The principal author of the article, published in the journal Interdisciplinaria Archaeologica, PhD student Julia Salova from the Laboratory of Archaeobotany and Paleoecology, Faculty of Science, University of South Bohemia conducted research with her supervisor Jaromír Beneš and archaeologist Leonid Vyazov on trends in plant nutrition of human populations in Eastern European Plains from the Iron Age (900 BC to the beginning of the High Middle Ages (ca 1000 AD).
Julia Salova and her team compiled data on 837,803 plant macroremains and their inclusions in archaeological pottery from 321 archaeological sites in the forest and forest-steppe zones of Eastern Europe, spanning from the Baltic to the Urals and which have been collected and studied in over a century of archaeobotanical research. The spatiotemporal distribution of these remains was analysed using multivariate statistics, unveiling intricate cultivation patterns influenced by climatic and historical factors. Published research demonstrates the potential to discern trends in cereal production by combining data from various research methods. All published archaeobotanical data have been compiled into a special geodatabase. The database is allocated at the British Archaeology Database Service (University of York) and includes the work of Eastern European archaeobotanists over the last hundred years.
Since the Iron Age (900 BC), millet has played a significant role in the Eastern European plains. It was even the first-ever domesticated crop in the forest zone. Research has shown that millet began to be displaced by barley cultivation in the Roman Iron Age (150-450 AD). Wheat also began to be grown on a large scale in the steppe-forest zone from the beginning of the Middle Ages, and rye in the more northern woodland zone. The study is crucial for understanding millennial trends in agricultural history. For the forest zone of Eastern Europe, it is a substantial insight into the very beginnings of agriculture.
Contact: MSc. Juliia Salova (
Photogallery
