Pit Preserve from Ida – on the Problem of Charred Seeds from Prehistoric Pits
The whys and hows of surviving plant macro-remains from the beginnings of agriculture onwards is a central question in the understanding of early sedentary economies. The vast majority of archaeological macro-remains consists of cereal grains, often described as charred. The research presented here...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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EXARC
2022-09-01
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| Series: | EXARC Journal |
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| Online Access: | https://exarc.net/ark:/88735/10651 |
| Summary: | The whys and hows of surviving plant macro-remains from the beginnings of agriculture onwards is a central question in the understanding of early sedentary economies. The vast majority of archaeological macro-remains consists of cereal grains, often described as charred. The research presented here repeats charring experiments with a variety of modern seed samples and complements the results with additional data from the literature. Whereas previous charring experiments have required further experimentation to explain the survival of charred macro-remains, the results presented here suggest an alternative explanation: a cold carbonisation involving fermentation and humification as opposed to a hot charring process. Additional fermentation experiments show the positive effects of this process in order to create seeds close to those from prehistoric pits. The biochemical and economic outlines of the fermentation technique are described and thus reintroduced into archaeology. Earth pit fermentation was documented by ethnological fieldwork in many parts of the world, whereas such data is not available for Europe. Analytical methods to verify one or the other conservation model are discussed. |
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| ISSN: | 2212-8956 |