Abstract
Pollen analytical and archaeobotanical investigations towards the reconstruction of landscape development and settlement history in Northeast Lower Saxony were combined and complete one another: The pollen diagram (PD) Elbaer Moor shows the Holocene vegetation history of the area reaching from the pleistocene highlands to the valley of the river Elbe. The PD Rullstorfer Osterteich reflects a single, local historical event, which allows the exact dating of this diagram by historical sources. The Subatlantic sediments of the Almstorfer Moor close to Bad Bevensen especially show the settlement history of this region and the small-shaped structural variations of the northeastern Lower Saxony landscape. The archaeobotanical investigations of charred fruits and seeds from Rullstorf near Lüneburg focus on late Bronze Age cereals stored in pits and plant remains from drying ovens dating in the pre-Roman Iron Age. In addition charred material from the Roman Iron Age settlement and the early medieval graveyard are studied. Of particular importance is one radiocarbon-dated late Bronze Age stock of broomcorn millet, which has the distinction of being the oldest stock find of millet investigated in North Germany so far. The main cereals of the Bronze Age at Rullstorf were broomcorn millet, emmer and hulled four-row barley. Emmer and barley were cultivated as mixed crops. Fruits of Polygonum lapathifolium probably belonged to the normal diet of the Bronze Age people. The evaluation of the late Bronze Age weed flora allows to draw the following conclusions: At Rullstorf cereals were grown as summer crops or as winter crops, respectively, if sewn thin on the ground. Furthermore cereals were harvested at ear level. The arable land offered favourable ecological conditions for cultivation of crops. For both times, Bronze Age and pre-Roman Iron Age, ergot grew probably on emmer and barley.
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