Papers by Anne de Vareilles
Vegetation History and Archaeobotany
Triticum timopheevii sensu lato (‘new glume wheat’, NGW) was first recognised as a distinct prehi... more Triticum timopheevii sensu lato (‘new glume wheat’, NGW) was first recognised as a distinct prehistoric cereal crop through work on archaeobotanical finds from Neolithic and Bronze Age sites in northern Greece. This was later followed by its identification in archaeobotanical assemblages from other parts of Europe. This paper provides an overview of the currently known archaeobotanical finds of Timopheev’s wheat in southeastern and eastern Europe and observes their temporal span and spatial distribution. To date, there are 89 prehistoric sites with these finds, located in different parts of the study region and dated from the Neolithic to the very late Iron Age. Their latest recorded presence in the region is in the last centuries bce. For assemblages from the site as a whole containing at least 30 grain and/or chaff remains of Timopheev’s wheat, we take a brief look at the overall relative proportions of Triticum monococcum (einkorn), T. dicoccum (emmer) and T. timopheevii s.l. (Ti...
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Quaternary, 2022
Agriculture is a complex and dynamic socio-ecological system shaped by environmental, economic, a... more Agriculture is a complex and dynamic socio-ecological system shaped by environmental, economic, and social factors. The crop resource pool is its key component and one that best reflects environmental limitations and socio-economic concerns of the farmers. This pertains in particular to small-scale subsistence production, as was practised by Neolithic farmers. We investigated if and how the environment and cultural complexes shaped the spectrum and diversity of crops cultivated by Neolithic farmers in the central-western Balkans and on the Hungarian Plain. We did so by exploring patterns in crop diversity between biogeographical regions and cultural complexes using multivariate statistical analyses. We also examined the spectrum of wild-gathered plant resources in the same way. We found that the number of species in Neolithic plant assemblages is correlated with sampling intensity (the number and volume of samples), but that this applies to all archaeological cultures. Late Neolithi...
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Environmental Archaeology, 2019
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Trends in Ecology & Evolution, 2021
As a specialised branch of archaeology requiring specific field and laboratory methodologies, the... more As a specialised branch of archaeology requiring specific field and laboratory methodologies, the contributions of archaeobotany have often been overlooked by the ecological research community. Developments in the fields of botany, chemistry, and ancient DNA analyses have greatly increased the potential for archaeobotany to contribute to topical questions relating to the Anthropocene and landscape transformations. We review the role of archaeobotany in identifying and describing past arable land use. Analytical techniques are illustrated with examples at both local and regional scales, demonstrating how archaeobotany can provide unique details of the wide array of past subsistence and land-use strategies. These data and their potential should be better recognised as important information that could underpin models seeking to evaluate or predict the effects of socioenvironmental interactions.
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Journal of Ecology 109 (3), 2020
Biodiversity plays an important role in ecosystem functioning, habitat recovery following disturb... more Biodiversity plays an important role in ecosystem functioning, habitat recovery following disturbance and resilience to global environmental change. Long‐term ecological records can be used to explore biodiversity patterns and trends over centennial to multi‐millennial time scales across broad regions. Fossil pollen grains preserved in sediment over millennia reflect palynological richness and diversity, which relates to changes in landscape diversity. Other long‐term environmental data, such as fossil insects, palaeoclimate and archaeologically‐inferred palaeodemographic (population) data, hold potential to address questions about the drivers and consequences of diversity change when combined with fossil pollen records. This study tests a model of Holocene palynological diversity change through a synthesis of pollen and insect records from across the British Isles along with palaeodemographic trends and palaeoclimate records. We demonstrate relationships between human population change, insect faunal group turnover, palynological diversity and climate trends through the Holocene. Notable increases in population at the start of the British Neolithic (~6000 calendar years before present (BP)) and Bronze Age (~4200 BP) coincided with the loss of forests, increased agricultural activity, and changes in insect faunal groups to species associated with human land use. Pollen diversity and evenness increased, most notably since the Bronze Age, as landscapes became more open and heterogeneous. However, regionally‐distinctive patterns are also evident within the context of these broad‐scale trends. Palynological diversity is correlated with population, while diversity and population are correlated with some climate datasets during certain time periods (e.g. Greenland temperature in the mid‐late Holocene). Synthesis: This study has demonstrated that early human societies contributed to shaping palynological diversity patterns over millennia within the context of broader climatic influences upon vegetation. The connections between population and palynological diversity become increasingly significant in the later Holocene, implying intensifying impacts of human activity, which may override climatic effects. Patterns of palynological diversity trends are regionally variable and do not always follow expected trajectories. To fully understand the long‐term drivers of biodiversity change on regionally‐relevant ecological and management scales, future research needs to focus on amalgamating diverse data types, along with multi‐community efforts to harmonise data across broad regions.
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Revolutions THE NEOLITHISATION OF THE MEDITERRANEAN BASIN: THE TRANSITION TO FOOD PRODUCING ECONOMIES IN NORTH AFRICA, SOUTHERN EUROPE AND THE LEVANT, 2021
This paper reviews the introduction of early farming in the Western Balkans through a comparison ... more This paper reviews the introduction of early farming in the Western Balkans through a comparison of the radiocarbon, zooarchaeological, and archaeobotanical records, both inland and in the Adriatic Basin. Summed calibrated date probability distributions, alongside data on settlement patterns, suggest an overall low Mesolithic presence across the area, sharply contrasting with a much higher density of Neolithic occupations appearing in the area after the end of the 8.2 kyr cal BP climatic event. Faunal and plant data present clear differences between both regions, although they share a common trajectory of increasing cultural diversity through time.
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This paper explores the first maritime westward expansion of crops across the Adriatic and the no... more This paper explores the first maritime westward expansion of crops across the Adriatic and the northern coast of the western Mediterranean. Starting in Greece at c.6500 cal BC and following the coastline to the Andalusian region of Spain to c.4500 cal BC, the presence of the main cereal, pulse, oil and fibre crops are recorded from 122 sites. Patterns in the distribution of crops are explored through ubiquity scores, correspondence analysis and Simpson's diversity index. Our findings reveal changes in the frequencies of crops as farming regimes developed in Europe, and show how different crops followed unique trajectories. Fluctuations in the diversity of the crop spectrum between defined areas are also evident, and may serve to illustrate how founder effects can explain some of the patterns evident in large-scale spatio-temporal evaluations. Within the broader westward expansion of farming, regionalism and multi-directional maritime networks described through archaeological materials are also visible in the botanical records.
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Environmental Archaeology, 2019
Animals and plants, both farmed and hunted/collected, were an integrated part of the Neolithic fo... more Animals and plants, both farmed and hunted/collected, were an integrated part of the Neolithic food economy. When jointly analysed these can provide a holistic view of early food production systems which goes beyond individual descriptions of herd management and crop cultivation. Exhaustive surveys of both Neolithic zooarchaeological and archaeobotanical data were collected from the western Balkans and neighbouring regions (Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Serbia, southern Hungary, western Romania and eastern Italy). Here we combine both sets of data to explore the Neolithic food economy along the maritime and inland streams of Neolithisation. We demonstrate that, notwithstanding significant limitations, it is possible to compare and combine the datasets and present an integrated approach to the spread and development of farming within the western Balkans. Our research also evinces diachronic and spatial differences within the exploitation of domesticated and wild species, and the factors that may have influenced such practices.
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This paper presents the results of excavations conducted in Sept. 2013 in Seocka pećina, in
the n... more This paper presents the results of excavations conducted in Sept. 2013 in Seocka pećina, in
the near vicinity of the Skadar Lake. A Mesolithic level, dated by radiocarbon to the late 9th – early 8th
millennium cal. BC was discovered, in addition to several finds belonging to the Bronze Age. Although
spatially limited, these results are important as they provide a first glimpse of the Mesolithic settlement
pattern and associated activities in this under-investigated part of Montenegro.
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Conference Presentations by Anne de Vareilles
It is well-known that the spread of farming and associated technologies across the western Balkan... more It is well-known that the spread of farming and associated technologies across the western Balkans followed two different routes, continental and coastal. Apart of the different landscapes through which they have been spread, those two streams of neolithisation are also distinguished by distinct archaeological complexes, with the Starčevo-Körös-Criş complex in the inland, and the Impresso culture along the Adriatic coast. However, the underlying reasons of this process, the mechanisms of its transmission, and how to describe that archaeological variability are still insufficiently addressed questions.
In order to answer these many questions, we have undertaken as part of a five-year ERC-funded project (EUROFARM, PI: Dr. M. Vander Linden) a thorough assessment of the literature in the Western Balkans (i.e. Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Serbia, Montenegro and neighboring areas), a necessary but arduous task given the fragmented and uneven state of the documentation. So far, our efforts have focused upon the creation of a site gazetteer covering the entire region from c.10000 to 4500 cal BC, a review of all 14C dates, zooarchaeological, archaeobotanical, lithics and pottery records, plus field work undertaken in northern Bosnia and Herzegovina and south-eastern Montenegro. In this paper, we would like to offer a first review of our results.
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Posters by Anne de Vareilles
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PhD Thesis by Anne de Vareilles
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Papers Meso-Neolithic by Anne de Vareilles
Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports, 2020
This paper explores the first maritime westward expansion of crops across the Adriatic and the no... more This paper explores the first maritime westward expansion of crops across the Adriatic and the northern coast of the western Mediterranean. Starting in Greece at c.6500 cal BC and following the coastline to the Andalusian region of Spain to c.4500 cal BC, the presence of the main cereal, pulse, oil and fibre crops are recorded from 122 sites. Patterns in the distribution of crops are explored through ubiquity scores, correspondence analysis and Simpson's diversity index. Our findings reveal changes in the frequencies of crops as farming regimes developed in Europe, and show how different crops followed unique trajectories. Fluctuations in the diversity of the crop spectrum between defined areas are also evident, and may serve to illustrate how founder effects can explain some of the patterns evident in large-scale spatio-temporal evaluations. Within the broader westward expansion of farming, regionalism and multi-directional maritime networks described through archaeological materials are also visible in the botanical records.
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The Balkans, peer-reviewed by Anne de Vareilles
Valamoti, S.M., Dimoula, A., Ntinou, M. (eds.) Cooking with plants in ancient Europe and beyond: Interdisciplinary approaches to the archaeology of plant foods. Sidestone Press, 2022
This paper takes a long-term perspective and looks at the development of plant food economies fro... more This paper takes a long-term perspective and looks at the development of plant food economies from the Neolithic through to the Bronze Age (6300‑1000 BC) in the central and western parts of the continental Balkans (southeast Europe), more specifically – the territories of Serbia,*Kosovo(1), and Bosnia and Herzegovina. It does this by overviewing the archaeobotanical evidence of crop growing from sites archaeologically dated to the selected timespan. Farming started in the region with the cultivation of at least six crop species early in the Neolithic. Through time, the range grew steadily as new species were taken into cultivation whilst old ones were maintained. Some crops changed their role over time, from minor to major or vice versa, while the importance of others remained constant. Continuity, diversification and innovation mark the five millennia of farming practice in the region.
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Papers by Anne de Vareilles
the near vicinity of the Skadar Lake. A Mesolithic level, dated by radiocarbon to the late 9th – early 8th
millennium cal. BC was discovered, in addition to several finds belonging to the Bronze Age. Although
spatially limited, these results are important as they provide a first glimpse of the Mesolithic settlement
pattern and associated activities in this under-investigated part of Montenegro.
Conference Presentations by Anne de Vareilles
In order to answer these many questions, we have undertaken as part of a five-year ERC-funded project (EUROFARM, PI: Dr. M. Vander Linden) a thorough assessment of the literature in the Western Balkans (i.e. Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Serbia, Montenegro and neighboring areas), a necessary but arduous task given the fragmented and uneven state of the documentation. So far, our efforts have focused upon the creation of a site gazetteer covering the entire region from c.10000 to 4500 cal BC, a review of all 14C dates, zooarchaeological, archaeobotanical, lithics and pottery records, plus field work undertaken in northern Bosnia and Herzegovina and south-eastern Montenegro. In this paper, we would like to offer a first review of our results.
Posters by Anne de Vareilles
PhD Thesis by Anne de Vareilles
Papers Meso-Neolithic by Anne de Vareilles
The Balkans, peer-reviewed by Anne de Vareilles
the near vicinity of the Skadar Lake. A Mesolithic level, dated by radiocarbon to the late 9th – early 8th
millennium cal. BC was discovered, in addition to several finds belonging to the Bronze Age. Although
spatially limited, these results are important as they provide a first glimpse of the Mesolithic settlement
pattern and associated activities in this under-investigated part of Montenegro.
In order to answer these many questions, we have undertaken as part of a five-year ERC-funded project (EUROFARM, PI: Dr. M. Vander Linden) a thorough assessment of the literature in the Western Balkans (i.e. Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Serbia, Montenegro and neighboring areas), a necessary but arduous task given the fragmented and uneven state of the documentation. So far, our efforts have focused upon the creation of a site gazetteer covering the entire region from c.10000 to 4500 cal BC, a review of all 14C dates, zooarchaeological, archaeobotanical, lithics and pottery records, plus field work undertaken in northern Bosnia and Herzegovina and south-eastern Montenegro. In this paper, we would like to offer a first review of our results.