Deeply set roots : an archaeobotanical perspective on the origins of crop husbandry in the western Balkans
This doctoral thesis explores the origins and development of Neolithic crop agriculture in the western Balkans from c.6100 to 4500 cal. BC, through archaeobotanical data. The western Balkans is a geographical area comprising of Montenegro, Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Serbia and the Former Yugoslavian Republic of Macedonia. The western Balkans is the first area in the westward spread of agriculture into Europe where different maritime and inland routes can be observed to progress simultaneously whilst retaining distinctive cultural signatures. The aim of this thesis is to identify and describe the crop packages, gathered edible plants and cultivation practices between the two streams of neolithisation, and to place them within their wider geographical and chronological contexts. As such, archaeobotanical records from Adriatic Italy, Hungary, Romania, Bulgaria and Greece were also used. Data for this thesis is thus composed of samples from ten sites analysed by the author, in addition to a dataset of 244 archaeobotanical records from published and unpublished Neolithic sites. The ten sites are analysed individually before being added to the larger dataset, allowing for site-specific interpretations to be
de Labroue de Vareilles SommieÌres, Anne
Deeply set roots : an archaeobotanical perspective on the origins of crop husbandry in the western Balkans. This doctoral thesis explores the origins and development of Neolithic crop agriculture in the western Balkans from c.6100 to 4500 cal. BC, through archaeobotanical data. The western Balkans is a geographical area comprising of Montenegro, Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Serbia and the Former Yugoslavian Republic of Macedonia. The western Balkans is the first area in the westward spread of agriculture into Europe where different maritime and inland routes can be observed to progress simultaneously whilst retaining distinctive cultural signatures. The aim of this thesis is to identify and describe the crop packages, gathered edible plants and cultivation practices between the two streams of neolithisation, and to place them within their wider geographical and chronological contexts. As such, archaeobotanical records from Adriatic Italy, Hungary, Romania, Bulgaria and Greece were also used. Data for this thesis is thus composed of samples from ten sites analysed by the author, in addition to a dataset of 244 archaeobotanical records from published and unpublished Neolithic sites. The ten sites are analysed individually before being added to the larger dataset, allowing for site-specific interpretations to be
deeply set root archaeobotanical perspective origin crop_husbandry western balkans doctoral explores origins_development neolithic crop agriculture western balkans cal archaeobotanical_data western balkans geographical_area comprise croatia bosnia_herzegovina serbia former republic macedonia western balkans first area westward spread agriculture europe different maritime inland rout observed progress simultaneously whilst retain distinctive cultural signature aim_identify describe crop package gather plant cultivation practice stream place_within wide_geographical chronological_context archaeobotanical record adriatic italy hungary romania bulgaria greece also use data thus compose sample site analysed author addition dataset archaeobotanical record publish_unpublished neolithic_site site analyse individually added large_dataset allow site_specific interpretation