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Agricultural Dispersals in Mediterranean and Temperate Europe

August 2017

August 2017

DOI:10.1093/acrefore/9780199389414.013.307

In book: Environmental Sciences
Chapter: Agriculture and the Environment
Publisher: Oxford Research Encyclopedia
Editors: H. Shugart

Authors:

Aurélie Salavert

Muséum National d'Histoire Naturelle

Main Crops and Weeds Mentioned in the Text

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Summary and Keywords

Along with ceramics production, sedentism, and herding, agriculture is a major

component of the Neolithic as it is defined in Europe. Therefore, the agricultural system

of the first Neolithic societies and the dispersal of exogenous cultivated plants to Europe

are the subject of many scientific studies. To work on these issues, archaeobotanists rely

on residual plant remains—crop seeds, weeds, and wild plants—from archaeological

structures like detritic pits, and, less often, storage contexts. To date, no plant with an

economic value has been identified as domesticated in Western Europe except possibly

opium poppy. The earliest seeds identified at archaeological sites dated to about 5500–

5200 BC in the Mediterranean and Temperate Europe. The cultivated plants identified

were cereals (wheat and barley), oleaginous plant (flax), and pulses (peas, lentils, and

chickpeas). This crop package originated in the Fertile Crescent, where it was clearly

established around 7500 BC (final Pre-Pottery Neolithic B), after a long, polycentric

domestication process. From the middle of the 7th millennium BC, via the Balkan

Peninsula, the pioneer Neolithic populations, with their specific economies, rapidly

dispersed from east to west, following two main pathways. One was the maritime route

over the northwestern basin of the Mediterranean (6200–5300 BC), and the other was the

terrestrial and fluvial route in central and northwestern continental Europe (5500–4900

BC). On their trajectory, the agropastoral societies adapted the Neolithic founder crops

from the Middle East to new environmental conditions encountered in Western Europe.

Agricultural Dispersals in Mediterranean and

Temperate Europe

Aurélie Salavert

Subject: Environmental History, Agriculture and the Environment, Environmental Economics

Online Publication Date: Aug 2017 DOI: 10.1093/acrefore/9780199389414.013.307

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Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Environmental

Science

Agricultural Dispersals in Mediterranean and Temperate Europe

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The Neolithic pioneers settled in an area that had experienced a long tradition of hunting

and gathering. The Neolithization of Europe followed a colonization model. The

Mesolithic groups, although exploiting plant resources such as hazelnut more or less

intensively, did not significantly change the landscape. The impact of their settlements

and their activities are hardly noticeable through palynology, for example. The control of

the mode of reproduction of plants has certainly increased the prevalence of Homo

sapiens, involving, among others, a demographic increase and the ability to settle down

in areas that were not well adapted to year-round occupation up to that point. The

characterization of past agricultural systems, such as crop plants, technical processes,

and the impact of anthropogenic activities on the landscape, is essential for

understanding the interrelation of human societies and the plant environment. This

interrelation has undoubtedly changed deeply with the Neolithic Revolution.

Keywords: archaeology, Neolithic, Palaeoethnobotany, ancient cereals, opium poppy, early farming systems

Introduction

Agriculture is the relationship between an exploiting species and one or more exploited

species living in an artificial cultivated ecosystem (Mazoyer & Roudart, 1997). In this

sense, humans are not the only ones practicing agriculture. For exemple, Atta and

Acromyrmex, two ant genera from the Americas, cultivate fungi that will constitute the

essence of their alimentation. However, humans have invented many techniques and

artifacts to cultivate a great number of crops. There is currently a wide variety of

agricultures in the world, and even now, in the 21st century, agriculture is at the base of

most human economies. But what about the first agrarian systems? When did humans

become farmers? How did cultivated plants and farming techniques come to Temperate

and Mediterranean Europe? Research on the earliest farming systems is highly

significant, especially in a globalized context, in which new modes of production have

been emerging since the 1980s to handle and patent the gene pool of cultivated plants. In

Europe, the privatization of agricultural heritage, as well as experimentation to diffuse

agriculture beyond Earth, is coming face to face with a renewal of old varieties and food

production on a local scale. It shows that agricultural innovations are complex and not

linear, even today (Bonneuil et al., 2006).

In the absence of iconographic and written sources for the ancient period, archaeological

materials are the most direct evidence for the early agricultures that appeared in several

places across the world from around 11,500 years to 5,000 years ago. Agriculture is one

of the main components of Neolithic economy, associated with animal husbandry,

potterymaking, and sedentary habitats in Western Europe (Price & Bar-Yosef, 2011).

Often described as a revolution (Childe, 1925), the Neolithic period appears today like a

transitional phenomenon in the Near East, as well as in the diffusion of its economy to

Europe. Agriculture did not arrive suddenly. It took around 3,000 years for domesticates

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to spread from the Aegean to Great Britain and Ireland. But even if it was not a

revolution, the invention of agriculture and its dispersal constituted a crucial change in

human economy, as well as its relationship with the natural environment. Before

becoming farmers and herders, human beings were predators, living lives of hunting and

gathering, for a long time.

This geographical framework includes a territory stretching roughly from the Black Sea

in the east to the Atlantic Ocean in the west. In Europe, the Neolithic period is part of the

Holocene epoch, which began about 12,000 years ago. The Holocene is characterized by

a global warming that followed the frosty and arid climate of the Pleistocene. The epoch

is divided into several chronological zones, defined in particular by palynology (i.e., the

study of pollen grains conserved in sediment). The beginning of the Neolithic corresponds

with the middle of the Atlantic chronozone, characterized by the extension of deciduous

oak to the detriment of the boreal forest, composed of birch, pine, and hazelnut, in

Temperate Europe, as well as Scots pine and juniper in the Mediterranean. The

Mesolithic/Neolithic transition corresponds to the passage from a hunting/gathering to an

agropastoral way of life. The transition occurred at different times over three millennia,

between 7000 and 4000 BC, according to the regions of Europe and their location on the

long route of diffusion of agriculture. The primary Neolithic settlement regions in Europe

are, roughly, the Balkans, central Europe, and the central and northwestern areas of the

Mediterranean basin. This article aims to present the emergence of agriculture in Europe

in the middle of the 7th millennium BC, demonstrating the main routes of cultivated plant

diffusion to Temperate and Mediterranean Europe, as well as highlighting assumptions

about early Neolithic farming systems (Fig. 1).

Studying the Origin of the First Agrarian

System and Its Introduction into Europe

How Is the Spread of Early Agriculture Studied?

Proxies Used to Study Early Agriculture

Click to view larger

Figure 1. Chronological setting of the first

agriculture dispersals in Western Europe. The main

archaeological cultures, defined mainly by ceramic

decoration, are shown in italic.

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Interdisciplinarity is fundamental to the study of past societies, including early crop

diversity and the diffusion of agriculture. Farming systems result from the combination of

natural, sociocultural, economic, and technical elements (Jouve, 1988). Several types of

residues, plant microfossils (phytoliths, pollen grains and starch, and organic residues),

plant macrofossils (charcoal), artifacts (grinding stones and harvesting tools), and

archaeozoology (bone pathology) allow the study of most of the components, especially

the ecosystem context and technological practices. Synthesizing the results and

integrating all the archaeological disciplines and scientific tools used, therefore, is an

arduous task. Even then, this synthesis cannot be exhaustive due to the mass of data

produced by archaeology (many proxies are used to study the agricultural system), the

large territory in question (Europe), and the interest aroused by this huge socioeconomic

transition in the scientific community (from which has come an abundant bibliography).

This article concentrates on the first moments of Neolithic primary colonization in the

Balkans, the Mediterranean, and Temperate Europe, relying on the most direct evidence

of past agricultural practices – the plant macroremains recovered from archaeological

sites.

Definition and Methodology of Archeobotany

Archaeobotany is the study of seeds, fruits, and inflorescent parts from archaeological

sites. Plant macroremains are collected during excavations and mostly come from

sedimentary samples. Water sieving allows the extraction of fragile plant remains from

their sedimentary matrix. Most often, seeds and fruits are charred in Temperate and

Mediterranean Europe. This can result from one or a few specific actions in time and

space—as in a burned storage structure—but also disparate events, as in the progressive

accumulation of remains resulting from cooking accidents (Bouby, 2000). Others

macroremains, such as cereal processing byproducts or weeds, are not related to human

food but rather are direct evidence of past farming practices. Furthermore, the study of

wild fruits and seeds allows us to consider the importance of gathering practices in the

Neolithic productive economy, even when it is assumed that domesticated taxa constitute

the main vegetal element of the human diet.

Click to view larger

Figure 2. Archaeological sample following water

sieving, with a mix of emmer, einkorn, and an

important amount of Lapsana communis, a frequent

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After careful separation

from other macroremains

(microfauna, shells, lithics,

and mineral residues), seeds, fruits, and parts of the inflorescence are identified using a

binocular microscope, with magnifications from about 10 to 50 times (Fig. 2). The

archaeobotanical process always begins with the morphological observation of plant

remains to identify the taxa. For this purpose, the archaeological specimens, often

charred and damaged, are compared with specimens from modern seed comparison

collections, as well as morphological botanical descriptions. The cultivated plants and

evidence of their mode of production and processing that reach us are fragmentary and

most often of accidental origin (as is the case with many archaeological remains). Indeed,

certain types of remains, such as leaves, roots, and tubers, are not clearly identified

because of their uncharacteristic anatomy and low resistance to carbonization. In

addition, different sampling protocols, an unequal analytical corpus, and nonuniform,

macro-level counting methods across the discipline make it difficult to integrate data

from different researchers (Fig. 3). Thus, limiting filters are to be taken into account

when the archaeobotanist seeks to interpret archeobotanical assemblages and create a

comparative work between two regions, for example.

The first archaeobotanical

studies were conducted in

Egypt on desiccated seeds

from pharaonic tombs,

which were studied by

Kunth (1826). Results from

the Swiss pile-dwelling

sites and the Hallstatt salt

mines in Austria were

published 40 years later

(Heer, 1865; Unger,

Lesquereux, &

Hruschauer, 1851). In

1968, the creation of the

International Work Group

for Palaeoethnobotany

(IWGP) allowed for a

united discipline,

organizing an international symposium every three years in Europe, in which the study of

the first farming system in the world takes an important place. The domestication of plant

species and their introduction into new regions are, indeed, among the favorite subjects

of archaeobotanists. From the 1980s, an increase in archaeological research has enabled

the acquisition of archaeobotanical material. The reference work regarding crop

domestication, reprinted several times, discusses the origin of cultivated plants and their

distribution in the western and central regions of the Asiatic continent (Zohary, Hopf, &

Neolithic weed in Temperate Europe (Remicourt-en-

Bia Flo II, around 5000 BC, Belgium).

Click to view larger

Figure 3. Presentation of the main filters that come

into archaeobotanical studies, as well as tools used

by the archaeobotanist to reconstruct past farming

systems.

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Weiss, 2012). In addition, archeobotanical syntheses and comparative works at the

regional and supraregional scale in Europe have appeared in several collective works and

articles (e.g., Bogaard & Jones, 2007; Chevalier, Marinova, & Peña-Chocarro, 2014;

Colledge & Conolly, 2007A; Coward, Shennan, Colledge, Conolly, & Collard, 2008).

Contribution of Cultivated Plants to Understanding Early Crop Diversity

Cultivated plants (cereals, pulses, and oleaginous/textile materials) are represented by

their seeds, as well as, for cereals, their envelopes (lemma and palea) and the rachis that

produces the chaff. The chaff corresponds to byproducts from the processing of cereals

and allows for the study of postharvesting stages, such as the way that cereals were

stored (cleaned seeds, spikelets, or ears). Rachis also provides one of the best

morphological traits visible through archaeobotany for discriminating wild and cultivated

cereals. In a cultivated cereal, the rachis has robust scars, indicating that the ears are

indehiscent (i.e., they cannot disperse by themselves, unlike wild cereals). For the same

reason, and because of the cereal processing, the rachis base is often broken. Seeds or

chaff imprints, used in building materials or tempered ceramic, can also provide

information about the crops and the use of grain products. Seeds and chaff provide

information on crop morphological diversity in the earliest stages of Neolithic dispersal.

For cultivated plants, the rank of the species, in the morphological sense of the term, is

most often identifiable. Sometimes only the genus (e.g., Triticum/Hordeum) can be

identified due to poor preservation of remains. Sometimes species cannot be

discriminated because of similar morphological criteria (e.g., Triticum aestivum/durum),

preventing the appreciation of the whole diversity of past cultivated plants.

In addition to the strictly

morphological study,

genetic research applied

to charred plant

macrofossils has been in

development since the

2000s (Brown et al., 2015;

Schlumbaum et al., 2008).

This will provide

substantial information on

the origin of ancient plant

remains, the process of

domestication, and the

genetic diversity within a field, which is not visible through the seeds or cereal rachis

morphology.

Click to view larger

Figure 4. Seeds of Neolithic cultivated plants from

Early Neolithic sites in Belgium. (a) T. monococcum

(einkorn); (b) T. dicoccum (emmer); (c) P. sativum

(pea); (d) L. culinaris (lens); (e) L. usitatissimum

(flax).

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Contribution of Weeds to Study the Early Farming System

Weed seeds are also conserved, even in charred conditions. Weeds, from the

archaeobotanical point of view, correspond to uncultivated plants installed in the fields.

They result from the cleaning of cereals or pulses and are direct indicators of the

exploited agricultural environments and the agricultural techniques used. In a cultivated

plot, the flora is the result of a combination of agronomic factors (e.g., the depth of

plowing and the seasonality of seedlings) and the environment (e.g., precipitation,

temperature, and soil properties) that interact in complex ways. Archaeological weed

assemblages, therefore, are the products of past farming systems.

The identification of weeds within the rank of species is more problematic then for

cultivated plants, as it depends on the preservation of the seeds, the experience of the

archaeobotanists, and the richness of the reference collections of current plants. Indeed,

the diversity of wild plants is much wider than cultivated plants. Moreover, botanical

identification depends on several anatomical criteria (e.g., size, color of flowers, number

of petals, and arrangement of leaves). However, most often, only the seed is conserved in

an archaeological context.

Interpretation of weed assemblages is based on the current flora ecology and on farming

experiments (Bogaard, 2002; Jones, 2005; Jones, Charles, Colledge, & Halstead, 1995).

When the weed identifications are precise enough (to the specie level), the

phytosociology of these plants are indicators of the mode of cultivation. Archaeological

weeds can be classified according to their current cooccurrences in fields, in large

classes such as Secalinetea (corresponding to winter crops) and Chenopodietea

(corresponding to summer crops). However, both classes may cohabit in the same plot,

and the weed flora would be influenced by how the land is worked rather than the sowing

season (Behre & Jacomet, 1991; Lundström-Baudais, 1986). For example, Chenopodium

album, which is regularly identified in Neolithic archaeobotanical assemblages, is found

in both summer and winter crops (Bogaard, Jones, Charles, & Hodgson, 2001). It is then

much less developed and has a smaller size (Lundström-Baudais, 1986). The main limit to

reconstructing the Neolithic farming system in general, including the intensity of crops,

the seasonality, and the sustainability of the fields, is due to the current difficulty in

finding (by ethnology) or reproducing (by experimentation) farming systems in an

ecological and socioeconomical setting comparable to those of past societies.

Table 1. Main Crops and Weeds Mentioned in the Text

Group Latin Names English Common

Names

Wild and

Cultivated Cereals

H. vulgare subsp. spontaneum (K.

Koch) Thell.

Wild barley

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H. vulgare subsp. vulgare L. Cultivated hulled

barley

H. vulgare subsp. nudum L. Cultivated naked

barley

T. aestivum L. Bread wheat

T. monococcum L. Einkorn

T. monococcum subsp. aegilopoides

(Link) Thell.

Wild einkorn

T. turgidum L. ssp. dicoccoides (Körn.

ex Asch. & Graebn.) Thell.

Wild emmer

T. turgidum L. subsp. dicoccon

(Schrank) Thell.

Cultivated emmer

T. turgidum subsp. durum (Desf.)

Husn.

Macaroni wheat

Wild and

Cultivated Pulses

C. arietinum L. Chickpea

L. cicera L. Red pea

L. sativus L. Grass pea

L. culinaris Medik. Lens

P. sativum L. Pea

V. ervilia (L.) Willd. Bitter vetch

V. faba L. Broad bean

V. sativa L. Common vetch

Oil/Textile/

Psychoactive

Plants

L. usitatissimum L. Flax

P. somniferum L. Opium poppy

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Papaver somniferum subsp. setigerum

(DC.) Arcang.

Wild poppy

Weeds C. album L. Goosefoot

B. secalinus L. Rye brome

B. tectorum L. Drooping brome

F. convolvulus (L.) Á.Löve Black-bindweed

G. aparine L. Cleaver

L. communis Juss. Nipplewort

S. viridis (L.) P. Beauv. Wild/green foxtail

millet

S. verticillata (L.) P. Beauv. Bristly foxtail

For the last 15 years, a method called Functional Interpretation of Botanical Survey

(FIBS) has been used extensively to interpret weed assemblages. FIBS is based on the

autoecology of weed species, including individual attributes such as length of growth

period, canopy height, and ability to regenerate after significant soil disturbances

(Bogaard, Hodgson, Wilson, & Band, 1998; Jones, Bogaard, Charles, & Hodgson, 2000). It

makes it possible to go further in interpreting past agricultural regimes (intensive or

extensive) and crops’ seasonality. The growth conditions of the cultivated plants (e.g.,

water supply and soil fertility) can also be specified thanks to the stable isotopes of

carbon (δ13C) and nitrogen (δ15N) carried out on cereal seeds in particular (Fiorentino,

Ferrio, Bogaard, Araus, & Riehl, 2015). These analyses, which will certainly develop

exponentially in the future, constitute a promising tool complementary to the

interpretations of archaeological assemblages of weeds to understand how plants were

cultivated.

At the Origins of Agriculture in the Near East

Geographical Location of Wild Progenitors of Neolithic Crops

There is currently a consensus that crops found in European archaeological sites were

not domesticated locally. Most of them come from the Near East. However, the question

of domestication attempts of cereals and pulses before the arrival of Neolithic groups is

still subject to debate in both Temperate and Mediterranean Europe.

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Taxonomic classification, as well as cynogenetic and molecular affinities, make it possible

to identify, with more or less precision, the wild ancestors of cultivated plants. However,

not all of them have been identified with certainty, especially for pulses. For example,

Triticum turgidum ssp. dicoccoideae is the wild progenitor of emmer (Triticum dicoccum),

one of the first wheats domesticated in the Near East, whereas the wild ancestor of the

faba bean (Vicia faba) is still unknown (Zohary et al., 2012). The presence of wild

ancestor populations in one region, therefore, is the main criterion in favor of the local

domestication of this plant in the Neolithic period. By the end of the 19th century,

botanists such as de Candolle (1883), and later Vavilov (1951), worked on these issues,

labeling the Fertile Crescent as one of the world’s centers of plant domestication.

Most putative wild progenitors are, thus, currently absent in Western Europe except for

the Balkans. Triticum aegilopoides, the ancestor of einkorn (Triticum monococcum); Lens

orientalis, the ancestor of lens (Lens culinaris); and Hordeum spontaneum, the ancestor

of barley (Hordeum vulgare) are present in Southeast Europe today (Redden et al., 2015;

Valamoti et al., 2007; Zohary et al., 2012). Thus, the hunter-gatherers of the Balkan

Peninsula had at their disposal populations of the wild progenitors of cultivated cereals

and pulses. In the Franchthi Cave, in the Peloponnese (southern Greece), populations of

barley, lentils, and wild oats have been found to be exploited during the Mesolithic

period, in archaeological layers dating to around 7900–7500 BC (Valamoti & Kotsakis,

2007). On the following Neolithic archaeological levels, cereals and pulses were identified

on the morphological base, which could suggest a domestication process at that site.

However, the absence of transitional domestication traits supports the hypothesis of the

sudden introduction of cultivars in their fully domesticated morphology during the Initial

Neolithic, in the first half of the 7th millennium BC (Perlès, 2001).

Wild pulses and cereals are identified in other Mesolithic layers in Mediterranean

Europe. For example, in the L’Abeurador, a cave located in the Massif Central (southern

France), numerous charred pulses and seeds of the genera Vicia, Lathyrus, and Pisum

have been identified in Mesolithic levels dating to around 9000 BC (Vaquer & Ruas,

2009). These three genera are part of the founder crop package of the Near East. Their

identification rank remains imprecise due to poor conservation of macroremains. We do

not know whether these Mesolithic wild pulses correspond to wild progenitors. At

L’Abeurador, wild pulses have been found along with hazelnut shells, dogwood seeds, and

wild grapeseeds, which were probably consumed by inhabitants of the cave. Thus, as in

Franchthi Cave, wild pulses also could have been intensively picked up by Mesolithic

hunter-gatherers before the introduction of cultivated plants in the Mediterranean region

by Neolithic farmers.

These examples demonstrate that exploitation of wild resources, among other wild

cereals and pulses that were potentially ancestors of Neolithic crops, are common in

Mesolithic sites, mainly the Mediterranean region. However, intensive wild plant

gathering does not necessarily involve local domestication processes. Indeed, in Neolithic

Europe, the archaeological seeds and elements of cereal chaff are domestic from the

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morphological point of view. There are no transitory forms, as may be suspected in the

Near East (Tanno & Willcox, 2006).

Process of Domestication in the Near East

The domestication of a plant is a long process. First, the wild ancestor is collected, more

or less intensively. Humans, in a way, cultivate a wild population before it depends

entirely on them for reproduction. The focus of domestication at the origin of the

cultivated plants identified on the European Neolithic sites (mainly cereals and pulses), is

located in the Fertile Crescent—that is to say, the southeast of Anatolia, the Middle

Euphrates, and the Southern Levant.

The process of domestication began in the Epipalaeolithic, about 12,000 years ago. Some

authors have estimated that the climatic deterioration of the recent Dryas (12,500–11,500

BP), which corresponds to the end of the last glacial period and which results in a

decrease in temperatures, would have played a stimulating role in the choice of

cultivation of cereals to compensate for climatic risks. According to Willcox (2005), the

models explaining the transition to agriculture place too much importance on this event.

Indeed, although the deterioration is undeniable, the climatic conditions had only a

moderate effect on vegetation. In addition, agriculture, which depends on a stable

climate, was established after the Younger Dryas, at the end of the 9th millennium BC.

The availability of wild cereals, ancestors of domestic cultivars, is one of the key factors

in understanding the beginning of agriculture. This availability depends on soil types,

precipitation, and temperatures. In the 1990s, it was thought that there was only one

center of domestication, followed by a dispersal of cultivars. Since the early 2000s, the

hypothesis of polycentric domestication in the Fertile Crescent has been accepted on the

basis of the distribution of wild populations, archaeobotanical data, and genetic analyses

of modern cereal populations (Gebel, 2004; Willcox, 2005). The transition from harvesting

to fully established agriculture was gradual, taking several hundred years (Willcox, 2007).

The domestication occurred independently in two regions: southeastern Anatolia/Middle

Euphrates and the Southern Levant. The presence of a water source in these regions is

surely the primary necessity that led to the establishment of villages, even if the wild

cereals were sometimes distant (Willcox, 2005).

The Founder Crop Package

At the end of the 8th millennium BC, corresponding to the Pre-Pottery Neolithic B period

(PPNB, 7500–7000 BC), domestic plants and animals were at the basis of subsistence. The

founding crops, also called the “Neolithic crop package,” consisted of hulled cereals:

einkorn (T. monococcum), emmer (T. dicoccum), and barley (H. vulgare subsp. vulgare)

(Zohary, 1996). The free-treshing wheat (Triticum aestivum/durum) and naked barley (H.

vulgare subsp. nudum) were domesticated in a second phase (Willcox, 2007). Pulses were

reprented by lens (L. culinaris), pea (Pisum sativum), chickpea (Cicer arietinum), and

vetch (Vicia ervilia). Secondary pulses such as broad bean (Vicia faba) and grass pea

(Lathyrus sativus) do not seem to have met the same success, depending on location in

the Fertile Crescent, and are thus not included systematically in the founding crop

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package. Flax (Linum usitatissimum) is the only textile and oilseed plant in the package.

Thus, the Neolithic populations that spread into Western Europe have potentially five

types of cereals, at least four pulses and one oil and textile plant.

General Chronological Setting of Agriculture Dispersal to Europe

Hypotheses regarding the routes of diffusion and the parameters for the outbreaks of

Neolithic migration rely on a large number of proxies, such as radiocarbon dating and the

comparison of material productions, genetic, climatic, archaeozoological, and

archaeobotanical data. Radiocarbon dating is the strongest tool pointing to the arrival of

an agricultural economy from the Near East. Cereal grains, or associated archaeological

contexts, are found earlier in the East than in the West. The diffusion westward, from the

Near East via Anatolia, started from around the very beginning of the 7th millennium BC.

The pioneer front of colonization spread quickly from the core zone, as shown by early

evidence of cultivated plants in the late Pre-Pottery Neolithic A (PPNA, 9500–8700 BC)

site Klimonas in Cyprus, involving as well an early knowledge of navigation techniques

from at least 10,000 years ago (Vigne et al., 2012). Rapid climate deterioration

(aridification) or demographic pressures are often suggested as triggers for the diffusion

process to Western Europe (Berger & Guilaine, 2009; Bocquet-Appel, 2011; Weninger et

al., 2006).

By the mid-1960s, Clark (1965) proposed a model of diffusion from the Near East to

Western Europe starting before 5200 BC. Since then, thanks to the increasing number of

archaeological excavations and radiocarbon datings, which are also more precise, the

diffusion of the Neolithic economy has become better understood. In the early 1970s, a

new theory proposed an advancement at an average speed of about 1 km/year

(Ammerman & Cavalli-Sforza, 1971). However, the linear progress is questioned because

even if it was indeed fast, barriers are recorded in several European regions, as in the Pô

plain (northern Italy), the Biscay Bay (north of Spain), and the Hungarian plains.

Currently, the arrhythmic diffusion, or the boom-and-bust model, is the most popularly

argued theory (Guilaine, 2003; Mazurié de Keroualin, 2003; Shennan, 2013). It should be

noted that it is the movements of the components of the Neolithic economy (notably, the

seeds of cultivated plants), not strictly those of the people that are considered (Rasse,

2008).

Two main streams of diffusion to Europe are identified: by maritime route, along the

north Mediterranean coasts (Impressa/Cardial route), and by land, along the main water

courses of Southeast and Central Europe, such as the Danube and the Rhine (Danubian

route) (Rowley-Conwy, 2011). Climate (late frosts in temperate zones) and topography

(mountainous areas) are probably not the only factors to have influenced the rhythm and

the diffusion trajectories of the first farmers in Europe. Internal factors specific to each of

the Neolithic societies certainly greatly influenced their way of managing the

Agricultural Dispersals in Mediterranean and Temperate Europe

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sustainability of their socioeconomic systems (Manning, Colledge, Crema, Shennan, &

Timpson, 2016; Rasse, 2008).

The question of the contribution of local Mesolithic groups to the spread of Neolithic

economy is also still widely discussed (e.g., Hadjikoumis, Robinson, & Viner, 2011).

Diffusion processes may take slightly different forms (e.g., contacts, exchanges, or

acculturation), depending on cultural contexts and geographical locations. For example,

despite arguments in favor of the introduction of fully domesticated plants in Franchthi

Cave, the artifacts (i.e., stone tools and ornaments) present a strong continuity between

the Mesolithic and Neolithic horizons, which could correspond to a brief acculturation

episode by local hunter-gatherers during the “Initial Neolithic” (Perlès, 1990). This could

be a local phenomenon that cannot be applied generally to all sites with a succession of

Mesolithic and Neolithic levels in southern Greece (Perlès, Quiles, & Valladas, 2013). This

example illustrates quite well the probably complex process of Neolithic economy

diffusion from the Near East to Europe, especially in the Balkans, at the origin of the two

main streams of Neolithization to the west and north of the European continent.

Diversity of Crops and Farming Systems in

Mediterranean and Temperate Europe in the

Neolithic

Diversity of First Cultivated Plants in the Balkans

Chronocultural Background of Agriculture Dispersal in the Balkans

The east of the Balkan Peninsula (Greece, Macedonia, and Bulgaria) is the first point from

which the Neolithic economy spread quickly to Europe. Based on the evidence presented

in ceramic and lithic artifacts and architecture, this complex has a clear Near Eastern

origin, in the cultural continuity of the final PPNB period (Mazurié de Keroualin, 2003).

The Neolithic economy arrived in the Peloponnese and Macedonia about 6500 cal BC,

before the first evidence in Thessaly and Bulgaria, suggesting that multiple points of

contact could have occurred during the second half of the 7th millennium BC in the

Aegean and Balkans (Lespez et al., 2013; Perlès et al., 2013). Thus, migration from

Anatolia to the Aegean and Thrace regions may not correspond to a single event, but

rather to separate waves of diffusion, both by sea and on land (Özdoğan, 2011). The

Struma, Maritsa, and Vardar valleys in southwest Bulgaria could be the primary routes of

Neolithic diffusion to the interior of the Balkan Peninsula around 6200–6100 BC, with the

Karanovo and the Starčevo/Körös/Criş cultures (Lichardus-Itten, Demoule, Perničeva, &

Grebska-Kulova, 2006). The first farming groups settled in fertile open lands of the Great

Hungarian plain and would give birth to the widespread Linearbandkeramik (LBK) culture

in Central Europe (see “DIVERSITY OF THE FIRST CULTIVATED PLANTS IN

Agricultural Dispersals in Mediterranean and Temperate Europe

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TEMPERATE EUROPE”). They were probably not greatly constrained by the environment,

especially in the eastern Balkan Peninsula. In addition, the hunter-gatherers’ population

density was probably very low at the time of their arrival.

The settlement types are varied. There are caves, such as Franchthi, which can be

interpreted as a shepherd shelter that is seasonal or complementary to a permanent site

that has not been discovered yet (Mazurié de Keroualin, 2003). Perennial sites are also

encountered. They present square or rectangular house plans of varying sizes,

constructed of brick or cob, as in Neo Nikomedeia in Macedonia or Kovačevo in Bulgaria

(Lichardus-Itten, 2012). Both types of sites have provided archaeobotanical material. The

fine pottery was generally painted. Sheep and goats seem to predominate at the very

beginning of farming diffusion (Mazurié de Keroualin, 2003).

The west of the peninsula is often considered separately in archaeological literature,

probably because this region doesn’t correspond, from a cultural point of view, to the

Balkano-Anatolian complex. Two routes of diffusion to the Adriatic and south of the

Carpathians are identified (Forenbaher et al., 2013; Orton, Gaastra, & Linden, 2016). The

maritime route corresponds to the so-called Impressed Ware culture (6100 BC; see

“DIVERSITY OF FIRST CULTIVATED PLANTS IN THE MEDITERRANEAN”).

Crop Diversity in the Balkans

A consequent amount of archaeobotanical studies have been carried out in this pioneer

colonization zone [i.e., Bulgaria and Greece (Colledge, Conolly, & Shennan, 2004, 2007B;

Marinova, 2007; Marinova, Tonkov, Bozilova, & Vajsov, 2012, Marinova & Valamoti, 2014;

Valamoti & Kotsakis, 2007)]. On the other hand, there are not many pieces of data

available to the east of the Balkan Peninsula, especially for early Neolithic coastal

settlements.

In these regions, the crop package is consistent with what is known in the Near East. It is

composed of hulled wheat; hulled and naked barley; free-threshing wheat; a range of

pulses such as lentil, pea, chickpea, and bitter vetch; and flax. From a quantitative point

of view, hulled wheat varieties (emmer and einkorn) seem to be the most important crops

in southeast Europe (Marinova & Valamoti, 2014). However, the quantitative criterion is

not very relevant for comparing, as the hulled/naked wheat ratio depends on the

chronology of the archaeological sites, the number of sites and samples studied,

taphonomy, and past human practices.

Few qualitative variations can be noted in the group of pulses between Greece and

southwest Bulgaria. First, chickpea is present but sparse. It seems that this pulse is not

present in the north of Greece, although it has been identified in many sites in South

Bulgaria, such as Kovačevo. However, in this site, chickpea is associated with the more

recent stages (from 5600 BC) of the Neolithic in Southern Bulgaria, while it is not

mentioned in the north (Marinova & Popova, 2008; Valamoti & Kotsakis, 2007). This

confirms that the Neolithic economy might have penetrated Europe at many different

points and times. Thus, not all plants came suddenly, suggesting a potential break in the

Agricultural Dispersals in Mediterranean and Temperate Europe

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transmission process. Second, grass pea is continuously present in southeast Europe,

regarding the founder crop package, and the importance of this pulse in the Balkans is

pointed out (Kislev, 1989; Valamoti & Kotsakis, 2007). Indeed, concentrations of grass pea

have regularly been identified in Early Neolithic sites in Bulgaria and Greece (Valamoti,

Moniaki, & Karathanou, 2011). Lathyrus cicera, the putative wild ancestor of L. sativus, is

distributed in Turkey, as well as Greece and Transcaucasia (Zohary et al., 2012).

Diversity of First Cultivated Plants in the Mediterranean

Agricultural Dispersals in Mediterranean and Temperate Europe

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Chronocultural Background of Agriculture Dispersal in the Mediterranean

A synthesis of radiocarbon dates, many on cereal seeds, from early Neolithic sites in Italy,

southern France, and Iberia indicates that the spread of the Neolithic economy took place

between 5700 and 5500 BC, by the maritime route (Zilhão, 2014). It therefore took no

more than a couple of centuries to spread from the Thyrrenian Sea to the Albora coast.

The diffusion of human groups, their economy, and their ideas over more than 3,000 km

of coastal territories was then quite rapid, but probably not linear and continuous

(Mazurié de Keroualin, 2003). The ceramic style, as well as radiocarbon dating

compilation, indicates that different Neolithic groups may have arrived simultaneously

around 5700 BC at different points in the northeastern Iberian Peninsula (Morales

Hidalgo, Fontanals Torroja, Oms Arias, & Vergès Bosch, 2010). Furthermore, a long

period of stasis seems perceptible before the first domesticated plants reached north-

central Spain (Zilhão, 2014). Indeed, Biscay Bay, in the Cantabrian region, was not

reached until the middle of the 5th millennium, as evidenced by wheat grain emmer

dating to 4400 BC (Peña-Chocarro et al., 2005). At first, the pioneering advance seems to

have become rather concentrated in the coastal areas before quickly moving inland, and

even into higher altitudes via major river systems (Guilaine & Manen, 2007).

These pioneer communities are part of a large cultural entity, defined mainly on ceramic

decoration and technology, called the Impressa/Cardial complex. In the central and

western Mediterranean Basin, the ceramic paste was decorated with impressions and

incisions with fingers, nails, varied tools, or shell edges, such as cardium, which gave its

name to the Cardial culture (Mazurié de Keroualin, 2003). Impressa ceramics are more

characteristic of the early Neolithic in Italy and southeast France, while the Cardial style

is encountered in the western part of the Mediterranean Basin.

Village organization and extent, as well as architectural techniques for housing, are not

well known for the Early Neolithic in the Mediterranean. Many settlements are found in

the open air with light structures, or in rock shelters, which do not lend themselves to the

conservation of archaeological structures or archaeobotanical remains. Rich and fertile

soils in the valley floors seem to have been appreciated and utilized by the first farming

communities for their settlements, as along the central coast of the Iberian Peninsula

(Pérez-Jordà & Peña-Chocarro, 2013). A few sites have been preserved under waterlogged

conditions, allowing for an outstanding preservation of organic material. Many wooden

posts were discovered at La Marmotta (on Bacciano Lake in central Italy) and at La

Draga (on Banyoles Lake in northeast Spain). These huts could correspond to long-term

open-air settlements, the building of which would need a substantial labor investment

(Fugazzola Delpino & Tinazzi, 2010). These two types of habitats could be interpreted as

the coexistence of different mobility patterns (semimobile or permanent) and economic

strategies (herders or farmers) from the early Neolithic (Mazurié de Keroualin, 2003).

The same variations are visible in the livestock package, in which the proportions of pigs,

sheeps/goats, cows, and wild fauna, as well as sheep morphotypes, are different

Agricultural Dispersals in Mediterranean and Temperate Europe

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depending on location and whether the sites are attributed to the Impressa or Cardial

culture (Rowley-Conwy et al., 2013; Vigne, 2007).

Crop Diversity in the Mediterranean

In Italy, despite the substantial amount of sites studied, the number of remains identified

is generally low. However, some Early Neolithic sites, as La Marmotta in Central Italy and

Sammardenchia in the Pô Plain, have been subject to systematic archaeobotanical

studies, which allow for a substantial overview of the crop package in the coastal Central

Mediterranean (Rottoli & Pessina, 2007; Rottoli & Castiglioni, 2009). In France, the

amount of data to date is very weak (Gassin et al., 2010). In the Iberian Peninsula, several

sites have yielded important and well-preserved data sets, as on the lakeshore site of La

Draga in Catalonia and Cova de l’Or and Los Castillejos on the southeastern coast of the

peninsula (Antolín & Buxó, 2011, 2012; Rovira, 2007). Recent regional syntheses give

substantial data on cultivated plants in these regions and the variation of crop package

composition at the supraregional scale (Antolín, Jacomet, & Buxó, 2015; Buxó, 2007;

Peña-Chocarro et al., 2013; Pérez Jordà & Peña-Chocarro, 2013; Zapata, Peña-Chocarro,

Pérez-Jordá, & Stika, 2004).

From a qualitative point of view, the Neolithic crop package (especially cereals) is

equivalent to the Balkans and the Near East. The first farmers in the central and western

Mediterranean have grown einkorn; emmer; free-threshing wheat; hulled and naked

barley; a wide range of pulses, such as lentils, peas, beans, vetches, and grass peas; and

flax. The set of cultivated plants is highly diversified. On Cardial sites from southern

France and the Iberian Peninsula, naked cereals predominate, while emmer and einkorn

appear to be predominant to the east, in the Central Mediterranean (Antolín & Buxó,

2012; Buxó, 2007; Gassin et al., 2010; Peña-Choccaro et al., 2013). However, the more or

less rigorous division between hulled cereals in the Impressa culture and naked cereals in

the Cardial culture needs to be confirmed by further studies. Indeed, in the northeast of

the Iberian Peninsula, the proportions of naked and hulled cereals vary depending on the

site (Antolín & Buxó, 2012). Hulled cereals have been identified in some other sites on the

central coast of Catalonia. In other sites, such as La Draga, the naked wheats dominate.

There are no taphonomic, geological, or pedological features to explain these differences,

indicating that several agricultural traditions in the choice of main cereals may have

coexisted as soon as the early Neolithic at the microregional scale (Antolín & Buxó, 2011,

2012). The two types of cereals (naked or hulled) do not have the same requirements (in

terms of dehusking, for example) and involve different technical systems. However, the

comparison of proportion is based on many cereals identified at the genus level (Triticum

or Hordeum), which prevents a clear view of the naked/hulled dominances in the region.

Moreover, this example illustrates quite well the limits of the sole morphological

identification of the taxa to address early crop diversity. Indeed, genotype differences can

be recorded within a field of wheat that looks visibly homogeneous, as it is currently

highlighted in the western Mediterranean (Oliveira et al., 2012).

Agricultural Dispersals in Mediterranean and Temperate Europe

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Regarding pulses, chickpea is absent from the Impressa/Cardial route, which indicates

that it was not diffused by the very first farmers (Colledge, Conolly, & Shennan, 2005).

The reasons for this neglect are still poorly understood. It may or may not have been a

conscious choice. Indeed, explanations of an exclusively environmental nature are

difficult to substantiate, since all other taxa domesticated in the Near East are identified

in the Mediterranean stream. Furthermore, we note the addition of common vetch (Vicia

sativa) and broad bean (Vicia faba) as minor components of the crop package in the

Mediterranean (Antolín & Buxó, 2012; Rottoli & Pessina, 2007; Rottoli & Castiglioni, 2009).

The findings of a large amount of broad bean in early-PPNB occupation levels of Tell el-

Kerkh (northwest Syria) and in a middle-PPNB storage structure at Yiftah’el (Israel) could

also point toward an early cultivation of this pulse in the area where the Neolithic crop

package originated (Kislev, 1989). There is a real difficulty in differentiating wild and

domesticated forms because of the overlapping of seed size, especially as these pulses

could also be considered as a contaminant in cultivated fields (Zohary et al., 2012).

Furthermore, charred archaeological pulses are very fragile, which does note facilitate

their identification (Tanno & Willcox, 2006). Thus, the origin and diffusion of pulses

remains a largely unknown part of early agriculture across the Mediterranean basin, as

well as in the Near East.

An additionnal species, opium poppy (Papaver somniferum), completes the Mediterranean

crop package and has not, to date, been identified, further east in the Balkan Peninsula

and the Near East (see “LOOKING FOR THE ORIGIN OF OPIUM POPPY IN WESTERN

EUROPE”). At La Marmotta, seeds preserved in carbonized and uncarbonized form,

charred capsules, and stigmatic disks were discovered (Rottoli & Pessina, 2007). In Spain,

poppy has been identified in sites such as La Draga, Los Murceliagos, and La Lampara

(Antolín & Buxó, 2012; Stika, 2005).

Diversity of the First Cultivated Plants in Temperate Europe

Agricultural Dispersals in Mediterranean and Temperate Europe

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Chronocultural Background of Agriculture Dispersal in Temperate Europe

The Neolithic economy spread from south-central Europe, approximately following the

Danube watershed, into northwestern continental Europe during the 6th millennium BC.

The first farmers of south-central Europe appear in the Starčevo/Körös/Criş complex

(6100–5500 BC), which extend from Transdanubia to the Great Hungarian Plain and

Transylvania. Around 5600 BC, the LBK culture emerged in southwestern Slovakia and

western Hungary, to the north of Lake Balaton (Gronenborn, 1999). In this area, the

relationship between LBK culture and the Starčevo/Körös/Criş complex is still subject to

debate (Stadler & Kotova, 2010).

Around 5500 BC, the LBK culture began its rapid first phase of expansion westward,

reached the Rhine by 5300 BC, and, during a second phase, extended to the Paris Basin,

ending around 4900 BC (Bogucki, 2003). To the east, LBK groups settled during the late

6th millennium BC in western Ukraine (Bogucki, 2000). LBK material production shows

some variation depending on location and chronology of the site. However, the cultural

identity of the pioneer farmers is strong enough to follow the route of early agriculture

diffusion through Temperate Europe from Southwest Ukraine to the Paris Basin. This

culture is characterized by a broad distribution of similar pottery types and decoration, as

well as long houses with a rectangular layout. The decoration of pots—incised linear

forms in bands or ribbons—provided the name for this archaeological culture

(Linearbandkeramik, Linear Ceramic, or Rubané). Houses and villages are clearly

sedentary. The negatives of wood posts, called post holes, make it possible to trace the

ground plan of the Danubian houses, which could measure between 10 and 45 meters

(Coudart, 1998). The first farmers settled mainly on loessic patches, which are assumed

to have a high natural fertility (Catt, 2001), and uninhabited zones separate clusters of

villages from each other. LBK emergence is believed by some to be linked to an increase

of wetter and colder climatic conditions, and its collapse to warmer and drier conditions

(Dubouloz, 2008).

Crop Diversity in Temperate Europe

The Neolithic crop package in Central and Northwest continental Europe is quite well

known, thanks to many archaeobotanical studies carried out in LBK sites (e.g., Bakels,

1978; Knörzer, 1997; Kreuz, 2007; Kreuz, Marinova, Schäfer, & Wiethold, 2005; Salavert,

2011).

In the Starčevo/Körös/Criş sphere, at the origin of farming in Central Europe, the

diversity of crops may be underestimated. Indeed, the plant economy of the Starčevo/

Körös/Criş is mainly known through imprints in daub and ceramics. However, few sites

from this period provide charred macroremains, which allow for an overview of the plants

cultivated by the first farmers in South-Central Europe (Bogaard, Krause, & Strien, 2011;

Colledge & Conolly, 2007B; Gyulai, 2010; Reed, 2015). To date, the list of crops is rather

smaller. Both hulled wheats (einkorn and emmer) and, sometimes barley, lens, and peas

Agricultural Dispersals in Mediterranean and Temperate Europe

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are identified. The arrival of naked wheat seems to have been delayed to the end of the

6th millennium BC, which corresponds to Late Neolithic (Reed, 2015).

In LBK sites, the range of crops is also relatively narrow (Bakels, 2009; Colledge et al.,

2005; Kreuz et al., 2005; Kreuz, 2007; Salavert, 2011). The general pattern shows that

einkorn dominated central European sites for the duration of the LBK culture (Kreuz,

2007). Einkorn has a good resistance to lodging that could explain the choice of this

cereal, despite its lower yield compared to emmer (Kreuz, 2007). However, west of the

Rhine, in the southern Limbourg, Hesbaye, and Hainaut regions, emmer clearly

dominates, whether the grains or chaff are taken into account (Salavert, 2011). Thus, a

climatic hypothesis cannot be the only motivation behind humans’ choices in their

farming strategies. Concerning barley, hulled and naked forms are scarce, which gives an

unknown status to this taxon. Barley, as with naked wheat, whose findings are anecdotal,

may have been considered a weed in LBK fields rather than a true crop plant (Kreuz,

2007). However, even if the barley form (hulled or naked) is not always specified in

archaeobotanical counting tables because of bad conservation of the charred caryopses,

naked barley seems more frequent in the western part of the LBK cultural extension,

more precisely in the Hainaut and Parisian Basin, and could thus be part of the crop

package in these peripheral regions of the primary Neolithic economy dispersal (Bakels,

2009; Salavert, 2011). Indeed, naked barley has been recognized at Wange and

Overhespen in the north of Hesbaye (Bakels, 1992) and in four LBK sites in the Aisne

valley in France (Bakels, 1999).

The group of pulses is composed of lentils and peas. In the group of fiber/oleaginous

plants, in addition to flax, opium poppy (Papaver somniferum) appears only in sites dated

from 5300 BC and related to the second phase of LBK extension (Bakels, 1996; Kreuz,

2007; Salavert, 2011).

There is, thus, a clear decrease of crop diversity in Temperate Europe. This reduction

corresponds to a moment of rupture in the diffusion of the Neolithic economy. The

dynamic slows down, or stops, for several centuries on the level of the Hungarian plain.

This pause allowed human societies, as well as the animals and plants that they

transported, to adapt to different climatic conditions (more humidity, longer winter) than

those encountered previously. However, the cultural argument—that is to say, the choice

made by the first farmers of Temperate Europe—cannot be ignored, as hulled wheats also

can be successful in temperate environments (Colledge et al., 2005). This break could

have enabled the groups to acquire agricultural know-how before being able to spread

them into western and eastern Temperate Europe (Bogucki, 2000).

Early Farming Systems in Mediterranean and Temperate Europe

The definition of Neolithic farming systems (more precisely, the seasonality of crops or

the maintenance techniques of soil fertility) is at the center of archaeobotanical research,

which relies on weeds and stable isotope analyses.

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In Central Europe, the specific diversity of weeds is also restricted. The most common

species are Bromus secalinus, Chenopodium album, Fallopia convolvulus, and Lapsana

communis. These are the main components of the plant association Bromo-Lapsanetum-

Praehistoricum, defined by Knörzer (1971) based on weed assemblages. However, this

association is no longer observed in cultivated fields in Central Europe. According to

several authors, it would show the presence of fields, permanent or not, cultivated every

year with the same methods throughout the LBK territory, which would cause a well-

defined combination of weeds (Bakels, 1978, 2009; Knörzer, 1971). It is difficult to

interpret extinct associations to reconstruct past agricultural practices such as the size of

fields, their sustainability, and the seasonality of crops.

For a long time, the practice of slash-and-burn agriculture was suggested to explain the

rapid expansion of early farmers in the forest environment of Central Europe. The

principle is as follows: A forested area is cultivated over a short period (one to five years)

after being cleared and burned. Organic burned material provides nutrients that improve

agricultural yield. After this short period, crops are moved to another area that has

undergone the same treatment (Bogaard, 2002), allowing the initial site time to recover.

However, the presence of long-lived Neolithic LBK sites such as Langweiler 8 and

Vaihingen and der Enz (Germany), as well as the spatial proximity of villages, do not offer

an economic area wide enough to allow the operation of the system in each village across

many generations.

Furthermore, the comparison of weed censuses from current experimental fields, in

addition to a large number of archaeological weeds that have been precisely identified

and come from deposits resulting from the processing of harvests of emmer and einkorn,

exclude the possibility of shifting cultivation in the Early Neolithic in Temperate Europe

(Bogaard, 2002). Indeed, with a shifting cultivation system, perennial weeds dominate.

However, in archaeological assemblages, perennial weeds account for only 2% of the

samples taken into account, and annual weeds greatly dominate.

Thanks to weed autoecology, Bogaard (2004) has suggested that Early Neolithic farmers

would have practiced intensive and permanent agriculture on a limited surface, usually

near settlements. The sustainability of the fields was permitted, thanks to a strong supply

of animal manure and weeding. The main sociotechnological implications are agricultural

production at the domestic scale, strong integration between livestock and agriculture,

and probably a very significant investment of labour and time (Jones, 2005; Saqalli et al.,

2014). For example, manuring and weeding would be six to seven times more labor

intensive than shifting cultivation (Pétrequin, Pétrequin, & Schaal, 2015). In the Balkans,

the contribution of manure, as evidenced by nitogen isotope values (δ N), was integrated

into agricultural systems from the very beginning of the spread of Neolithic economics

(Bogaard et al., 2013; Fraser, Bogaard, Schäfer, Arbogast, & Heaton, 2013). Furthermore,

at Vaihingen an der Enz, Germany, the integration of archeobotanical analyses, especially

weed autoecology (such as soil pH requirements), as well as ceramic typology on a site

almost completely excavated, has led to claims of a sort of clanic/group organization, with

Agricultural Dispersals in Mediterranean and Temperate Europe

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the distribution of cultivated areas according to group membership and a transfer of plots

from generation to generation (Bogaard et al., 2011).

The Early Neolithic farming system in the Western Mediterranean has not been described

in detail, mainly because of badly preserved archaeological weed assemblages at current

sites. Statistical approaches, with precise identification based on substantial data sets,

cannot yet be applied (Antolín & Buxó, 2012). Furthermore, it is far too early to formulate

a general trend applicable to the whole Mediterranean region. At Los Castilleros, weed

assemblages indicate permanent fields (Rovira, 2007). It seems that “most common taxa

are annual plants typical of disturbed areas that could grow as arable weeds in irrigated

or dry fields” (Antolín & Buxó, 2012, p. 99). The most common taxa are Chenopodium

album and Galium aparine. The very few forest taxa in the assemblages could indicate

that early farmers in Spain did not use the shifting cultivation (Antolín, Buxó, Jacomet,

Navarrete, & Saña, 2014). The ecological requirements of annual plants and the

flowering length indicate relatively intensive perturbations as well as long-term and

intensively managed sowing of plots in autumn and possibly spring (Antolín et al., 2015;

Peña-Chocarro et al., 2013).

Looking for the Origin of Opium Poppy in Western Europe

Identification of Wild and Cultivated Poppy

Opium poppy is a significant addition in the Neolithic crop package in Meditterranean

and Temperate Europe. Opium poppy could be one of the unique plants domesticated in

the European territory during the Neolithic. The origin and diffusion of the plant in

Western Europe are yet to be understood, especially the question of its wild progenitor.

The family Papaveraceae occurs in temperate and subtropical climates. Today, its main

distribution is around the Mediterranean region and the Middle East (Baser & Arslan,

2014). Papaver somniferum subsp. setigerum is often considered to be the wild ancestor

of Papaver somniferum subsp. Somniferum, which is the cultivated form (Hammer, 1981;

Zohary et al., 2012). However, recent botanical results based on their geographical

distribution and the morphological characteristics of poppy identify three subspecies of

poppy cultivated at present: P. somniferum subsp. setigerum, P. somniferum subsp.

Songaricum, and P. somniferum subsp. somniferum. The putative wild ancestor can

therefore also be considered as a cultivated form by botanists (Baser & Arslan, 2014).

The Western and Central Mediterranean is the region of origin for wild poppy that is most

often mentioned in archaeobotanical literature (Bakels, 1996; Knörzer, 1971; Schultze-

Motel, 1979). However, wild populations of poppy have developed in other geographical

areas, including Central Asia, the Caucasus, North Africa, and the Eastern Mediterranean

(Salavert, 2010). Given the range of opium poppy, based on the occurrence of its wild

ancestor and the evidence of current phytogeography, its origin is difficult to identify. The

wild and cultivated forms of P. somniferum are interfertile, and wild populations that are

supposed to be “authentic” may be naturalized populations or escaped from cultivated

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fields (De Candolle, 1883; Ladizinsky, 1998). This is why some authors believe that there

are currently no known true wild populations of opium poppy in the world (Merlin, 1984;

Chouvy, 2001). The wild ancestor and the natural distribution zone of wild poppy,

therefore, are imprecise and may not be confined to the Western Mediterranean.

The morphological criteria to distinguish wild from cultivated seeds in archaeological

records are not established. The poppy seed is small (less than 1 mm in diameter) and

spherical. It has multiple facets and is pentagonal and hexagonal edged with a slight

bulge (Fig. 5). Capsules and stigmatic discs of opium poppy also have been identified at

archaeological sites.

Although cultivated seeds

are generally larger than

wild seeds, there are no

valid criteria for

differentiating them

(Hammer, 1981). The

variability of cultivated

poppy seeds is very broad

and also covers the wild

form. It is therefore

impossible to distinguish

between the seeds, as well

as the capsules, of wild

and cultivated poppy,

especially from the

Neolithic period.

Furthermore, the number of seeds identified at archaeological sites is generally low.

Particular taphonomical conditions must be present to preserve the seeds, and the

remains most often originate from a single sample. This rarity can be attributed to the

small size of the seeds, which requires a suitable sieving method (0.25 μm mesh). In the

same way, the oil content of the seed does not predispose it to preservation. Finally,

processes of poppy transformation may not necessitate contact with fire, which weakens

the chances that the seeds will be charred and thus preserved at archaeological sites.

Click to view larger

Figure 5. Seeds of P. somniferum (opium poppy) from

a Linearbandkeramik site in Belgium (around 5000

BC).

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Earliest Neolithic Poppy on Archaeological Sites

The largest number of Neolithic archaeological sites that have delivered poppies are

located in the Impressa/Cardial and LBK complexes in Western Europe. In the current

state of research, about 30 sites dated between 5200 and 5000 BC have delivered seeds

of P. somniferum in the LBK. Sites are located in the area delimited by the province of

Hesse (Germany) in the east and Hainaut (Belgium) in the west (Salavert, 2010). The

seeds are absent from the earliest LBK sites (5500–5300 BC), even in the case of sites

located east of the Rhine, and appear only during the second phase of LBK expansion,

after 5300 BC. Outside this zone, several determinations are mentioned in France,

Austria, and Poland, still at LBK sites dating between 5200 and 5000 BC (Salavert, 2011).

Thus, the opium poppy is well established in the LBK context, particularly in the

northwestern extension of the culture. In the Impressa/Cardial complex, a large quantity

of carbonized and noncharred seeds, capsules, and stigmatic disks was found at the

lakeside site of La Marmotta (Italy), dated by radiocarbon and dendrochronology between

5500 and 5400 BC (Kromer, 2009). At the site of La Draga (Spain), charred and

watterlogged seeds were identified in one Neolithic structure. The archaeological level is

dated between 5400 and 5100 BC, with a majority of dates between 5250 and 5150 BC

(Antolín & Buxó, 2011). The opium poppy is mentioned in at least three other Cardial sites

dated between 5200 and 4900 BC (Antolín & Buxó, 2012; Salavert, 2011). The importance

of the plant in the Neolithic Mediterranean has probably been underestimated because of

the small size of the seeds and the mode of conservation (charred), which is not suitable

for oleaginous seeds. The Eastern Mediterranean also has delivered poppy. A waterlogged

seed was found at the Atlit-Yam Pre-Pottery Neolithic C (PPNC) site in Israel (Kislev,

Hartmann, & Galili, 2004). The series of radiometric datings obtained at the site ranges

from about 7400 and 5900 BC. This is the single identification of P. somniferum in the

Near Eastern Neolithic. The antiquity of the PPNC opium poppy seed can be questioned,

on the one hand, by its isolated nature in a region heavily investigated by

archaeobotanists, and on the other hand, by the fact that only one (watterlogged) seed

was discovered on this submerged site very favorable to the preservation of organic

material. No opium poppy has been mentioned in Neolithic sites in Southeast Europe.

The Spanish and Italian arcaheological identifications, in a region supposedly at the

origin of the (also supposed) ancestor of the plant, are weakly anterior to LBK Europe.

The limitations of the comparisons of dating are real (particularly the inaccuracy of

radiocarbon datings), but above all, the fact that it is not the poppy seeds that are directly

dated, but other materials (bones, charcoal) sometimes localized in other structures or

archaeological layers that date the whole site or the occupation phase.

Scenario of Domestication and Diffusion

Absolute datings from the sites of the Early Neolithic period in Western Europe do not

clearly indicate where the opium poppy was cultivated for the first time. One possibility is

that the poppy accompanied the dispersal of Neolithic pioneer communities with other

cultivated plants originating in the Near East, such as wheats, pulses, and flax. This

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hypothesis is uncertain because this plant has not been discovered, to date, in the earliest

LBK sites (the Starčevo/Körös/Criş or Balkano-Anatolian complex).

If we assume that the origin of the plant is the Western Mediterranean, poppy could have

integrated the LBK area under its wild or cultivated form. The contacts between the

Neolithic populations of Southern and Northern Europe also have long been observed in

archaeological artifacts. They are, for example, established between the Cardial-

Epicardial farmers and the LBK populations through ceramic decorations (e.g., Meier-

Arendt, 1966; Guilaine & Manen, 1997) and ornaments (Bonnardin, 2009). In addition,

wild plants, such as Bromus sterilis/tectorum and perhaps Setaria viridis/verticillata,

identified occasionally in LBK sites, originate from the Mediterranean regions

(Oberdorfer, 1990). Thus, it is not surprising that seeds of Mediterranean origin are

identified in LBK archaeobotanical assemblages.

There have been no discoveries of incised capsules or other elements that would make it

possible to understand the use of this plant by early farmers. Poppy can be grown for its

oil, or the seeds may have been added to food preparations and consumed. The

psychotropic properties may not have been unknown to the Neolithic societies.

Furthermore, in Vaihingen an der Enz, it seems that only the houses located in the

southeast of the site have adopted this plant. No different taphonomic conditions from the

rest of the village could explain this spatial distribution. This could indicate a different

social status of certain people as favored contacts with the Southern Cardial (Bogaard et

al., 2011) or particular knowledge about poppy cultivation.

Spread of Agriculture to Northern and Western Europe

The presence of cultivated plants is a marker of the spread of the agrarian economy,

especially when the seeds are dated directly to the radiocarbon, and are accompanied by

weeds. On this basis, there is no convincing evidence of Mesolithic agriculture to date in

the north and northwestern margins of Europe which correspond to southern

Scandinavia, northern Germany and Poland, as well as Britain and Ireland (Behre, 2007;

Sørensen & Karg, 2014; Tresset, 2015). The diffusion of cultivated plants is attested there

from 4000 BC, which marks the beginning of the initial Neolithic, a little less than a

millennium after the decline of the LBK culture in central and western Temperate Europe

(see “DIVERSITY OF THE FIRST CULTIVATED PLANTS IN TEMPERATE EUROPE”).

During this millennium, different archaeological cultures developed there, such as

Blicquy/Villeneuve-Saint-Germain, Rössen, Epi-Rössen, Michelsberg, or Chasséen. Their

social, cultural, and economic structures are significantly different from those of the LBK

pioneer farmers who travelled along the Danube from 5500 BC. Concerning cultivated

plants, naked cereals have been developed, in particular tetraploid wheat (Triticum

durum/turgidum), probably under the influence of neolithic populations from the western

Mediterranean (Bakels, 2009).

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The modalities for the introduction of cultivars at the beginning of the 4th millennium in

the northern and western Europe are still discussed. The particular points are the

progressive adoption of agriculture by indigenous mesolithic groups, the sudden arrival

of cultivars thanks to small groups of experimented farmers from central Europe, as well

as the importance of cereals compared to gathering/fishing/hunting products, in the early

Neolithic diet (Rowley-Conwy, 2004; Jones & Rowley-Conwy, 2007; Thomas, 2008; Kreuz

et al., 2014; Sørensen & Karg, 2014; Jones & Sibbesson, 2016). Several factors are

proposed to explain the relaunch of the crop diffusion to new geographical areas at the

beginning of the 4th millennium BC: demographic pressures; a warmer and drier climate

around 4000 BC, which would extend the spring growing season for cereals; or the

search for good flint sources (Bonsall et al., 2002; Jones et al., 2000; Sørensen & Karg,

2014).

According to radiocarbon dates, only three centuries have been needed to adopt the

Neolithic economy, suggesting the arrival of small groups of experienced farmers in

southern Scandinavia and northern Germany (Sørensen & Karg, 2014). Similarly, for

southern Scandinavia, mitochondrial DNA studies show a close relationship between

Neolithic individuals belonging to the northern Funnelbeaker culture (TRB or TBK),

developing in northern Germany to the territory of Sweden, with those of Central Europe

(Malmström et al., 2015). In Britain and Ireland, pollen records show that the

disturbances of initial Neolithic people activities were sudden and rapid in deciduous

forest (Woodbridge et al., 2014). However, seeds of cultivated cereals are still often

identified in small amounts around 4000 BC (Jones & Rowley-Conwy, 2007). The agrarian

economy seems fully established from 3750 BC in Ireland (Whitehouse et al., 2014;

McClatchie et al., 2016) and from 3600 BC in northern Germany (Kirleis et al., 2012).

However, taphonomic factors may explain the weak data set related to early Neolithic

settlements in these areas (Jones & Rowley-Conwy, 2007).

Archaeobotanical syntheses from southern Scandinavia (northern Germany, Denmark,

and southern and western Sweden) show that the main cultivated plants identified in the

Funnelbeaker context, corresponding to local early and middle Neolithic, are emmer and

einkorn, as well as naked barley and bread wheat (Robinson, 2003; Larsson & Broström,

2011; Kirleis & Fischer, 2014). For northern Germany, poppy and pulses are not identified

at the very beginning of the period (Kirleis & Fischer, 2014). Recently, discoveries of

naked tetraploid wheat in southern Scandinavia support a possible cultural interaction

between the Funnelbeaker and contemporaneous neolithic groups in Central Europe,

such as the Michelsberg culture, where this cereal is widely cultivated (Kirleis & Fischer,

2014; Kreuz et al., 2014). In the same way, the Michelsberg crop package is characterized

by weak evidence of pulses (lentils and pea) and oleaginous/fiber plants (Kreuz et al.,

2014). In Ireland, the early Neolithic is characterized by a mixed blend of cereals

composed mainly of emmer, some naked wheat (T. astivum/durum/turgidum), and naked

barley. Einkorn is rare. Flax is present from the beginning of the Neolithic, while pulses

are absent (McClatchie et al., 2014, 2016).

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This is a very rapid view of the spread of the Neolithic economy based on cereal

cultivation in the northern margins of Europe. The northern and northwestern parts of

Europe are therefore characterized by the importance of hulled wheat, but also free-

treshing wheat and naked barley, which corresponds to the main cereals cultivated by the

Neolithic groups of Central Europe at the beginning of the 4th millennium BC. Pulses are

rare (Colledge et al., 2005). The characterization of farming systems is still in progress. In

England, preliminary studies indicate a high rate of annual plants compared to perennial

weeds characteristic of fields cultivated by a slash-and-burn system (Bogaard et al., 2007).

As in Ireland, the intensive system of fixed and perennial fields in the landscape is

favored (McClatchie et al., 2014).

Click to view larger

Figure 6. Synthetic presentation of the maritime

diffusion in Mediterranean (Impressa/Cardial) and

continental diffusion in Temperate Europe

(Linearbandkeramik), as well as the spread of

cultivars in northern and western Europe between

6500 and 4000 BC.

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Conclusions

To summarize these findings, the dispersal route of agriculture into Mediterranean and

Temperate Europe is rather well known, thanks to archaeology. The diffusion of the

Neolithic economy was rapid and spanned about 1,500 years, from 6500 BC in Greece to

the beginning of the 4th millennium BC in Ireland (Fig. 6). The maritime route of

agriculture dispersal, along the Mediterranean coasts, presents a minimal loss of

diversity compared to agricultural origins in the Near East. Only the chickpea did not

spread with the very first farming communities in the Balkans. Naked cereals are

included in the crop package, but it seems that hulled wheats were preferred at the very

beginning of the Neolithic diffusion (Balkans and Impressa). The habitat types (caves,

rock shelters, open-air sites) are diversified, as are the crops that the first Mediterranean

farmers cultivated from 6500 to 5500 BC. Farming practices need further investigation.

Thanks to palaeocological studies, it seems that the first farming groups in the Western

Mediterranean may have had a heterogeneous impact, in terms of timing and spatial

extent, on the oak forests, which we assume earlier Mesolithic groups modified only

sparsely (Revelles, IN PRESS; Thiébault, 1988).

In Temperate Europe, the habitat types are more homogeneous and the Neolithic crop

package presents a low diversity. Cultivated fields are probably long-lasting and may have

been managed on the domestic scale for several family generations. This transfer goes

hand in hand with the high investment required for agricultural work and the

maintenance of the sustainability of the field (thanks to manure). It also implies a strong

territorial settling of the groups of the early Neolithic in the Danubian sphere in the

second half of the 6th millennium BC. Studies on daily firewood gathered near the LBK

sites of the first farmers in Belgium show the rapid increase in heliophilic taxa of hedges

(Maloideae, for example). This dynamic may indicate the rapid opening of forest areas for

the establishment of fields and their maintenance near habitats, as well as local anthropic

pressure on the landscape (Salavert, Bosquet, & Damblon, 2014A; Salavert & Dufraisse,

2014B). Less than one millennium after the end of the LBK culture, the agriculture saw a

second wave of dispersal to northern and western Europe. As during the LBK, the high

percentages of Maloideae and Corylus indicate that impact of Funnel beaker farmers on

forest may have occurred on a small scale (Jansen et al., 2014).

The two routes, maritime and continental, thus show different dynamics in diffusion

processes, cultures, and farming practices. Opium poppy is the main addition in western

Europe, and its use concerns both regions. Many points must be highlighted to go further

in the research on poppy domestication and uses. First, its wild progenitor is still not

recognized with absolute certainty. Second, the status (wild or cultivated) of early

Neolithic poppy is not understood, thanks to its seed morphology. Finally, the radiocarbon

dating is indirect and not accurate enough to trace the diffusion process with precision.

However, thanks to archaeological data, we do know that poppy was probably not

integrated into the Neolithic crop package from the Near East or the Balkans. It seems to

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have been introduced in the Central and Western Mediterranean basin, from about 5400

BC at the earliest, but most of the discoveries are from around 5200 BC, both in

Mediterranean and Temperate Europe. The proximity of radiocarbon dating indicates that

the diffusion from south to north might have been very rapid. The cultivation or the

gathering of opium poppy does not seem to be shared by all farmers within an LBK

village. Thus, the plant seems to have had a different status than traditional crops, such

as hulled wheat and pulses, in the Neolithic economy.

Cultivated plants are now known to be the basis of human alimentation in the Early

Neolithic, although gathering also continued to be practiced, especially for foods such as

hazelnuts, wild apples, and wild grapes. However, this part of the Neolithic diet, along

with the status of wild trees in the farming system of the Early Neolithic, is not well

understood. There are many aspects of the dispersal (notably crop diversity) and

components of the farming system that need further investigations. The A-DNA and stable

isotope research currently in development will surely enhance our knowledge in this

subject without neglecting archaeobotanical studies, which are still at the base of our

knowledge of the very first farming communities in Europe.

Further Reading

Bogaard, A., & Halstead, P. (2015). Subsistance practices and social routines in Neolithic

Southern Europe. In C. Fowler, J. Harding, & D. Hofmann (Eds.), The Oxford Handbook

Neolithic Europe (pp. 385–410). Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Cappers, R. T., & Neef, R. (2012). Handbook of plant palaeoecology. Groningen: Barkhuis.

Demoule, J.-P. (Ed.). (2009). La révolution néolithique dans le monde. Paris: CNRS

Editions.

Guilaine J. (2000). La diffusion de l’agriculture en Europe: une hypothèse arythmique. La

difusión de L’ agricultura en Europa: una hipótesis aritmética. Zephyrus, 53–54, 267–272.

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Aurélie Salavert

Museum National d'Histoire Naturelle

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Direct dating reveals the early history of opium poppy in Western Europe

Article

Full-text available

Nov 2020

Abstract This paper aims to define the first chrono-cultural framework on the domestication and early diffusion of the opium poppy using small-sized botanical remains from archaeological sites, opening the way to directly date minute short-lived botanical samples. We produced the initial set of radiocarbon dates directly from the opium poppy remains of eleven Neolithic sites (5900–3500 cal BCE) in the central and western Mediterranean, northwestern temperate Europe, and the western Alps. When possible, we also dated the macrobotanical remains originating from the same sediment sample. In total, 22 samples were taken into account, including 12 dates directly obtained from opium poppy remains. The radiocarbon chronology ranges from 5622 to 4050 cal BCE. The results show that opium poppy is present from at least the middle of the sixth millennium in the Mediterranean, where it possibly grew naturally and was cultivated by pioneer Neolithic communities. Its dispersal outside of its native area was early, being found west of the Rhine in 5300–5200 cal BCE. It was introduced to the western Alps around 5000–4800 cal BCE, becoming widespread from the second half of the fifth millennium. This research evidences different rhythms in the introduction of opium poppy in western Europe.

Colonization Dynamics of LBK Farmers in Europe under Geostatistics Test

Article

Full-text available

Sep 2022

Exploiting a database developed during a previous research project, this study uses factor analyses, GIS techniques and basic geostatistics to evaluate in detail the agro-ecological determinants of the first Neolithic diffusion in continental temperate Europe (the Linearbandkeramik or LBK), as well as its underlying settlement dynamics around half a millennium (5550–4925 BCE). More than 6600 LBK site locations, spread from Moldavia to Normandy, are initially assessed for their informative coherence and ability to offer a unified perspective on the evidence established at more local and regional levels. Most of these data can be used to define the broad geo-pedological options involved in the location of sites across Europe; loess substrate was far from being an exclusive settlement choice and a variety of soils, typically of medium moisture, were exploited. LBK farmers thus had a great capacity to adapt to the different geographical contexts they encountered. With regard to settlement dynamics in Central and Western Europe, the data reveal a systemic interplay between creation, stability and abandonment of sites, supporting the diffusion of the LBK subsistence system. The progressive decline in the number of new sites was compensated by an increase in their stability until the last stage of the expansion process. At this point, abandonments became widespread without significant renewal, except in the westernmost regions. The easternmost parts of Europe could not be integrated in the large-scale temporal modelling, since the chronological data available in the database are insufficiently precise. Shedding new light on the systemic variability of the geo-environmental options followed by these early farmers and highlighting some modalities and spatial-temporal limits of the resilience of their agro-sylvo-pastoral system, our overall analysis confirms and somewhat clarifies current interpretations of the LBK phenomenon.

Starch Grain Analysis Of Early Neolithic (Linearbandkeramik And Blicquy/Villeneuve-Saint-Germain) Contexts:: Experimental Grinding Tests Of Cereals And Legumes

Chapter

Full-text available

Jan 2022

Starch Grain Analysis of Early Neolithic (Linearbandkeramik and Blicquy/Villeneuve-Saint-Germain) Contexts: Experimental Grinding Tests of Cereals and Legumes

Article

Full-text available

Dec 2021

Developing a Reference Collection for Starch Grain Analysis in Early Neolithic Western Temperate Europe

Article

Full-text available

Sep 2021

While we know that cereals played an important role in the diet of Linearbandkeramik (LBK) and Blicquy/Villeneuve-Saint-Germain (BVSG) populations in the Paris Basin, many questions remain to be answered as to the real contribution of other plants. To assess this topic, the recovery of other lines of data beyond macrobotanicals is crucial: starch grains have the potential to reveal additional information regarding past plant use. However, in Western Europe, in particular, for the Neolithic period, there is a significant lag in the development of the discipline. We, therefore, present how our current reference collection (composed of nearly 100 taxa spread across 35 families) was established, the reasoning behind our plant selections, and where the material comes from. Overall, our work shows that even though not all the selected plant organs produce diagnostic starch grains, it may be possible to broaden the spectrum of plants likely consumed by Early Neolithic (and beyond) populations in the Paris Basin, in particular concerning the use of wild plants and specific plant parts, especially underground storage organs (tubers, rhizomes, roots, bulbs, etc.). We believe our research will help guide future scholars in the creation of their own starch grain reference collection and to carry out such analyses on archaeological material from this region by consulting our image database. We conclude by providing a brief summary of what the starch grain record in the Paris Basin tells us to date on ancient plant use.

A morphometric approach to track opium poppy domestication

Article

Full-text available

May 2021

Opium poppy (Papaver somniferum L. subsp. somniferum) was likely domesticated in the Western Mediterranean, where its putative wild ancestor is indigenous, and then spread to central and northern Europe. While opium poppy seeds are regularly identified in archaeobotanical studies, the absence of morphological criteria to distinguish the seeds of wild and domestic forms prevents the documentation of their respective historical and geographical occurrences and of the process of opium domestication as a whole. To fill this gap and better understand the status of this crop in the Neolithic, we combined seed outline analyses, namely elliptic Fourier transforms, with other morphometric descriptors to describe and identify Papaver setigerum, Papaver somniferum and other Papaver taxa. The combination of all measured parameters gives the most precise predictions for the identification of all seven taxa. We finally provide a case study on a Neolithic assemblage from a pile-dwelling site in Switzerland (Zurich-Parkhaus Opéra, ca. 3170 BC). Our results indicate the presence of mixed populations of domestic and wild seeds belonging to the P. somniferum group, suggesting that the plant was already in the process of domestication at the end of 4th millennium BC. Altogether, these results pave the way to understand the geography and history of the poppy domestication and its spread into Europe.

Food practices of the first farmers of Europe: Combined use-wear and microbotanical studies of Early Neolithic grinding tools from the Paris Basin

Article

Apr 2021
JASR

Food practices have always been a key issue to reconstruct part of the cultural identities of past and present societies. In archaeology, the question of vegetal processing and consumption has generally been discussed through different, yet complementary lenses that include botanical remains and cooking pots. However, it has seldom been integrated in a combined approach. Our paper explores the characteristics and role of plant transformation in Early Neolithic contexts from the Paris Basin (5100–4900 BCE), by combining use-wear analysis of grinding tools and the study of microbotanical remains (starch grains and phytoliths). Our integrated approach reinforces the interpretations and reduces the methodological limitations that arise when each analysis is considered separately. It also proposes a more complex vision than initially expected regarding the uses and lifecycles of grinding tools in daily plant preparation. Together with the dominant processing of cereals and legumes, tubers and rhizomes appear to have been regularly ground on querns. Different steps in plants processing are also evident, such as dehusking, heating, and sprouting. Other clues point towards the transformation of bark and ferns, known for their varied medicinal properties. These results and related methodological issues support discussions regarding the possible conservatism or innovations in vegetal food practices of Early Neolithic farmers inhabiting a region located at the most westerly point of the Linearbandkeramik expansion during the final centuries of this first wave of Neolithic dispersal throughout the European continent.

Neolithic sheep birth distribution: Results from Nova Nadezhda (sixth millennium BC, Bulgaria) and a reassessment of European data with a new modern reference set including upper and lower molars

Article

Jun 2020

During the course of the diffusion of Neolithic agro-pastoral societies across Europe, animal husbandry was adapted to local constraints and resources, involving changes in practices as well as in animal physiology. As a result, the timing of animal breeding was impacted, with consequences on the organization of agro-pastoral tasks and the seasonal availability of animal products. Past sheep birth seasonality can be investigated through the reconstruction of the seasonal cycle recorded in molars, based on the sequential analysis of stable oxygen isotope ratios (δ¹⁸O) in enamel. Modern sheep serve as comparative material to define the season of birth. In the present study, we provide new reference values for winter births in the sheep third molar (M3) using data from the modern Kemenez sheep herd. The dataset also includes paired upper and lower M3s in order to test the comparability of results obtained from both teeth. Results show a moderate shift in the isotopic record between upper and lower M3s. The consecutive difference in the assessment of the timing of birth is one month, on average. Additionally, we provide a new set of results for sheep from Nova Nadezhda (Bulgaria, early sixth millennium BC), combining upper and lower molars, in order to expand data relating to the earliest stages of the introduction of sheep to Europe. At Nova Nadezhda, sheep were born in late winter and spring, and the pattern of birth distribution does not indicate the control of sheep reproduction by separating males from females. When compared to previously published results at other Neolithic and Chalcolithic sites in the Balkans, corrected for the shift between upper and lower M3s, no latitudinal and chronological trend is observed between the Southern Balkans, Northern Balkans and Hungarian plains over the early sixth to the second half of the fifth millennia BC. This apparent uniformity for the length (3–4 months) and timing of the birth period could be challenged in the future by enlarged datasets.

The potential of starch grain analysis in understanding early farming practices in Western Europe

Conference Paper

Nov 2019

Starch grain analysis is a well-established methodology used in archaeology to address issues related to the exploitation of plants and food in the past. Although widely used in certain parts of the world, material from Early Neolithic sites (Linearbandkeramik and Blicquy-Villeneuve-Saint-Germain; 5200-4700 BC) in north-western Europe, and more specifically those located in the Paris Basin, have yet to be systematically studied. This communication presents results recovered from both grinding stones and ceramics from various sites across this area (e.g., Menneville, Ath, Loison-sous-Lens). This research will thus be able to address not only issues related to food selection (cereals, tubers), or processing and preparation techniques (grinding, cooking), but also regarding the function of various tools. By considering data obtained from other archaeobotanical remains, and from other disciplines such as use-wear analysis, and chemical analyses of residues in vases, the data obtained through the study of starches could complement or even modify the vision we currently have of the dietary practices of the first agricultural populations in north-western Europe.

Between paleodemographic estimators and“LBK”colonization in Central-Western Europe (c.5,550-4,950 BCE): A tribute to the theoretical and methodological trajectory of Jean-Pierre Bocquet-Appel in the study of the first farmers of the“OldWorld”. In A. Degioanni, E. Herrscher, S. Naji, (dir.) 2021, Journey of a committed paleodemographer. Farewell to Jean-Pierre Bocquet-Appel. PUP, Préhistoire de la Méditerranée. https://presses-universitaires.univ-amu.fr/journey-of-a-committed-paleodemographer

Chapter

Full-text available

Dec 2021

Cet ouvrage est dédié à Jean-Pierre Bocquet-Appel, anthropologue biologiste, l’un des pères fondateurs de la paléodémographie en France, disparu en 2018. Mondialement connu et reconnu, il a contribué au développement de nouvelles techniques d’estimation de l’âge au décès d’assemblages de squelettes et promu la mise en place des estimateurs en paléodémographie. Il a également participé à l’émergence de la démographie spatiale et de la modélisation de type-multi-agent en particulier des agriculteurs néolithiques. Nous lui devons une avancée considérable dans la compréhension des processus démographiques liés aux grandes transitions qu’ont vécu les hommes en différents points du globe avec la découverte de la signature de la transition démographique impliquée dans le passage des sociétés d’une économie de collecte à une économie agricole. Cet ouvrage offre un voyage au cœur de sa vie de chercheur, reprenant tour à tour, dans une démarche diachronique et pluridisciplinaire, la démographie anthropologique de la Préhistoire jusqu’à la période contemporaine. Il brosse également un portrait généreux de cet homme engagé qui n’a eu de cesse d’œuvrer pour sa discipline, que ce soit à travers une approche réflexive sur l’histoire des sciences et l’épistémologie ou la transmission de ses savoirs auprès de jeunes générations. Cet ouvrage convie ainsi le lecteur à une expérience originale et innovante aux confins d’une discipline rare, la paléodémographie.

Dati di cronologia da un villaggio del Neolitico Antico. Le indagini dendrocronologiche condotte sui legni de La Marmotta (lago di Bracciano-Roma)

Article

Full-text available

Jan 2010

During the last decades until 2006 sixteen campains of archaeological excavations were conducted on the bottom of lake Bracciano in Lazio, on a place originally settled by a Neolithic large village during the sixth millennium BC. Researching an area on the lake floor at a depth of about ten meters the archaeologist has identified a well organized system of huts that seem to have formed a Neolithic village rationally organized, with a first set of structures that had been built and renovated through the existence of the village, lasting at least four centuries, till 5100 BC. Datings according to the method of C14-made by different research institutes-show human presence at the settlement for more than 400 years, starting, in terms of absolute calibrated chronology, from the fist half of the sixth millennium BC. From the dendrochronological analysis on more than 2.000 samples of pieces of old posts of oak and ash trees – used for various structures of the village – ShortMedia, stillfloating, and a Longcurve Media were obtained, anchored by the method of cross-dating (Wiggle-matching). The study of the distribution of posts in the village – in particular on the already identified structures, togheter with their dendrochronological dating – allow us to propose a preliminary subdivision of the different phases of human presence in the Marmotta neolithic village.

Introduction:: the dynamics of neolithisation in Europe

Chapter

Full-text available

Oct 2011

Chapitre 26 - Introduction : rythme d'occupation des villages et agriculture céréalière

Book

Full-text available

Jan 2015

How agriculture came to north-central Europe

Chapter

Sep 2000

Peter Bogucki

Plants and animals originally domesticated in the Near East arrived in Europe between 7000 and 4000 BC. Was the new technology introduced by migrants, or was it an 'inside job'? How were the new species adapted to European conditions? What were the immediate and long-term consequences of the transition from hunting and gathering to farming? These central questions in the prehistory of Europe are discussed here by leading specialists, drawing on scholarship in fields as diverse as genetics and IndoEuropean linguistics. Detailed studies document the differences between European regions, and fresh generalisations about the origins of European agriculture are also proposed and debated.

An investigation of processing and consumption of pulses among prehistoric societies: Archaeobotanical, experimental and ethnographic evidence from Greece

Article

Sep 2011

Pulses have constituted an important food source for prehistoric communities in the Old World, yet little is known as regards their processing for consumption through the archaeobotanical record. This paper provides an overview of archaeobotanical evidence for the use of pulses in prehistoric Greece based on two case studies from the north, and explores (a) their preparation for consumption, in particular their detoxification and (b) the consumption of pulses as a component of ordinary daily meals in prehistoric times, as well as those for special occasions, within a context of feasting and ritual. The paper examines charred remains of Vicia ervilia (bitter vetch) and Lathyrus sativus (grass pea) from early Bronze Age Agios Athanasios and late Neolithic Kremasti Koiladas, respectively, as the former provides a basis for a pilot exploration of pulse detoxification and the latter, due to its origin, offers a rare opportunity to discuss the context of consumption. In the pilot exploration of pulse seed preparation for consumption, the inner cotyledon morphology of modern V. ervilia seeds which were experimentally processed with water and pounding was examined macroscopically and through SEM micrographs. Preliminary observations suggest that intentional splitting of pulse seeds as part of processing for consumption as food may be recognisable in the archaeobotanical record. Processing with water may also be detected. The particular context of the Kremasti finds suggests that pulses, in this particular case L. sativus, may have constituted special foods for particular occasions, loaded with symbolic meaning. KeywordsPulse processing–Toxicity– Lathyrus sativus – Vicia ervilia –Prehistoric Greece–Ritual pulse ‘consumption’

Archaeological Complexity: Materials, Multiplicity, and the Transitions to Agriculture in Britain: Returning Materials to Archaeological Theory

Chapter

Jun 2016

Crop Wild Relatives and Climate Change

Book

Sep 2015

Two major challenges to continued global food security are the ever increasing demand for food products, and the unprecedented abiotic stresses that crops face due to climate change.Wild relatives of domesticated crops serve as a reservoir of genetic material, with the potential to be used to develop new, improved varieties of crops. Crop Wild Relative and Climate Change integrates crop evolution, breeding technologies and biotechnologies, improved practices and sustainable approaches while exploring the role wild relatives could play in increasing agricultural output. Crop Wild Relative and Climate Change begins with overviews of the impacts of climate change on growing environments and the challenges that agricultural production face in coming years and decades. Chapters then explore crop evolution and the potential for crop wild relatives to contribute novel genetic resources to the breeding of more resilient and productive crops. Breeding technologies and biotechnological advances that are being used to incorporate key genetic traits of wild relatives into crop varieties are also covered. There is also a valuable discussion on the importance of conserving genetic resources to ensure continued successful crop production. A timely resource, Crop Wild Relative and Climate Change will be an invaluable resource for the crop science community for years to come.

Handbook of Plant Palaeoecology

Book

Jul 2012

Plant Evolution under Domestication

Book

Jan 1998

Gideon Ladizinsky

Preface. 1. Origin of agriculture. 2. Increasing diversity under domestication. 3. The course of reducing and maintaining genetic diversity under domestication. 4. Speciation under domestication. 5. Weeds and their evolution. 6. Evolution of selected crop plants. 7. Genetic resources for future crop evolution. References. Index.

Quelques réflexions sur la spécificité et l'identification des systèmes agraires

Article

Jan 1988

P. Jouve

Agricultural Dispersals in Mediterranean and Temperate Europe

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