An insight into Bronze Age subsistence strategy in forested Carpathian foothills, based on plant macro-remains

Abstract

Lipnik site 5, from which a storage pit dated to the Middle Bronze Age (ca. 1400–1100) was studied, gave more than 70 plant taxa in the extraordinarily well-preserved charred assemblage. In the paper, a detailed description of selected plants is presented followed by environmental interpretation. Acorns (Quercus) dominated in volume and proso millet (Panicum miliaceum) in the number of specimens. The first large find of that late incomer north of the Carpathian Mountains is presented here. The pit users also used hulled wheat (einkorn, emmer, and spelt); barley; and probably peas. In the pit, a large number of grassland plants were noted accompanied by a very few remains of aquatic (Elatine) and forest herbaceous plants (Astrantia major). Weeds and ruderal plants were also present. The composition of plant remains is very unusual for this type of archeological feature, suggesting a mixed type of food strategy for its users, dominated by plant gathering and animal husbandry. The site is located in a newly settled ecotone zone, on the margin of fertile loess areas and mountain foothills.