Evidence of Medieval malting production at Rabí Castle.

Abstract

The article informs about a 15th century malt house at Rabí castle (Horažďovice distr.), where remains of a malt oven were found during archaeological excavation instigated by remedial work in 2010. Flotation of a sample taken from the fireplace fill yielded an assemblage of carbonised macroremains. Archaeobotanical analysis identified prevailing number of germinated common many-row barley (Hordeum vulgare subsp. vulgare), which allows the interpretation of the sample as malt. Anthracological analysis reconstructed the sorts of the fuel timber. Also an overview of current archaeological finds of malt in Bohemia is given in wider European context. So far there has not been any, not even written evidence of a medieval malt house within Rabí castle.(In Czech, English summary only)

Keywords

• Middle Ages
• malt
• archaeology
• archaeobotany
• anthracology