The history of cereals in the region of the former Duchy of Swabia (Herzogtum Schwaben) from the Roman to the Post-medieval period: results of archaeobotanical research

Abstract

Archaeobotanical results from the investigations of cereal finds in southwestern Germany and northern Switzerland have been mapped. Seven phases are distinguished, from Roman to early modern (Post-medieval). Methodological problems are discussed concerning sampling, identification, preservation, type of site, feature and assemblage, which influence the representation of the results. The main results are as follows. In the Roman period, Triticum spelta was the main crop, except in the upper Rhine valley (Oberrheinebene) where T. aestivum was more abundant. In the Migration period and Early Medieval period several crops are of similar importance. The reason was a rather simple economic system, a subsistence economy for each village, and perhaps cereal and grassland rotation (Feld-Gras-Wirtschaft). In the High Medieval period, Secale cereale was the dominant grain in the northern part of the region up to the Danube (Donau). In Switzerland, T. spelta dominated. In the landscape in between, from Lake Constance (Bodensee) to the upper Neckar valley, there was a mixture of both. These rather clear spectra, commonly dominated by one cereal species, express the changed economic system: the three field system (Dreifelderwirtschaft) and an increasing role of the market economy. Even in the Late Medieval and Post-medieval periods S. cereale and T. spelta remained the main crops. The present dominance of T. aestivum and Hordeum vulgare is a very recent development, less than a century old. The less important cereals, T. monococcum and Panicum miliaceum, occur regularly until Post-medieval times. T. dicoccum was very rare in this region from the Roman period onwards.