Ch. Bockisch-Bräuer, B. Mühldorfer, M. Schönfelder (Hg.), Die frühe Eisenzeit in Mitteleuropa, Beitr. Vorgesch. Nordostbayern 9 (Nürnberg 2019), 2019
The Hallstatt period land use in Southwest was evaluated according to archaeobotanical onsite- an... more The Hallstatt period land use in Southwest was evaluated according to archaeobotanical onsite- and offsite data, plant macrofossils as well as pollen. The crop diversity is high, with cereals, pulses, as well as oil- and fiber plants. The export to consumer sites was restricted to few mainstream crops, hulled barley and spelt among the cereals. Agriculture was practiced as extensive ard cultivation with short fallow phases, the fallows used as pasture. Manuring is not proofed, but probable. In densely populated regions the land use caused considerable deforestation. The remaining woodland were used as pasture and were managed as forest with two layers, an upper layer of old oaks for construction wood and a lower layer of hazel, hornbeam and others used in short intervals to get firewood. There were already gardens with a small assemble of vegetables, spices and fruits.
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Papers by Manfred Rösch
Baden-Württemberg contained wet preserved organic matter in high concentration. Plant macrofossils and
pollen were studied. The only evidences for cultivated agricultural plants were cereal pollen and fruits as
well as pollen of Cannabis sativa. Other cultivated plants are Apium graveolens and Rheum rhabarbarum,
documented by pollen, as well as a fruit of Piper nigrum, the latter a rather surprising find. Common were
edible plants gathered in the wild, as Humulus lupulus and several fruits. In general, a more or less semi-open
landscape with forest, shrubland, and agricultural land is indicated. According to a coin and radiocarbon dates
the basins were not filled-up in the Roman period, when the sanctuary was in use, but afterwards, when the
Roman border was shifted back to the Upper Rhein and this region was occupied by Alamannic tribes. The
filling of the basin was therefore most probably caused by those people, and it is rather surprising that they
obviously had Piper nigrum.
Baden-Württemberg contained wet preserved organic matter in high concentration. Plant macrofossils and
pollen were studied. The only evidences for cultivated agricultural plants were cereal pollen and fruits as
well as pollen of Cannabis sativa. Other cultivated plants are Apium graveolens and Rheum rhabarbarum,
documented by pollen, as well as a fruit of Piper nigrum, the latter a rather surprising find. Common were
edible plants gathered in the wild, as Humulus lupulus and several fruits. In general, a more or less semi-open
landscape with forest, shrubland, and agricultural land is indicated. According to a coin and radiocarbon dates
the basins were not filled-up in the Roman period, when the sanctuary was in use, but afterwards, when the
Roman border was shifted back to the Upper Rhein and this region was occupied by Alamannic tribes. The
filling of the basin was therefore most probably caused by those people, and it is rather surprising that they
obviously had Piper nigrum.
Baden-Württemberg contained wet preserved organic matter in high concentration. Plant macrofossils and
pollen were studied. The only evidences for cultivated agricultural plants were cereal pollen and fruits as
well as pollen of Cannabis sativa. Other cultivated plants are Apium graveolens and Rheum rhabarbarum,
documented by pollen, as well as a fruit of Piper nigrum, the latter a rather surprising find. Common were
edible plants gathered in the wild, as Humulus lupulus and several fruits. In general, a more or less semi-open
landscape with forest, shrubland, and agricultural land is indicated. According to a coin and radiocarbon dates
the basins were not filled-up in the Roman period, when the sanctuary was in use, but afterwards, when the
Roman border was shifted back to the Upper Rhein and this region was occupied by Alamannic tribes. The
filling of the basin was therefore most probably caused by those people, and it is rather surprising that they
obviously had Piper nigrum.
Baden-Württemberg contained wet preserved organic matter in high concentration. Plant macrofossils and
pollen were studied. The only evidences for cultivated agricultural plants were cereal pollen and fruits as
well as pollen of Cannabis sativa. Other cultivated plants are Apium graveolens and Rheum rhabarbarum,
documented by pollen, as well as a fruit of Piper nigrum, the latter a rather surprising find. Common were
edible plants gathered in the wild, as Humulus lupulus and several fruits. In general, a more or less semi-open
landscape with forest, shrubland, and agricultural land is indicated. According to a coin and radiocarbon dates
the basins were not filled-up in the Roman period, when the sanctuary was in use, but afterwards, when the
Roman border was shifted back to the Upper Rhein and this region was occupied by Alamannic tribes. The
filling of the basin was therefore most probably caused by those people, and it is rather surprising that they
obviously had Piper nigrum.
Only the contents of the bronze cauldron from Speckhau Tumulus 17 Grave 1 (Altheim-Heiligkreuztal) were subjected to botanical investigation. The study focused on fruits/seeds, moss remains, and pol-len from the deposits adhering to the cauldron wall at the base as well as those extracted from moss-es found in contact with the cauldron. The pollen results were compared with the pollen content of the Heuneburg ditch. Plant macro-remains consisted of a few charred peas (Pisum sativum), uncharred fruits or seeds of Juncus effusus and bufonius, as well as Campanula rapunculoides, Potentilla erecta and Carex flacca/flava (Tab. 1). The mosses are a mixture of Thuidium delicatulum (most common) und Thuidium tamariscinum (also common) with traces of Leucodon sciuroides and Calliergonella cuspidata that must have been intentionally collected, most probably on poor, extensively used pas-tures with only few trees and shrubs in the immediate vicinity (Tab. 1). The abundance of mosses especially in the upper part of the cauldron fill suggests that they may have been used to seal the cauldron lid, which was not preserved.
In the course of the analysis of 14 samples from the residue in the cauldron 5101 pollen and spores remains were identified and recorded representing 191 pollen types (Tab 2). Their flowering period encompasses the time period from early spring to late autumn (Tab. 3). Pollen types pollinated by bees or other insects dominate the pollen profile. A comparison with recent plant distribution in the region reduced the number of species considerably (Tab. 4). These could be assigned to several ecological groups (Tab. 5).
The pollen samples derived from the preserved mosses presented quite a different picture (Tab. 6): Anemophilous taxa clearly dominate. They represent local wind-blown pollen and convey a picture of an open cultivated landscape with extensive pastures and arable land with only few trees and shrubs. Eighty pollen types could be identified in the mosses, the same number as in the Heuneburg ditch sample only two kilometres away, where the pollen composition was very similar, corroborating the current sense of the Iron Age landscape in the vicinity of the Heuneburg hillfort.
Keeping in mind the high biodiversity, the long flowering period and the pollen concentration repre-sented by the cauldron sample, we can assume that the cauldron at the time of the interment con-tained freshly prepared mead with a honey content of about 40%. This honey was collected from wild bee hives sometime in the autumn. There is a striking similarity between the pollen composition of the cauldron contents and that of other known honey residues from Iron Age contexts.
In addition to wild plants the bees also collected pollen from several mostly cultivated edible plants, providing additional insight into Iron Age agriculture. Among the cereals barley (Hordeum-Typ), oats (Avena-Typ), rye (Secale cereale) and wheat (Triticum), could be identified, among the pulses pea (Pisum sativum), horse bean (Vicia faba) and chickpea (Cicer arietinum), among the vegetables and spices celery (Apium graveolens), dill (Anethum graveolens), parsley (Petroselinum crispum), hops (Humulus lupulus), raute (Ruta graveolens), among the fruits and nuts pomaceaous and stone fruit (Prunus Typ), walnut (Juglans regia), chestnut (Castanea sativa), raspberry and blackberry (Rubus), as well as plants used in dyeing textiles, dyers woad (Reseda luteola).