Plant remains from the early Iron Age in western Sicily: differences in subsistence strategies of Greek and Elymian sites

Abstract

For the early Iron Age Elymian town on Monte Polizzo, inland western Sicily, hulled barley was the dominant cereal, followed by emmer and free-threshing wheat. The dominant legume was Vicia faba. In the con- temporary Greek harbour town of Selinunte on the southern coast of western Sicily, free-threshing wheat was dominant, while hulled barley and the legume V. ervilia were sub- dominant. For Selinunte, an import of cereals from the Elymians is suggested. The investigated area around the agora (marketplace) yielded a processed cereal product and edible fruit as the predominantly consumed plant- based food in Selinunte. Its hinterland most probably pro- vided space for large-scale maintenance of horses and oxen as well as for stock breeding for consumption. At ''House 1'' on Monte Polizzo, the archaeobotanical record matches well with the archaeological interpretation of different rooms used for ritual consumption, everyday life, crop processing and crop storage. During feasts in the style of Greek symposia, grapes and figs were consumed. The Elymians most probably adopted olive cultivation quite late. The charcoal analyses, mainly of roof beams from Monte Polizzo residential contexts, point to a sufficient availability of undisturbed natural climax woodland for timberwork.