 2013). In Aiguebelette, a single sample dated back to the Neolithic (~2300 BC) shows significant miliacin concentrations. Because this date is close to that found in Ledro, it could attest to an early attempt of millet cultivation, but would imply a rapid diffusion from the East. Finally, the evolution of millet concentration in sediments of Le Bourget, La Thuile and Aiguebelette allows us making several assumptions on the development of alpine populations during the Bronze Age, Iron Age and Antiquity in the region, potentially linked to climate changes that affected the region at those times. References Jacob et al., 2008. Millet cultivation history in the French Alps as evidenced by a sedimentary molecule. Journal of Archaeological Science 35, 814–820. Marinval, 1995. Donnees carpologiques francaises sur les millets (Panicum miliaceum L. et Setaria italica L. Beauc.) de la Protohistoire au Moyen Age. In Horrandner, E., editor, Millet. Actes du Congres d'Aizenay (1990). Peter Lang, 31-61. Bossard et al., 2013. Distribution of miliacin (olean-18-en-3β-ol methyl ether) in broomcorn millet (Panicum miliaceum), and other reputed potential sources. Consequences on the use of sedimentary miliacin as a tracer of millet. Organic Geochemistry 63, 48-55.

During the Bronze Age human communities became more and more complex in their social organization and subsistence economy. A crucial role was played by the production of metal objects, which intensified exchange of goods and established new trade routes, but farming and animal husbandry were still the stronghold of Bronze Age economy. They underwent some innovations such as the introduction of new cultivars (e.g. spelt and millet), the intensification of pulse cultivation and the diffusion of rotation systems. The present research contributed to the reconstruction of the development of plant economy during the Bronze Age, within and in the surroundings of the Alps. A comprehensive archaeobotanical study has been carried out on two of the currently-excavated Bronze Age (Early and Middle Bronze Age phases) lake-dwelling sites (Lavagnone and Lucone D) in the Lake Garda area of northern Italy. The investigation in these sites south of the Alps is crucial to understand the spread of Bronze Age plant economy in the Po Plain, into the Alpine valleys and finally to the regions North of the Alps. The standard methods of archaeobotany concerning sample strategy and quantitative analysis have been applied. This has formed the basis for a reliable comparison of lake dwelling cultures and husbandry between the northern and southern sides of the Alps. Plant macrofossil analysis focused on crop and weed assemblages collected from all archaeological layers, as well as on macroremains representing the local flora, useful for a palaeoenvironmental reconstruction. Important results have been obtained in both sites. A large variety of cereal crops have been detected in both age periods. Emmer, the ‘new glume wheat’ type (NGW), barley and einkorn resulted to be the most important cereals, while spelt and naked wheat (both, 4n and 6n) were secondary crops. The abundance of the NGW remains is particularly noteworthy. The spread of broomcorn millet cultivation and of pulses (mainly horsebean) have been detected in the MBA layers of Lavagnone. The rich weed spectra and several archaeological finds such as farming tools allowed reconstructing crop husbandry practices. The finds of a conspicuous amount of wild edible plants testifies the large contribution of gathered species in food supply. Thanks to excellent preservation of plant remains in both sites and comparison with pollen data, we reconstructed open land, the perilacustrine belt, the aquatic habitats and their dynamics. The importance of open environments, particularly fallow land and dry meadows, is documented by a high number of open habitat plant taxa and also detected by the analysis of ruminants (goats and sheep) coprolites recovered from sediment samples. In addition some remarkable finds such as several complete ears of “new glume wheat” (Triticum nn, possibly T. timopheevi), a necklace made of Staphylea pinnata L. (bladder-nut) seeds and marble stones, Carthamus tinctorius (safflower) achenes, and Orlaya grandiflora fruits shed light on the history of these taxa and pathways from their native range. Thus, they corroborate the arguments about probable trade routes across the Alps.

Useful plants from the site Lutomiersk–Koziówki near Łódź (central Poland) with special reference to the earliest find of Xanthium strumarium L. seeds in Europe

This paper presents new archaeobotanical data from the Lower Cerovačka Cave located in Dalmatia, Croatia. At the site a high density of carbonized plant remains was recovered, indicating the remnants of a burnt crop store dating to the Late Bronze Age. Overall, the assemblage is dominated by lentil (Lens culinaris) and free-threshing wheat (Triticum aestivum/durum), and to a lesser extent, emmer (Triticum dicoccum), einkorn (Triticum monococcum), spelt (Triticum spelta) and broomcorn millet (Panicum miliaceum). In general, the large botanical collection from Lower Cerovačka Cave fits with what is already known about Bronze Age agriculture in Croatia, yet the unique nature of this site brings to the fore questions around storage practices and the use of caves in prehistory.

In the paper, new carpological data from Pielgrzymowice site 9 are presented in the context of archaeobotanical finds from southern Poland. The results were obtained from detailed analyses of 45 samples from 38 archaeological features. Only charred plant remains were taken into account as they are considered contemporaneous with the Middle Bronze Age settlement. Among the cultivated plants, Panicum miliaceum, Triticum dicoccum, Triticum monococcum and Triticum sp. were documented. Among wild plants, several taxa were found, including Chenopodium t. album, Chenopodium sp., Melandrium / Silene, Polygonum lapathifolium and Fallopia convolvulus, among others. In archaeobotanical samples, Geranium sp., cf. Lamiaceae also appeared. In addition, plants typical of grasslands, forests and ruderal areas were noted, such as Coronilla varia, Rumex acetosella, Plantago media, Plantago lanceolata, Stellaria graminea and Hypericum perforatum. These results were compared with data coming from nine sites of the Trzciniec culture from Lesser Poland to track the Middle Bronze Age plant-based economy in southern Poland.