Neolithic arable farming on the SW Baltic coast: insights based on crops, weeds and stable isotopes from Oldenburg sites (original) (raw)
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The Holocene, 2019
A number of small middle-Neolithic (3300–2800 BC) settlements flourished in the Oldenburger Graben area of northern Germany. The excavations yielded large amounts of crop remains, suggesting that agrarian production was a cornerstone of subsistence economy. Until about 3000 BC, Oldenburger Graben was a fjord, which over time was separated from the Baltic Sea and became a lagoon. The location of the settlement in the wetlands would have been highly favourable, offering a range of terrestrial and aquatic resources. Nonetheless, it may have been challenging to the Neolithic farmers, as perhaps not much dry land was available for crop growing. The success of agrarian production likely depended on the methods employed. This is an initial attempt at reconstructing strategies of agricultural land use during the middle-Neolithic occupation of the Oldenburger Graben lowland. We combine information on the habitat preferences and life history of arable weeds, and the recently obtained carbon and nitrogen stable isotope values on crop grains from one of the sites. The evidence allows us to glean practices that crop cultivation may have entailed, including potential strategies aimed at improving productivity of arable land such as tillage, weeding and manuring. Although preliminary, the observations point at potentially different management of emmer and barley, perhaps due to their variable importance to the Neolithic residents. This is the first time that stable isotope analysis on crops from northern Germany is used to elucidate agricultural practices of the Funnelbeaker communities of the middle-Neolithic.
Journal of Archaeological Science, 2009
An overview is presented of the cultivated plants found at Lake Constance (Bodensee) and in the Upper Swabia region including the Federsee (Baden-Württemberg/south-west Germany) between 4000 and 2400 cal BC. This work relates to recent archaeobotanical investigations of the waterlogged sediments of 30 different Neolithic lakeside settlements. These sites provided almost 500,000 crop plant macro-remains, excellently preserved under waterlogged conditions. Taken in conjunction with other previously collected samples from the region, they provide an added dimension to the understanding of crop plant development in the lakeshore Neolithic in south-west Germany.Most probably due to cultural impacts from south-east Europe there has been a progressive change in the principal cereals cultivated. In the early phase of the Late Neolithic a tetraploid naked wheat had predominated (Triticum durum Desf./turgidum L.). However, emmer (Triticum dicoccon Schrank) became the most abundant cereal during the late phase of the Late Neolithic. A simultaneous increase in the cultivation of flax (Linum usitatissimum L.) and poppy (Papaver somniferum L.) is similarly connected to south-eastern influences. Superimposed upon this, there were in Upper Swabia complex settlement patterns towards the end of the Neolithic period. There is evidence that some sites were devoted to the cultivation of oil and fibre plants. These sites were probably only used during the growing season and subsequent period of crop processing.
In the context of the DFG project ‘Agriculture and environment as basis for early monumentality’, palynological studies aim at high temporal Resolution reconstructions of human impact and Vegetation dynamics during the Neolithic in northern Germany. New palynological investigations on sediments of lake Poggensee as well as new chronologies for the pollen profiles of Lake Belau, Großer Segeberger See and Lake Seefeld allowed a detailed comparison of pollen-stratigraphical events on different spatial scales in eastern Schleswig-Holstein. Based on this multi-site approach, it was possible to distinguish between regional and local changes of human impact, land-use intensity, and woodland dynamics. The good agreement between changes in archaeological and palaeoenvironmental data supports a close relationship between cultural and environmental developments. First evidence for anthropogenic woodland disturbance on a wider geographical scale has already been registered for Late Mesolithic t...
The archaeobotanical state of research from sites of the Michelsberg and the Bischheim culture (5th/4th millenium BC) in France, Belgium, southern Netherlands and Germany has been compiled and discussed in the context of archaeological, climatological and biological data. Compared with Bischheim and the Middle Neolithic the farmers of the Michelsberg culture had a reduced crop spectrum with emphasis on cereal growing. It is still under debate, from where the tetraploid wheat has been introduced. Possibly the growing of oil/fibre plants was abandoned by the Michelsberg farmers. Interestingly the same reduced crop spectrum is found somewhat later in the distribution area of the Funnelbeaker culture as well as in the Neolithic sites of Great Britain and Ireland. Climatic causes are not likely for this phenomenon. Instead, zoologial and botanical results point to an agricultural system with more emphasis on stock farming, which might have been based on a cultural decision. Keywords: Western Central Europe; Neolithic; Bischheim; Michelsberg; causewayed enclosures; tetraploid naked wheat; reduced crop spectrum.
As a part of the ELSA-project (Eifel Laminated Sediment Archive) new pollen and plant macro-remain analyses have been carried out on a series of Holocene lacustrine sediments from three open maar lakes of the Quaternary Westeifel Volcanic Field. In combination with already existing pollen analyses, the archaeological record and written sources, the present study casts new light on settlement activities and henceforth the development of agriculture from the prehistoric to historic times in this region. While there are clues that wood pasturing was practised in the Eifel region from the Michelsberg Culture onwards (c. 4300 cal. b.c.), the Vulkaneifel is a remote area with relatively poor soils and a humid climate and was not constantly settled until the Late Neolithic/Early Bronze Age, when cereal pollen was found regularly in the deposits. Plant macro-remains (chaff), which give us direct evidence for arable agriculture in the surroundings of the maars, were also found in layers belonging to the Early Bronze Age (c. 1900 cal. b.c.). At the same time we can observe the massive spread of Fagus sylvatica (beech) in all pollen diagrams, which was most probably caused by a combination of climatic, anthropogenic and competitive factors. Later impacts of agriculture were an abundance of crop weeds and pollen in the following Middle Bronze Age. Nevertheless human impact remained discontinuous until the Urnfield Culture (1200–800 cal. b.c.). A layer of weeds dating at the end of the Urnfield Culture was found and also flax (Linum usitatissimum) cultivation first becomes apparent. However, the subsequent Iron Age and Roman Period reveal only crop weeds and cereal pollen in slightly higher concentrations, but the abundance of Poaceae pollen at this time is most probably consistent with grazing activities. There follows compelling evidence of the importance of flax cultivation and processing at the maars from the Merovingian Period (5th century a.d.) onwards. A detailed insight into the agriculture of the High Medieval comes from flash flood layers of the 14th century a.d., where remains of Secale cereale (rye) and crop weeds reflect winter-sown cultivation of rye. Cannabis sativa (hemp) was also cultivated and processed during the medieval. Finally we can trace the Prussian reforestation in the 19th century a.d., with an increase in Pinus sylvestris (pine) and Picea abies (fir), by both pollen and plant macro-remains.
2008. Cereal Cultivation at Swifterbant? Neolithic Wetland Farming on the North European Plain
The transition to early agriculture on the North European Plain is a much debated issue in which emphasis is placed on the available pollen evidence. It has been suggested that cereal cultivation was probably practiced in the upland areas and surplus yields were brought to the wetland sites. An alternative model that gives special attention to crop assemblages, flooding, and yields and is illustrated with evidence from the type-location sites of Swifterbant, dated between 4300 and 4000 BC, envisions cereal cultivation in the wetlands themselves. Evidence for early agriculture is found in particular in pollen diagrams, diatom analysis, and large numbers of cereal remains. It appears that small-scale cereal cultivation may have been possible and attractive in addition to hunting and gathering in wetland sites because of their variety of biotopes, including areas suitable for agriculture.