Plant Macro-Remains and Traces of Leaves from Virje and Hlebine

Abstract

During years of archaeological research of mediaeval settlements and Late Antique and mediaeval smelting workshops in the area of Podravina, archaeobotanical samples were collected from the following sites: Hlebine – Dedanovice (H-Ded), Hlebine – Velike Hlebine (H-VH), Virje – Volarski breg (V-VB), and Virje – Sušine (V-Suš). They include fruits, seeds, and leaf imprints/remains. Despite the relatively large number of samples, only a small number of finds was found. It mostly consisted of non-carbonized plant remains from various species of weed and ruderal plants, that most likely represent recent contamination. Of the few carbonized finds, the most significant are the remains of cereals preserved in a rather poor condition: proso millet (Panicum miliaceum), foxtail millet (Setaria italica), spelt (Triticum spelta) and naked wheat (Triticum aestivum group), and fragmented and damaged remains of large-grain cereals (Cerealia). Due to the small number of archaeobotanical finds originating from the archaeological formations dated into the wide period from the Late Iron Age to the Early Modern Age, nothing can be said in more detail about the diet, agriculture, or other activities of the population of Virje and Hlebine during individual archaeological and historical periods. In general, it can be concluded, taking into account other sites from the area of Podravina (Torčec and Virovitica Kiškorija jug), that different types of cereals, such as wheat/spelt (Triticum), barley (Hordeum vulgare) and proso millet (Panicum miliaceum), formed the basis of the daily diet of the population of Podravina throughout various investigated periods, probably in combination with legumes, and that they were grown in the vicinity of the settlement. Finds of grapevine (Vitis vinifera) suggest that wine also had a significant place in the past of Podravina. At the position of Virje – Sušine, in Trench S-7, SU 314, a smelting furnace hearth wall fragment with a leaf imprint was found. The imprint most probably belongs to black alder (Alnus glutinosa) and dates from the period of Late Antiquity (late 4th/early 5th century). At the position of Hlebine – Velike Hlebine, in Trench S-2, SU 102, a partially fossilized leaf was found in the slag from the period of the transition from Late Antiquity to the Early Middle Ages. Since the sample was too small, it could not be identified with certainty.