Neolithic Farming in Central Europe An Archaeobotanical Study of Crop Husbandry Practices

• Main Author: Bogaard, Amy
• Format: eBook Book
• Language: English
• Published: London ; New York, N.Y Routledge 2004; Taylor and Francis; Taylor & Francis Group
• Edition: 1
• Subjects: Agriculture; Agriculture > Europe, Central > Origin; Agriculture, Prehistoric; Agriculture, Prehistoric > Europe, Central; Bandkeramik culture; Bandkeramik culture > Europe, Central; Europe, Central - Antiquities; European Archaeology; Neolithic period; Neolithic period > Europe, Central; Plant remains (Archaeology); Plant remains (Archaeology) > Europe, Central; Mesolithic Neolithic Transition; loess; LBK Site; Crop Husbandry Practices; Weed Taxa; Loess Belt; Modern Weed; halstead; Floodplain Cultivation; Weed Composition; Weed Assemblages; belt; Weed Floras; Ard Cultivation; Crop Husbandry Regimes; husbandry; archaeobotanical; Correspondence Analysis Plots; practices; samples; Early Middle Neolithic; Large Stomata; Crop Husbandry; foreland; Spring Sowing; Glume Wheat; Shifting Cultivation Regime; alpine; Autumn Sowing; Phleum Pratense; Discriminant Scores; Archaeobotanical Samples; crop; Alpine Foreland; Seed Persistence
• ISBN: 0415324858; 9780415324854; 0415324866; 9780415324861
• DOI: 10.4324/9780203358009

Neolithic Farming in Central Europe examines the nature of the earliest crop cultivation, a subject that illuminates the lives of Neolithic farming families and the day-to-day reality of the transition from hunting and gathering to farming. Debate surrounding the nature of crop husbandry in Neolithic central Europe has focussed on the permanence of cultivation, its intensity and its seasonality: variables that carry different implications for Neolithic society. Amy Bogaard reviews the archaeological evidence for four major competing models of Neolithic crop husbandry - shifting cultivation, extensive plough cultivation, floodplain cultivation and intensive garden cultivation - and evaluates charred crop and weed assemblages. Her conclusions identify the most appropriate model of cultivation, and highlight the consequences of these agricultural practices for our understanding of Neolithic societies in central Europe.