A study of European Cereal frequency change during the iron age and roman periods.

This study addresses cereal frequency shifts throughout the Iron Age and Roman Periods
in seven European countries. A database of charred archaeobotanical assemblages was
compiled and sample-based correspondence analysis employed to reveal chronological
patterning. Findings were evaluated with respect to a range of archaeological, ancient
textual and modem agronomic evidence and in relation to economic suppositions about
cereal production, consumption and exchange. Three types of cereal shifts/trends were
documented, which were not necessarily universal and, which varied spatially, temporally
and in magnitude. These shifts/trends were: (1) an increase in the proportion of wheat
relative to barley which was chronologically associated with the Roman period; (2) an
increase in proportion of spelt wheat relative to emmer wheat which, having begun during
the Bronze Age in central European regions, continued into the Iron Age and Roman
periods; and (3) an increase in the proportion of free threshing wheat relative to spelt and/or
emmer, which appears to gain momentum in some countries during the Roman Period. It is
argued that social and economic factors were driving cereal change in the direction of
greater choice, quality, yield, productivity and refinement. Farmers were reaching for taxa
which might accommodate new and old demands in a better and more efficient manner.
Differences between the timing and extent of these shifts suggest that farmers crossed over
to different taxa when they had exhausted the developmental potential of traditional types.
Cereal shifts were enabled by technical innovations which ameliorated environmental stress
factors and market developments, which compensated farmers for taking greater risks. The
shifts were driven by demands for taxa with increased versatility and the need to specialize
in types of wheat which offered profitability. A hypothesis is offered which posits that
there was a tendency to shift towards higher level allopolyploid wheat taxa wheat because
these conferred naturally high levels-of functional elasticity,