C.C. Bakels

Access to luxury foods in Central Europe during the Roman period: the archaeobotanical evidence

Archaeobotanical investigations show that during the Roman occupation a large number of foods was introduced into Central Europe, though these did not replace any of the traditional foods. Many of these new additions were incorporated into the local food-producing system and became part of the local menu, offering a wider variety of foods and tastes than before. While they represented luxuries at the very start of the Roman occupation, they lost this status later on. Other foods, however, could not be grown locally, or only with considerable effort, and these remained true luxuries. They comprise rice, chickpea, gourd, black pepper, pistachio, almond, pine kernel, date, pomegranate, olive, melon and, to some extent, peach. Remarkably, figs were quite common.

The beginnings of manuring in western Europe

The history of field manuring is poorly known. Domestic waste may have been used for this purpose from the Early Neolithic onwards. It is possible that the practice of collecting animal dung began with the introduction of the ard.

Direct terrestrial–marine correlation demonstrates surprisingly late onset of the last interglacial in central Europe

An interdisciplinary study of a small sedimentary basin at Neumark Nord 2 (NN2), Germany, has yielded a high-resolution record of the palaeomagnetic Blake Event, which we are able to place at the early part of the last interglacial pollen sequence documented from the same section. We use this data to calculate the duration of this stratigraphically important event at 3400 ± 350 yr. More importantly, the Neumark Nord 2 data enables precise terrestrial–marine correlation for the Eemian stage in central Europe. This shows a remarkably large time lag of ca. 5000 yr between the MIS 5e ‘peak’ in the marine record and the start of the last interglacial in this region.

Burning the Land. An Ethnographic Study of Off-Site Fire Use by Current and Historically Documented Foragers and Implications for the Interpretation of Past Fire Practices in the Landscape

Archaeological indications for off-site burning by late Pleistocene and early Holocene hunter-gatherers present intransigent interpretive problems; by contrast, burning practices by recent hunter-gatherers are well documented. Here, we present a systematic global inventory of extant burning practices—including the reasons for burning and the environmental setting of firing activities—and also discuss their visibility in the archaeological record. This inventory is based on ethnographic and historical texts. In historical times, off-site fire was used for a wide range of purposes, irrespective of age and gender, with significant advantages for its producers. While the reasons given for burning can vary between individuals, in the longer term, many hunter-gatherer firing practices created more mosaic types of environments than would have occurred naturally. The historical visibility of hunter-gatherer burning activities contrasts with the relative invisibility of such practices in the contemporary archaeological record, highlighting the difficulty of analyzing past use of fire. On the basis of its ethnographic importance, we suggest that diverse off-site fire use is as old as the regular use of fire. New multiproxy data from well-sampled sequences, analyzed at a local scale, is needed to test this hypothesis.

Archaeobotanical investigations in the Aisne valley, northern France, from the neolithic up to the early Middle Ages

Carbonized fruits and seeds retrieved during rescue excavations in the Aisne valley, France, and near surroundings are discussed. The time span covered is Neolithic through to the 6th century A.D. The sequence starts with the crop plants grown by Bandkeramik farmers. A later innovation was the introduction of naked wheat by the Neolithic Cerny culture. The early Iron Age brought major innovations such as a diversification in crops and the appearance of pastures.

Pollen diagrams and prehistoric fields: the case of Bronze Age Haarlem, the Netherlands

The excavation of a Bronze Age field surrounded by peat in the vicinity of the Dutch town of Haarlem afforded a good opportunity to study the pollen rain released by such prehistoric fields. Pollen analysis of a core obtained from a peat deposit at a distance of 10m from the fields border revealed only a weak signal of a possible field. The conclusion is that the presence of prehistoric fields is difficult to detect by means of pollen analysis alone.

Palaeobotanical evidence for social difference? The example of the early medieval domain of Serris-Les Ruelles, France

Serris-Les Ruelles is an early medieval demesne (manor house) showing the bipartite structure which is typical of this kind of landed property. The organisation is based on social difference: on the one hand the lord in his manor house, on the other the peasant in their village. The difference is apparent from the inorganic remains. Two out of four possible criteria were applied to investigate whether the difference is also apparent in plant food. The result of the investigation was negative. The reason might be that the spatial and economic separation between lord and peasant was not yet wide enough where food was concerned.

Producers and Consumers in Archaeobotany

What is the question? Distinguishing producers of cereals from consumers of cereals. We, archaeobotanists, want to describe the role of “our” household or settlement in the food-economical web. We want to know whether “our” people were feeding others with their surplus or were dependent on producers. But can we?

The plant remains from Gouda-Oostpolder, a twelfth century farm in the peatlands of Holland

An excavation in the near surroundings of the town of Gouda revealed the remains of a wooden farmhouse. Radiocarbon dates and pottery indicate that the farm was built around A.D. 1120–1135. It belongs to the initial phase of land reclamation in the wetlands of the part of the Netherlands called Holland. Pollen and wood analysis show that the original vegetation consisted of ash and alder woodland on a subsoil of eutrophic peat. People used local wood very economically for the construction of the house. A triangular figure of splitPinus sp. andAbies alba branches near the entrance provides an exotic and probably ritual element. The farmers practised mixed farming based on the raising of cattle, pigs and crops comprisingTriticum dicoccum (emmer wheat),Hordeum sp. (barley).Avena sativa (oats),Linum usitatissimum (flax) andCannabis sativa (hemp). Conspicuously absent isSecale cereale (rye). There are no indications of an orchard.