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Early Neolithic agriculture in Ambrona, Provincia Soria, central Spain

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Abstract

The early Neolithic sites of La Lámpara and La Revilla del Campo in the Meseta Norte (Northern Meseta) plateau in central Spain produced evidence for early agriculture from the last third of the 6th millennium B.C. The hulled wheats Triticum monococcum (einkorn) and T. dicoccum (emmer) were identified from carbonised plant remains as well as from imprints in pottery and daub. Single finds of charred remains of Hordeum vulgare (barley), Papaver somniferum/setigerum (poppy) and Linum usitatissimum (linseed) indicated other cultivated crops. The wild plants mainly indicated arable weeds, partly from less fertile soils, and garrigue vegetation from poor pastures. The spectrum of crops from the Ambrona sites was compared to other inner Iberian sites as well as to Mediterranean sites. Sediment samples as well as mineral crusts from graves were analysed from the Neolithic tumulus of La Peña de la Abuela. Its diachronic collective burials had originated from a period of time during the first third of the 4th millennium B.C. Probably no crops, but many green vegetative parts of pine, oak, and juniper had been used as funeral gifts. Oak cupula development indicated early summer activities in the grave-mound. Wickerwork made of willow was used for embedding the dead bodies.

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Acknowledgements

I like to thank M. Kunst (Deutsches Archäologisches Institut, Madrid) for inviting me to take part in that exciting project and for financing the archaeobotanical investigations from the DAI budget. Further thanks to M. Kunst and M.A. Rojo Guerra (Universidad de Valladolid) and their excavation teams for collaboration during the several campaigns and the examinations, especially to S. Montero for acting in my place when I was absent from flotation. Many thanks go to my archaeobotanical colleagues L. Zapata Peña (University of the Basque Country, Vitoria-Gasteiz), L. Peña-Chocarro (CSIC, Depto. Prehistoria, Madrid), and G. Pérez Jordá (Universidad de Valéncia) for sharing unpublished data and helping with literature. Thanks to A.G.A. Heiss (University of Innsbruck) for his help.

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  1. Universität Hohenheim, Institut für Botanik, D-70593, Stuttgart, Germany

    Hans-Peter Stika

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Stika, HP. Early Neolithic agriculture in Ambrona, Provincia Soria, central Spain. Veget Hist Archaeobot 14, 189–197 (2005). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00334-005-0085-8

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