Pisum &amp; Ervilia Tetovac: Made in Early Iron Age Leskovac, Part one: Two charred pulse crop storages of the fortified hill fort settlement Hissar in Leskovac, South Serbia

Aleksandar Medovic,Zivko Jovanovic,Branko Cupina,Aleksandra Nikolic,Nemanja Stanisavljevic,Svetlana Radovic,Aleksandar Mikic

doi:10.5937/ratpov1101219m

Abstract

A lucky find of 2,572 charred pea (Pisum sativum L) seeds in a single archaeobotanical sample from the hill fort settlement Hissar near Leskovac represents a unique example in Bronze / Iron Age research in South East Europe. Another mass storage of bitter vetch (Vicia ervilia (L) Willd) from the same site and period (Brnjica cultural group, beginning of the Iron Age in the Morava valley) confirms a long tradition of the city of Leskovac region as a pulse crop production centre in modern Serbia. Both pulse storages were almost pure with small amount of admixture from other crops mainly cereals, other pulses, such as lentil (Lens culinaris Medik) and broad bean (Vicia faba L), and oil/fibre plants. Both pulses were cultivated as main crops and were stored separately.

Highlights

The fortified hill fort settlement Hissar in Leskovac, with the name derived from Turkish hissar, denoting fortress, is a multilevel settlement of the Brnjica cultural group, 1,350-1,000 B.C., Iron Age I in the Morava valley (Stojić et al 2007)
Lentil and bitter vetch seeds differ from pea in shape and from broad bean in size
A rich bitter vetch sample form Hissar differs from the rich Pisum sample only in the occurrence of charred items of spelt wheat (Triticum spelta L.), which is the first record of this wheat at Hissar, and in lack of pea seeds (Table 2)

Summary

Introduction

The fortified hill fort settlement Hissar in Leskovac, with the name derived from Turkish hissar, denoting fortress, is a multilevel settlement of the Brnjica cultural group, 1,350-1,000 B.C., Iron Age I in the Morava valley (Stojić et al 2007).The Hissar hill (341 m alt.) is in a strategic position over the confluence of Jablanica and Veternica rivers in river South Morava and over the greatest part of the valley of Leskovac. In the previous archaeobotanical report (Medović 2005), only one uncertain record of pea from the deposits of Brnjica cultural group was made, whereas 37 charred items of bitter vetch in every fourth sample were found. Lentil and bitter vetch seeds differ from pea in shape and from broad bean in size.

Results

Conclusion