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The oldest evidence of Nigella damascena L. (Ranunculaceae) and its possible introduction to central Europe

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Abstract

After the beginning of metal processing at the transition from the Neolithic to the Bronze Age, further knowledge of ore mining and smelting had spread from the Near East to central Europe. In the copper ore deposits of Schwaz, in the central part of the Alps, the oldest traces of copper mining derive from the early to middle Bronze Ages. Investigation of a middle to late Bronze Age (1410–920 cal B.C.) slag-washing site in the area revealed a carbonised seed of Nigella damascena (Ranunculaceae) (love-in-a-mist) together with individual other food plants. The plant remains had become incorporated into the slag sediments by chance and had been preserved in an excellent state due to toxic copper salts contained in the soil. Nigella damascena, like N. sativa (black cumin), is traditionally used as a condiment and healing herb in southern Europe and the Near East, but has never grown in the wild in central Europe. Until now, there has been no evidence of prehistoric large-scale cultivation of N. damascena in central Europe. This leads to two possible conclusions: the find may either originate from an exchange of goods with the cultures in the Mediterranean during the Bronze Age, or indicate an introduction of the plant by an immigrant population from that area. Implicating the latter alternative together with the archaeological context of the ore processing site suggests that Nigella damascena had been introduced to the Alps by foreign miners in the course of ore exploitation during the middle to late Bronze Age.

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Acknowledgements

The current work is basing on data from the FWF project P12049 supported by the Austrian Science Fund (“Fonds zur Förderung der wissenschaftlichen Forschung”). We thank H. Kroll (Kiel) for his investigations on archaeological finds of N. damascena, and R. Krause (Landesdenkmalamt Baden-Württemberg) for the additional information on archaeometallurgy and artefact finds in the Alps during the Bronze Age. We also thank A. Weber (Wien) for the valuable information on differentiating between N. damascena and N. elata. Further thanks go to H.-P. Stika (Hohenheim) for providing us with seeds of N. integrifolia

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Heiss, A.G., Oeggl, K. The oldest evidence of Nigella damascena L. (Ranunculaceae) and its possible introduction to central Europe. Veget Hist Archaeobot 14, 562–570 (2005). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00334-005-0060-4

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