Plant Use in the Mesolithic Period. Archaeobotanical Data from the Czech Republic in a European Context – a Review

Petr Šída,Michaela Divišová

doi:10.24916/iansa.2015.1.7

Abstract

The present work attempts to provide an understanding of the issue of Mesolithic archaeobotany, especially in terms of plant use, woodland clearance, and a discussion concerning Mesolithic agriculture. Plant use patterns in hunter-gatherers are also presented and discussed. Special attention is paid to taxa occurring within archaeological context at Mesolithic sites in Europe, particularly in the Czech Republic, along with ethnobotanical evidence for their use.

Highlights

The importance of plants in the diet of the modern huntergatherer has already been stressed by Lee (1968) on the basis of data from the Ethnographic atlas (Murdock 1967)
Zvelebil published a key study concerning the use of plants in the Mesolithic. He built on Clarke’s model (1976), in which Clarke emphasizes the wide availability of potential plant foods in temperate and Mediterranean Europe
The identification of parenchymatous tissues is fraught with many practical problems, the need to examine the remains by scanning electron microscopy (SEM)

Summary

Plant use patterns in hunter-gatherers

Another issue deserving attention is the intensity of plant use in the Mesolithic. As already mentioned, the great scarcity of archaeobotanical data makes it difficult to estimate the contribution of plants to the Mesolithic diet. Resources, the contribution of plants in satisfying human energy needs and protein requirements varying between 30% and 40% has been proposed, depending on the fat content of the available terrestrial mammals, game birds, and fish (Zvelebil 1994, 58) These data can be compared with ethnographic accounts, since the diets of modern-day hunter-gatherers may represent a reference to past pre-agricultural dietary practices. Most (73%) huntergatherer societies derived between 56% and 65% of their subsistence from animal foods, whereas 14% of these communities consumed more than 50% of wild plant foods (Cordain et al 2000) Another noticeable fact, considering the ethnographic evidence, is the diversity within known hunter-gatherer diets. As location in archaeological structures may reflect anthropogenic manipulation

Human impact on the vegetation: woodland clearance

Mesolithic agriculture?

Evidence from the Czech Republic

Findings

Conclusion