agriculture

An Experimental Investigation of Alternative Neolithic Harvesting Tools

Author(s)
Marc-Philipp Häg 1
Publication Date
Harvesting tools have seldom been found during excavations at Neolithic sites in North-Western Europe but cereal consumption was widely practiced in that region, as grain discovered in settlements showed. Several researchers have, over the last 50 years, highlighted this discrepancy between missing harvesting tools and the presence of cereal grains...

Book Review: Draft Animals in the Past, Present and Future by Claus Kropp and Lena Zoll (eds)

Author(s)
Rena Maguire 1
Publication Date
The domestication and subsequent training of strong animals to pull vehicles was a game changer for humans. Just like the first person who jumped onto a horse and hung on as they veered giddily towards a new horizon, driving and draft meant that humans got places faster – goods could be stored in a vehicle for longer journeys, trade goods became more than what a human could carry on their backs...

Pit Preserve from Ida – on the Problem of Charred Seeds from Prehistoric Pits

Author(s)
Lutz Zwiebel 1
Publication Date

Introduction

A wild seed propagator and gardener (such as myself) relies on years of close human-plant interaction. The adaptability of domesticated and many wild plants to human economy and behaviour has always thrilled me. When I first read archaeological reports of frequent and large amounts of prehistoric charred seeds that were dumped in the ground I was bemused. It contrasted starkly with the care and sensitivity I use in the processes of seed harvest, drying and selection. So I started reading more and also charring seeds myself.

The Creation of an Experimental Camp of Protohistory at the Iberian Settlement of Estinclells (Verdú, Urgell, Catalonia)

Author(s)
Jordi Morer De Llorens 1,
Ramon Cardona Colell 2 ✉,
Conxita Ferrer Alvarez 2,
Cristina Garcia Dalmau 2,
Josep Pou Vallès 3,
David Asensio I Vilaró 1,
Oriol Saula I Briansó 4,
Natàlia Alonso Martínez 3
Publication Date
The idea to create the Experimental Camp of Protohistory (CEP) emerged in late 2009. It was set up in a field adjacent to the Iberian Culture settlement of Estinclells (Verdú, Urgell), an archaeological site with only one phase of occupation that offers an exceptional portrait of life in the third century BC...