Archaeobotanical evidence of crop growing and diet within the areas of the Karanovo and the Linear Pottery Cultures: a quantitative and qualitative approach

The earliest farming communities north of the Carpathians: The settlement at Gwoździec site 2

“…Plant remains related to cultivation belong only to hulled wheat emmer Triticum dicoccon and einkorn T. monococcum. Both of these wheat species predominated in Early Neolithic agriculture in Poland [31,65,66,67] and other European regions [26,68,69,70,71,72]. The two wheat species were probably cultivated in the same fields in a mixture, as they have similar edaphic requirements and similar life cycles [21].…”

Crop choice, gathered plants and household activities at the beginnings of farming in the Pelagonia Valley of North Macedonia

“…Nevertheless, with the exception of Bulgaria (e.g. Kreuz & Marinova 2017), the state of research for these early phases is still precarious because of the paucity of evidence (Valamoti & Kotsakis 2007). Despite new research in the Korça Basin, Albania (Allen & Gjipali 2014), the Struma Valley, Bulgaria (Marinova et al 2016; Marinova 2017), and the Pelagonia Valley (Beneš et al 2018), we have limited knowledge of the nature of farming, domestic activities, refuse management and the overall role of cultivated and gathered plants in the Neolithic diet.…”

An Archaeobotanical Onsite Approach to the Neolithic Settlements in Southern Regions of the Balkans: The Case of Vrbjanska Čuka, a Tell Site in Pelagonia, Republic of Macedonia

“…The considerable stratigraphy of tells demonstrates how deep was the attachment between the inhabitants of a tell and its settled area. However, some tells constitute only two settled horizons and the height of the entire tell is not particularly significant; these tells could therefore be a kind of transitional form between the flat site and the tell-type settlement (Kreuz, Marinova, 2017).…”

“…In the southern regions of the Balkans in the 1980s and 1990s, local specialists were also active, such as E. Chakalova and Z. Popova in Bulgaria (see Kreuz et al, 2017). A substantial shift has been recorded in the last decade towards the adoption of a multi-proxy approach: a new trend in the bioarchaeological research of Neolithic sites.…”

“…In contrast to the best monothematic studies of the 1970s and 1980s, the multi-proxy approach is based on the synergy of two or more analytical methods. The combination of particular methods has been steeply increasing in number up until today (Marinova, Thiebault, 2008;Karkanas et al, 2011;Pappa et al, 2013;Garnier, Valamoti, 2016;Marinova, Ntinou, 2017;Kreuz, Marinova, 2017;Ivanova et al, 2018;Whitford, 2018). In the last 10-15 years, the "critical mass" of specialists and awareness of the necessity to apply multiproxy approaches has increased.…”