Cereals from Sarup. With some remarks on plant husbandry in Neolithic Denmark

Abstract

Cereals from Sarup. With some remarks on plant husbandry in Neolithic Denmark.

From the North-European TRB Culture the occurrence of larger quantities of carbonized plant remains is unusual. Our knowledge of the food plants cultivated in that period come from imprints in pottery sherds and a few carbonized grains. The excavations of the large fortified site Sarup have brought to light the largest discoveries of charred plant material known from this culture (fig. 1). The archaeological datings as well as the radiocarbon dates are shown in table 1. In all, about 2,5 litres of carbonized material, including small stones etc. were studied. The results appear in tables 2 and 3. In addition a number of other samples from period II were also examined. The composition of cereals was in agreement with the results in table 2.

As apparent in table 2, emmer is highly represented in all four samples. The amount of other cereal species varies from 1,1-4,7%. On the whole the cereal composition is the same in all four samples, but it tends towards a more deliberate cultivation of emmer as a single crop during period MN II.

Comparing the average means of length, breadth and thickness of emmer grains and the curves respectively (table 4 and fig. 5), it appears that the oldest grains (sample 1) seem to be smaller than grains from younger periods. The same tendency is observed from the size of spikelet forks (fig. 6). Regarding the measurements of Triticum dicoccum as shown in fig. 5, the curve for length of grains from sample 1 shows the normal curve. The curves for length of grains from sample 2, 3 and 4 seem to vary a bit from the normal distribution. The breadth and thickness of the grains tend towards the same pattern. This means that sample 1 should represent a single unit (a population), in this case probably harvesting from one field. The other samples may represent a mixture with harvesting from at least more than one field. These suppositions are confirmed by the archaeological finding conditions, where sample 1 comes from vessels deposited as a single unit, while samples 2, 3 and 4 originate from settlement pits representing several archaeological deposits. The different ages of sample 1 in contrast to samples 2 and 3 respectively sample 4, indicate that the cereal remains come from at least three and probably several different harvestings. Consequently the samples should give a highly representative picture of the crop cultivation of that time. It is suggested that during some generations emmer was cultivated as a monoculture in Sarup.

Our knowledge of Early Neolithic cereal cultivation in Denmark is very fragmentary. A few grain imprints in pottery were studied from Store Valby (6) and Stengade (7). From the transition to the Middle Neolithic larger finds appear. Charred grains from Sarup and Bundsø (8) as well as imprints from the classical settlements Troldebjerg, Blandebjerg and Lindø occur (9). In fig. 7 the proportion of the cereal species are shown. Percentages less than 1% are excluded. It should be noted that the cereal composition published from studies of imprints confirms the results from Sarup. From period MN V only few studies were carried out (10).

The following Single Grave Culture still represents an obscure gap in our knowledge of crop cultivation in prehistoric Denmark. Very few impressions and grains, all from barley, have been identified (11) (12).

The Late Neolithic period in Denmark is now represented by three larger cereal finds Nørre Sandegård (13), Birknæs (14) and Lindebjerg (15). These suggest that naked barley played an important role in the Late Neolithic. Emmer is still cultivated and small amounts of einkorn, club/bread wheat, spelt (in Birknæs) and millet (less than 1% in Nørre Sandegård) occur (fig. 7). With the appearance of the cereal species spelt and millet and the increase of naked barley at the expense of emmer a more varied crop cultivation in the Late Neolithic is suggested. The change from emmer as the dominating cereal to a food production based on various cereal crops may have taken place during period MN V or the Single Grave Culture.

Grethe Jørgensen