The botanical macroremains from the prehistoric settlement Kalnik-Igrišče (NW Croatia) in the context of current knowledge about cultivation and plant consumption in Croatia and neighboring countries during the Bronze Age

Abstract

This paper presents the results of the first extensive archaeobotanical research into a Bronze Age site in Croatia. The aim of the study was to reveal what plants were consumed (grown) at Kalnik-Igrišče (NW Croatia) in the Bronze Age and to realize if the plant diet of the local population differed from that of the inhabitants in neighboring countries. The results show that all plant macrofossils found at Kalnik-Igrišče can be classified into one of four functional groups: cereals, cultivated legumes, useful trees and weeds. As much as 98% of the findings are of cereals and legumes. The most abundant species found are Panicum miliaceum (millet), Hordeum vulgare (barley), Vicia faba (faba bean), Triticum aestivum ssp. aestivum (bread wheat), Triticum turgidum ssp. dicoccon (emmer wheat) and Lens culinaris (lentils). The findings from Kalnik-Igrišče do not differ from the findings of neighboring countries, indicating that there were similar diets and agricultural/plant-collecting activities throughout the whole of the studied area (Bosnia and Herzegovina, Slovenia, Serbia, Italy, Austria and Hungary).

Keywords

• Kalnik-Igrišče
• NW Croatia
• Bronze Age
• carbonized plant macrofossils
• human nutrition