Multi-proxy analysis of the coprolites which were found during excavations at two Late Neolithic (fourth millennium
bc
) pile-dwelling sites (Črnelnik and Stare gmajne) in Slovenia yielded some new ...insights into human–dog relations and behaviour. The digested content is presented in a multidisciplinary approach, in which palynological, palaeoparasitological, archaeobotanical and archaeozoological features are studied and genetic signs are tested. Beside the origin of the coprolites, the size of an animal and the diet, the faeces provided some additional information, such as health, status, nutrition habits, environment and season.
We present new evidence of the intentional use of cereal by-products at Stare gmajne, an Eneolithic piledwelling site in Slovenia, dated approximately 3160-3100 cal BC. The chaff material, which had ...been used for tempering, was discovered inside one of the largest discovered loomweights and analysed. Clay, which was used by the dwellers to make the weight, was tempered with cereal chaff to reinforce it. The practice of tempering, not necessarily for loom weights, has already been proven for earlier settlements, mostly in arid areas where firewood, grazing and building material were scarce. However, tempering has rarely been found in European prehistoric sites. More than 1,800 carbonised and half-carbonised, excellently preserved and well identifiable cereal plant macroremains in less than 11 of waterlogged clayey material were sorted and counted. Among the recognized plant macroremains, barley rachis fragments and glume wheat (emmer and einkorn) by-products such as spikelet forks and glume bases prevailed. A few grains were also found. Cultivation of the main crops of emmer, einkorn and barley at Slovenian Eneolithic pile-dwelling sites was confirmed again. Among the chaff, a new "strange type" of Triticum dicoccum (emmer) spikelet forks was discovered. The size of the weight and the intentional local use of cereal by-products as temper suggest that late Neolithic (Eneolithic) pile-dwelling societies all around the Alps were highly organized and developed due to expansion of crop production and processing.
We present absolute dates of seven late Neolithic pile-dwellings on Ljubljansko barje, Slovenia. They were settled from ca. 3600 to 3332 (±10) and from 3160 to 3071 (±14) cal BC, as shown by ...investigations of wood using dendrochronology and radiocarbon wiggle-matching. We defined eleven periods of intensive tree felling (and building activities) and one major settlement gap (when no trees were felled) from 3332 to 3160 cal BC. A major settlement gap presumably also followed after 3071 cal BC (i.e., after the end date of the investigated sites). Our investigations included over 2500 pieces of wood, mainly from the piles on which the dwellings were built. Among important wooden artefacts were a wheel with axle (one of the oldest preserved wheels in the world) and two dugout canoes, all from the settlement phase from 3160 to 3100 cal BC. As shown by parallel studies, the economy in the sites was characterized by copper metallurgy, skilful wood processing and use, cultivation of domestic plants, gathering of wild plants, animal husbandry, hunting and fishing. The settlements were contemporaneous with a number of sites in the north of the Alps, the younger ones coincided with the lifetime of the Neolithic Iceman (Ötzi). Since Ljubljansko barje has a strategic position at the crossroads between western central and (south) eastern Europe the presented absolute dates provide a basis for their comparison with other dated contemporaneous sites (in the west), to revise the chronology of similar sites in the (south) east (which are not yet exactly dated), and to evaluate their interconnection and roles in cultural development in prehistory.
We present the results of a plant macroremain study of the late Neolithic lakeshore settlement Stare gmajne (SG) at Ljubljansko barje, Slovenia, with cultural horizons that ended around 3330 and 3110 ...cal. B.C., as obtained by dendrochronological and radiocarbon dating of the most frequent construction timbers of Quercus sp. (oak) and Fraxinus sp. (ash). Fourteen systematically taken samples were investigated, using standard methods for studying waterlogged plant remains, which had been developed during lake dwelling research north of the Alps. Most of the remains were preserved in a waterlogged state, and we identified a total of 93 taxa. The most important cultivated plants were Triticum dicoccum (emmer), Hordeum vulgare (six-rowed naked barley), T. monococcum (einkorn), Linum usitatissimum (flax) and Papaver somniferum (opium poppy). The numerous possibly gathered plants also included Trapa natans (water chestnut) and Vitis vinifera ssp. sylvestris (wild grapevine). Chenopodium album (goosefoot) and Brassica rapa (turnip) with seeds/fruits rich in oil and starch were probably gathered as well. Comparisons of the Stare gmajne results with contemporary north Alpine sites (NA) showed, among other things, that Triticum durum/turgidum (tetraploid naked wheat), frequent at NA, was not found at SG. Trapa natans (water chestnut) was rare and Vitis (grapevine) was not found at NA. The observed differences in the wild plant spectra may have ecological causes, for example a warmer climate south of the Alps, but differences in cultivar spectra are more likely for cultural-historical reasons.
This paper presents the first comparable overview of different recovery techniques used for waterlogged Neolithic sediments in the surroundings of the Alps in the last decades. Such an investigation ...became necessary because it was not known which parts of plants and types of remains were absent or completely underrepresented due to inappropriate recovery techniques in Slovenian archaeobotany up to 2006. During the 2007 excavation of the approximately 5,200 years old Neolithic pile dwelling site of Stare gmajne, Ljubljansko barje, Slovenia, we compared three methods for the investigation of botanical macroremains: method 1 (M1) included rough wet-sieving and subsequent drying of the fractions; method 2 (M2) rough wet sieving and keeping the fractions wet; and method 3 (M3) washing over and keeping the fractions wet. M3 with gentle washing, systematic subsampling, examination, and sorting of macroremains while wet, as well as using 0.355 mm as the smallest sieve mesh size gave the best results. When using the cruder M2 or M1 methods, waterlogged uncarbonized seeds of taxa such as Linum usitatissimum, Papaver somniferum and Brassica rapa, waterlogged chaff of Cerealia and pericarps of Maloideae and Quercus sp., which are all fragile, were underrepresented or even completely absent and therefore the plant spectra were strongly biased. On the contrary, taxa with lignified seed/fruit walls like Cornus mas, Corylus avellana or Rubus sp. were overrepresented when using the M2 and particularly the M1 method. The application of the M3, instead of the M1 method which has been traditionally used in Slovenian archaeobotany, helped us to identify uncarbonized remains of Linum usitatissimum and various species of Triticum for the first time in a waterlogged Neolithic site in Slovenia. Our study should contribute to a standardization of methods, which is desperately needed in archaeobotany. The study clearly shows that the plant spectra can be strongly biased if inappropriate handling techniques are used. The conclusions hold for all kinds of waterlogged sediments of different periods.
The oldest macroremains of Vitis from Slovenia TJASA TOLAR KORENCIC; JAKSE, Jernej; KOROSEC-KORUZA, Zora
Vegetation history and archaeobotany,
12/2008, Letnik:
17, Številka:
Suppl 1
Journal Article, Conference Proceeding
Recenzirano
Odprti dostop
The oldest Vitis vinifera ssp. L. (grape) pips (seeds) from Slovenian archaeological sites were found at the late Neolithic (Copper Age) pile-dwelling settlement of Hočevarica on the Ljubljansko ...barje and date to the 37th/36th century B.C. Various biometric studies were carried out to establish whether the grapes were wild or cultivated. A comparison of several morphological characteristics of grape pip samples was performed. Neolithic pips from Hočevarica, Roman pips from Vrhnika (1st century A.D.) and recent Slovenian cultivated grape pips were included in the study. According to the standard indices, the Neolithic Vitis pips were wild. In the case of the Roman pips, it was impossible to determine whether they were wild or cultivated, although they had most probably been cultivated. Since the morphology of grape pips varies considerably (as it did in the Neolithic, as well), the attempted identification of the subspecies Vitis vinifera ssp. sylvestris/vinifera, based on morphological characteristics alone, was unsatisfactory. Therefore, an attempt was made to analyse the DNA, which could help to resolve this question. Initial experiments on extraction of archaeological DNA and amplification of the chloroplast region were performed, but further optimization steps are needed to achieve successful amplification.
V članku so predstavljeni rezultati paleoekoloških multidisciplinarnih raziskav, s pomočjo katerih smo rekonstruirali nekdanje okoljske razmere in vpliv prazgodovinskih prebivalcev Ljubljane na ...takratno vegetacijo. Rezultati luminiscenčnega datiranja in pelodne analize kažejo, da je bila poznoeneolitska (pribl. 2500 cal. BC) naselbina na obrežju Ljubljanice na Špici postavljena neposredno na meljast sediment, ki se je odlagal med viškom zadnje poledenitve pred približno 20.000 leti. Poznoglacialni in zgodnje-/srednjeholocenski sediment, ki manjka, je verjetno odnesla voda, zato lahko rekonstruiramo le prazgodovinske okoljske razmere od sredine 3. tisočletja pr. n. št. naprej. Na podlagi rezultatov palinološke raziskave lahko sklepamo, da so v bližini arheološke naselbine na Špici uspevali mešani gozdovi, v katerih so prevladovali bukev, jelka, hrast in navadni gaber. Človekov vpliv je bil zmeren, zaznamo lahko šibke sledove poljedelskih aktivnosti. Po opustitvi naselbine na Špici sledovi človekovega vpliva na okolje postanejo intenzivnejši, še zlasti v železni dobi, ko naraste delež peloda rastlin, značilnih za (opuščena) polja in ruderalna tla (žita, metlikovke, pelin) ter pašnike (ozkolistni trpotec). Delež jelke, ki je občutljiva za pašo in požiganje gozda, upade. Večje izsekavanje bukovega gozda je datirano v zgodnjerimsko obdobje, najverjetneje v sredino 1. st. pr. n. št. (162 pr. n. št.–52 n. št.). Opisane spremembe vegetacije lahko povežemo s prazgodovinskimi in rimskodobnimi arheološkimi najdišči na Tribuni in Prulah, v neposredni bližini Špice.
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