The botanical macroremains from the prehistoric settlement Kalnik-Igrišče (NW Croatia) in the context of current knowledge about cultivation and plant consumption in Croatia and neighboring countries during the Bronze Age

Abstract

This paper presents the results of the first extensive archaeobotanical research into a Bronze Age site in Croatia. The aim of the study was to reveal what plants were consumed (grown) at Kalnik-Igrišče (NW Croatia) in the Bronze Age and to realize if the plant diet of the local population differed from that of the inhabitants in neighboring countries.The results show that all plant macrofossils found at Kalnik-Igrišče can be classified into one of four functional groups: cereals, cultivated legumes, useful trees and weeds. As much as 98% of the findings are of cereals and legumes. The most abundant species found are Panicum miliaceum (millet), Hordeum vulgare (barley), Vicia faba (faba bean), Triticum aestivum ssp. aestivum (bread wheat), Triticum turgidum ssp. dicoccon (emmer wheat) and Lens culinaris (lentils). The findings from Kalnik-Igrišče do not differ from the findings of neighboring countries, indicating that there were similar diets and agricultural/plant-collecting activities throughout the whole of the studied area

House of Plenty: Reassessing Food and Farming in Late Bronze Age Croatia

“…The previously published plant remains from the western side of the house (Karavanić 2008;Mareković 2013;Mareković et al 2015;Mareković 2015, 2017) have a comparable representation of crops to those found on the eastern side. The analysis of 69,116 carbonised plant macrofossils showed that 98% of the finds belonged to cultivated cereals and pulses.…”

“…Due to the house burning down the eastern part of the building is very well preserved to the point that finds form distinct functional areas and allowed organic remains to become well preserved through carbonisation. As a result, a large dataset has been collected relating to household organisation, including carbonised plant macro-fossils, wood remains, ceramic vessels, hearths, stone tools, animal bones, bronze items and other finds characteristic of the settlement area (Karavanić 2009;Kudelić 2017, 2019a;Mareković 2015, 2017;Mareković et al 2015;Karavanić and Kudelić 2019b). The most numerous findings are dated to the last stage of the late Bronze Age or the end of the Urnfield culture (1000-800 BC).…”

“…More recently, excavations at Kalnik-Igrišče (Figure 1) have uncovered large quantities of carbonised plant remains within the burned-down ruins of a late Bronze Age house. Plant remains, originating from a smaller part of the house, have already been processed and published and show a wide range of crops (Mareković et al 2015;Karavanić, Kudelić, and Mareković 2015;Karavanić and Kudelić 2019a). The excavations that followed Kudelić 2017, 2019b) have revealed the outlines of the entire building and more archaeobotanical evidence.…”

Grains from ear to ear: the morphology of spelt and free-threshing wheat from Roman Mursa (Osijek), Croatia

“…Site type: 1, Rural settlement; 2, Urban settlement; 3, Altar in urban settlement; 4, Cemetery Excavations of a late Bronze Age house at the site yielded ca. 69,000 carbonised plant remains, 82% of which were cereals (Mareković 2013;Mareković et al 2015). Panicum miliaceum was the most dominant, representing nearly 75% of the cereal remains, followed by Hordeum, FT, T. dicoccum, T. spelta and T. monococcum.…”

A comparison of the influences of flotation and wet sieving on certain carbonized legume and cereal remains

“…For all these species we took 300 well-preserved whole grains from the Late Bronze Age sites Kalnik-Igrišče (Mareković et al 2015), for both pretreatments that we explored. Additionally, we have treated 180 carbonized lentil seeds from the Roman site Poreč (which was explored in 2008) and 100 horsebean seeds from Bronze Age settlements Nova Bukovica (Šoštarić 2001).…”