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189
VII/2/2016
InterdIscIplInarIa archaeologIca
natural scIences In archaeology
homepage: http://www.iansa.eu
Kernel Weights of Triticum, Hordeum, Avena, Secale and Panicum Species
can be used for Better Estimation of Importance of Diferent Cereal Species
in Archaeobotanical Assemblages
Michal Hejcman
a,b,c*
, Lukáš Hlísnikovský
a,c
, Pavla Hejcmanová
d
, Tereza Šálková
e
, Jaromír Beneš
e
a
Department of Ecology, Faculty of Environmental Sciences, Czech University of Life Sciences, Kamýcká 129, 165 21 Prague 6 – Suchdol, Czech Republic
b
Department of Archaeology, Faculty of Arts, University of Hradec Králové, Rokitanského 62, 500 03 Hradec Králové, Czech Republic
c
Crop Research Institute Prague – Ruzyně, Drnovská 507, 161 06 Prague 6 – Ruzyně, Czech Republic
d
Faculty of Tropical AgriSciences, Czech University of Life Sciences, Kamýcká 129, 165 21, Prague 6 – Suchdol, Czech Republic
e
Laboratory of Archaeobotany and Palaeoecology, Faculty of Science, University of South Bohemia, Na Zlaté stoce 3, 370 05 České Budějovice, Czech Republic
1. Introduction
The grains of cereals belong to the most frequently recorded
remains of cultural plants in archaeological assemblages.
Since the start of agriculture in the European Neolithic
up to Roman Times, the main cereals were hulled wheats,
diploid
Triticum monococcum
(einkorn, 2n=14, Zaharieva,
Monneveux 2014) and tetraploid
T. dicoccum
(emmer,
2n=28, Kreuz
et al.
2005; Zaharieva
et al.
2010). Since the
Neolithic or Bronze age, respectively, hulled and naked
Hordeum vulgare
(barley) together with
Panicum milliaceum
(common millet) were also commonly planted, and
T.
dicoccum
was still the main staple crop (Hajnalová 1993;
Bernardová
et al.
2010; Šálková
et al.
2012; Festi
et al.
2011;
Zohary
et al.
2012; Dreslerová
et al.
2013). Hexaploid wheat
species such as hulled
T. spelta
(spelt, 2n = 42) and naked
T. aestivum
(baker wheat, 2n = 42) appeared in central Europe
from the Late Bronze Age (Beneš, Přikrylová 2008; Kočár,
Dreslerová 2010). Since the La Tène period, the intentional
planting of the formerly weedy cereal species
Secale cereale
(rye),
Avena sativa
(oat), and
Hordeum vulgare
(barley)
became more common (Zohary
et al.
2012; Dreslerová
et al.
2013). Roman Times were characterised by the planting of
H. vulgare
, followed by
T. dicoccum
,
Panicum
, and by naked
wheat (probably
T. aestivum
),
Avena
and
Secale
(Preiss
et al.
2005; Dreslerová, Kočár 2013). From the Migration period,
naked wheat (
T. aestivum
the most probably) prevailed
Volume VII ● Issue 2/2016 ● Pages 189–196
*Corresponding author. E-mail: hejcman@fzp.czu.cz
ARTiCLE inFo
Article history:
Received: 4
th
March 2016
Accepted: 28
th
December 2016
Key words:
emmer wheat
einkorn
barley
millet
oats
macroremain analysis
AbSTRACT
The importance of diferent cereals for human and animal nutrition in diferent historical periods has
been frequently estimated according to the proportion of grains of individual cereal species from the
total number of recorded grains in the archaeological assemblage. However, such presentations do not
respect the diferences in grain size among particular species. The aim of this study was to compare
the kernel weights of cereal species planted in Europe since the Neolithic up to the frst half of the
20
th
century and to propose recalculation coefcients for their relevant comparison. Thousand kernel
weights (TKW) of cereals were obtained from the Evigez database and from the available literature.
Taking the TKW of
Triticum aestivum
(44.6 g) as 100%, the descending order of cereal species
in terms of their TKW in relation to
T. aestivum
was
T. spelta
(100%),
T. turgidum
(99%), hulled
Hordeum vulgare
(97%),
T. durum
(92%),
T. dicoccum
(88%), naked
H. vulgare
(81%),
Secale cereale
(79%),
T. dicoccoides
(76%),
T. monococcum
(67%), hulled
Avena sativa
(66%), naked
A. sativa
(64%) and fnally
Panicum miliaceum
(12%). We recommend the use of these proposed recalculation
coefcients for the comparison of proportions of cereal grains in archaeobotanical assemblages. The
recalculated values better refect the importance of the diferent cereal species for human economies
and nutrition rather than simple proportions of the recorded grains of an individual species. The
recalculation coefcients are particularly important in the case of a high proportion of
P. miliaceum
in an archaeological assemblage, as its grain size difers the most from the other frequently-recorded
cereals.
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IANSA 2016 ● VII/2 ● 189–196
Michal Hejcman, Lukáš Hlísnikovský, Pavla Hejcmanová, Tereza Šálková, Jaromír Beneš: Kernel Weights of Triticum, Hordeum, Avena, Secale and Panicum Species
can be used for Better Estimation of Importance of Diferent Cereal Species in Archaeobotanical Assemblages
190
followed by
Hordeum
,
Secale
,
Avena
and
T. dicoccum
(Brombacher, Hecker 2015). At the start of the 20
th
century,
Secale
was the main crop (having the largest cropping
area in the Czech Republic), followed by
Avena
(Figure 1).
The cropping area of
T. aestivum
and
Hordeum
was lower
than half of the cropping area of
Secale
and
Avena
in the
1930s. The proportion of individual cereal crops completely
changed after World Word II, and since the 1960s up to the
present the main cereal crop has been
T. aestivum
followed
by
Hordeum
;
Avena
and
Secale
have both become marginal
crops with negligible cropping area. The planting of
T.
monococcum
and
T. dicoccum
has
completely disappeared.
In the 21
st
century, the renaissance of hulled wheat planting
(
T. monococcum
,
T. dicoccum
and
T. spelta
) in Europe has
been connected with the spread of organic farming and the
increased interest in products with a high nutritional quality
(Marino
et al.
2009, 2011; Konvalina
et al.
2012a). Although
hulled
Hordeum
varieties dominate in contemporary Europe,
hull-less (naked) varieties have been planted in the past and
used for food production (Lister, Jones 2013). In central
Europe, their planting was popular during the Bronze Age and
then its use steeply declined (Šálková
et al.
2012). In northern
Europe, naked barley represented approximately 50% of the
Neolithic and Bronze Age barley records (Lister, Jones 2013).
In mountain regions of Asia, such as the uplands of China,
India, Nepal, Pakistan, Japan, both Koreas and Tibet, naked
varieties of
Hordeum
are still planted and used as a staple crop
for food production (Saisho, Purugganan 2007). In central
Europe, naked barley was recorded as a relict of traditional
mountain agriculture in an archaeobotanical assemblage from
the 18
th
century AD (Beneš, Kočár 2000).
The importance of diferent cereals for human and
animal nutrition in diferent historical periods is a key
point in archaeobotanical investigations, but there are
vital methodological issues in its evaluation. It has been
frequently estimated according to the proportion of grains
of an individual cereal species from the total number of
recorded grains in the archaeological assemblage. This is
the simplest and most frequently-used way of presenting the
data, but comes with low predictive value as to which cereal
species are/were important for human and animal nutrition,
thus making interpretations problematic. The problem with
such a presentation is that it disregards the diferences in
grain size among particular species. For example, the grain of
Panicum
is much smaller than the grain of
T. aestivum
. The
value of one
Panicum
grain for human nutrition is therefore
substantially lower than the value of one grain of
T. aestivum
.
To make an adequate comparison of the grains of diferent
cereal species in archaeological assemblages, a recalculation
of their numbers according to their importance for human
nutrition or economy is necessary. The simplest way to do
this is to use the kernel (grain) weights. In agronomy, a
thousand kernel weight (TKW – the weight of a 1000 seeds)
is one of the basic agronomic traits used to characterize the
grain size of diferent crops and their varieties (
e.g.
Peleg
et al.
, 2011; Guarda
et al.
, 2004).
Taking account of the missing recalculation coefcients
for the comparison of diferent cereals, the aim of this
study was to compare the kernel weights of cereal species
planted in Europe since the Neolithic up to the frst half of
the 20
th
century and to propose recalculation coefcients
for their relevant comparison. As an example, we then