Archeologie

Archaeobotanical results suggest that the use of cultivated legumes in the Hungarian Carpathian Basin became widespread during the Bronze Age, more so than in the preceding periods. For instance, broad bean (Vicia faba), bitter vetch (Vicia ervilia), and grass pea (Lathyrus sativus) are more frequently encountered in the archaeobotanical record. The latter two are especially notable, because modern (ethnographic) and historical (e.g. Roman) sources have stressed the “inferiority” of the two legumes in human diet.

Like most cultivated legumes, bitter vetch and grass pea contain toxic compounds that can be reduced or removed completely through soaking and cooking. At least since Roman times, these two legumes have come to play a minor role in human food culture due to their toxicity, despite their nutritious benefits and ability to grow on a variety of (poor) soils. The primary use of the legumes was as food for animals, the poor segments of society and the general population only in times of famine. Still today, both crops are mainly cultivated as food for animals or, as in the case of grass pea, consumed only by the poor in different parts of the world. Ethnographic studies, however, also show that the legumes have been part of traditional food culture in various communities.

Although modern and historical sources inform us on the use of these "inferior" legumes, it is not yet fully understood for pre- and protohistoric societies. Exploring their status in Bronze Age plant economy in Hungary may therefore shed light upon the variety of ways in which legumes were exploited in the past and might be exploited in the future. Does the appearance of such legumes indicate famine or poverty? Is there a relationship between their introduction and adaptation to changing environmental conditions? Or are they part of changing agricultural regimes occurring during this period? This paper aims to explore these questions and thereby challenge historical and modern perceptions on the status and use of these “inferior” legumes.

Plants of the legume family (Fabaceae) often contain anti-nutritional compounds that can be toxic to both humans and animals if they are not processed adequately. As a result, some species of legumes have been regarded as “inferior” to human consumption. Two known examples are bitter vetch (Vicia ervilia) and grass pea (Lathyrus sativus), which from historical and ethnographic sources are mostly known to be consumed as human food by poor segments of society or by the general
population during times of famine. Despite the suggested relationship of the two species of “inferior” legumes with poor living conditions, there has been increasing evidence for their importance in prehistoric food economy in the Balkans, the Aegean and the Levant. Both bitter vetch and grass pea have been observed in a macrobotanical assemblage from the Bronze Age fortified settlement Kakucs-Turján mögött in central Hungary. The aim of this paper is to indicate whether the presence of these two “inferior” legumes is related to poor living conditions in the Hungarian Carpathian Basin during the Bronze Age, and to investigate the potential use of such legumes within prehistoric food economy.

The Kakucs-Turján archaeological site was investigated by a Polish-Hungarian-German research team of archaeologists and various specialists. This volume explores the plant economy of Early and Middle Bronze Age Kakucs-Turján based on systematically sampled
macrobotanical remains. The study provides a comprehensive consideration of the plant-related activities and (post-)depositional processes that have contributed to the formation of the charred deposits, and it considers the character of the plant-food economy
(cultivation, processing, storage, etc.) that was practiced by the inhabitants. The results emphasise the importance of a detailed consideration of site-formation processes in macrobotanical studies of stratified settlements, and further illustrate the unique character
of the crop spectrum of this particular Vatya community.

Rye (Secale cereale ssp. cereale L.) is a secondary domesticate, considered to have originated as a weed in wheat fields and to have developed traits of domestication by evolving similar physio-logical and morphological characteristics to those of wheat. Although it migrated into Europe as a weed possessing domestication traits, it became one of the most significant crops grown in large parts of Europe from the medieval period onward. Within the modern borders of Germa-ny, rye was grown using at least two divergent cultivation practices: eternal rye monoculture and three-field rotation. The straw of rye was used to produce Wellerhölzer, which are construc-tion components in traditional half-timbered houses that have enabled a desiccated preservation of the plant remains. In order to assess the impact of cultivation practices, local environmental conditions and genetic variation on the genetic diversification of rye, we seek to integrate well-established archaeobotanical methods with aDNA sequencing of desiccated plant remains obtained from Wellerhölzer from Germany. In the current contribution, we present a proof of concept, based on the analysis of plant remains from a Wellerholz from the Old Town Hall of Göttingen. We use arable weed ecology to reconstruct cultivation practices and local environ-mental conditions and present a phylogenetic analysis based on targeted loci of the chloroplast and nuclear genome. Our results emphasise that the study of desiccated remains of plants from Wellerhölzer offer a unique opportunity for an integration of archaeobotanical reconstructions of cultivation practices and local environment and the sequencing of aDNA.

Rye (Secale cereale ssp. cereale L.) is a secondary domesticate, considered to have originated as a weed in wheat fields and to have developed traits of domestication by evolving similar physiological and morphological characteristics to those of wheat. Although it migrated into Europe as a weed possessing domestication traits, it became one of the most significant crops grown in large parts of Europe from the medieval period onward. Within the modern borders of Germany, rye was grown using at least two divergent cultivation practices: eternal rye monoculture and three-field rotation. The straw of rye was used to produce Wellerhölzer, which are construction components in traditional half-timbered houses that have enabled a desiccated preservation of the plant remains. In order to assess the impact of cultivation practices, local environmental conditions and genetic variation on the genetic diversification of rye, we seek to integrate well-established archaeobotanical methods with aD...

The current paper provides an overview of the plant spectra from archaeological sites dating to the Bronze Age in Hungary, and seeks to identify changes and continuities therein before and after the establishment of broomcorn millet as a crop. The overview includes a discussion of the general trends that have been identified in the Bronze Age habitation and environment in the region, as well as a quantitative consideration of macrobotanical results from 52 Bronze Age sites. The results confirm the introduction of millet cultivation in Hungary during the Late Bronze Age and further demonstrate the diverse spectra of plants within individual settlements of all three phases of the Bronze Age.

In 2007 is een definitief archeologisch onderzoek uitgevoerd aan de Schoolstraat in Pannerden. De aanleiding vormde de bouw van een zorgcentrum op die locatie. Tijdens de archeologische opgraving
zijn resten uit de IJzertijd en de Middeleeuwen gevonden. Eén jaar later, in 2008, zijn de resultaten kort beschreven in een zogenaamd evaluatierapport. Daarin stonden enkele adviezen opgeschreven
hoe verder met de uitwerking van dit archeologische onderzoek moest worden omgegaan. De uitwerking ervan heeft geresulteerd in een rapportage over de vroeg-middeleeuwse sporen en keramiek van de vindplaats.