Archaeoentomological assessment of weevil (Coleoptera, Bruchidae) infestation level of pea (Pisum sativum) at the Late Bronze Age settlement Hissar

Abstract

A find of 2572 charred seeds of pea (Pisum sativum L.) was detected at the Late Bronze Age tell settlement Hissar near Leskovac, in Serbia, belonging to the Brnjica cultural group, 14-10 cent. BC. Two types of pea seeds were observed: apparently healthy seeds and seeds damaged by the activity of a weevil (Coleoptera, Bruchidae). At least two-fifths of all finds have apparently been infested most probably by pea weevil (Bruchus pisorum L.), one of the most important pea pests worldwide, especially in medium-moist and dry climates, such as Southern Europe and Australia. A large amount of infested pea seeds indicates a developed pea production on small plots, strongly indicating that cultivating this ancient pulse crop must have been well-rooted in field conditions. Previous DNA analyses of charred pea placed the ancient Hissar pea at an intermediate position between extantly cultivated pea (P. sativum L. subsp. sativum var. sativum) and a wild, winter hardy, 'tall' pea (P. sativum subsp. elatius (Steven ex M. Bieb.) Asch. et Graebn.). Based on an assumption of its late harvest time and combined with pea weevil life cycle stage in charred seeds, it was possible to estimate the season during which the seeds were carbonized, namely, the second half of July or the first days of August at the latest. Older, final weevil instars were predominant before seed carbonization. The pea infestation rate at Hissar is one of the highest noted among pulses in the Old World and the highest among peas, so far.

Settlements and cemeteries in Bronze Age Croatia: The archaeobotanical evidence

“…The largest numbers of lentils recovered are from the middle Bronze Age sites of Tiszaalpár-Várdomb and Bölcske-Vörösgyír, which had over 4500 and 3000 seeds respectively. In Serbia, over 3600 peas were recovered from the middle Bronze Age tell site of Feudvar and over 2700 peas at the late Bronze Age settlement of Hissar (Kroll and Reed, 2016;Medović and Mikić, 2021). In Croatia, again the pattern is slightly different with broad bean dominating late Bronze Age sites, followed by lentil and only a few finds of pea, again mainly from Kalnik-Igrišče.…”

Aleksandar Mikić, the legume (re)searcher

“…arvense ). The work on charred pea from Hissar has ended with an archaeoentomological paper (Medović & Mikić, 2021). The pea species/variety found at Hissar was not resistant to a weevil attack, most probably to Bruchus pisorum .…”