Somogyvári Ágnes – V. Székely György szerk.: A Barbaricum ösvényein… A 2005-ben Kecskeméten tartott tudományos konferencia előadásai - Archaeologia Cumanica 1. (Kecskemét, 2011)
Mária Hajnalová: Bread of Sarmatians on the Danube, or evidence of arable farming at the site of Harta-Gátőrház (Bács-Kiskun County) in the Roman Period
ARCHAEOLOGIA CUMANICA 1 H. SK I.-V.AD Romans Paon-Prw H 1. BC-V. AD Celts Pann-Prov I.-IV AD Germans R-Battoar • Hordeum ujlgare • Tnlicum aestiwjm s.t. m Panicum miliaceum G Secaîe cereale m Tnticum dtcoccum m Triticum spetta e Tnticiim monococcijm c A*ena sp 39 (s.c) KSK I -V-AQ Fig. 3a,b Selected cereal crops on the great Hungarian plain, Transdanubia and south-west Slovakia. Vertical axes represent number of sites on which individual crops occurred, with the exception of the fourth column (Harta-Gátőrház), which reflects number of samples in which the species occurred at the site (total number of samples is 48). Legend: (p)-infill of ceramic vessels (c)cremations, (s)-settlements. its quantities are very low. By way of contrast, at the barbarian, mostly Germanic sites it often outnumbers other cereals. On the Sarmatian sites further east of the frontier millet (Panicum miliaceum ) plays the same role as hulled wheat. Preference for combinations of hulled wheat and barley by Germanic populations is seen as a continuity of their northern European traditional farming practices. 17 Similarly, dominance of millet and emmer cultivation by Sarmatians is interpreted as a nomadic traditioni8. Other cereal crops found on Roman Age sites in the region are rye (Secale cereale), oat (Avena sp). and Italian millet (Setaria italica). Yet these are of little economic importance and in many cases probably were still the only weeds of the arable fields. In this regional context the assemblage from HartaGátőrház has, in some respects, a rather extraordinary position. First, the presence of high quantities of free-threshing wheat in comparison to hulled wheat types is striking. Secondly, even though hulled emmer wheat (Triticum dicoccum) forms less than 1% of the assemblage, on the other, Germanic and Celtic sites it is virtually the main cultivated wheat! Spelt (Triticum spelta) has likewise been recorded in higher numbers then elsewhere in the region, but only represents less than 5 % of the assemblage. Among other useful plants found at Harta-Gátőrház 17 Kreuz 2005 18 cf. Gyulai 2001 are sweet pea (Pisum sativum) and flax (Linum usitatissimum). There is very limited information about the history of cultivation of pulses or oil and fibre plants in the region (Fig. 4a, b). This is due not only to a lack of systematic archaeobotanical research, but also to taphonomic processes. Both legumes and technical plants have less of a chance to come in contact with settlement fires than does grain and thus are less likely to be preserved in the archaeological record. The main reasons for this are their ways of processing for consumption (cooking the seeds of legumes in water or not baking them in the direct fire), and the use of easily degradable parts of the plants, such as stems. The assortment of these plants is well known only in areas where systematic archaeobotanical research with extensive sampling of sites has a long tradition, or where waterlogged sites occur in the landscape. Going beyond the formulation of a simple statement about utilisation of pea and flax on this Sarmatian site would thus be, at this point, a hypothetical speculation. Wild plants The last group of recovered plants at Gátőrház under discussion represents an assemblage of wild plants. It consists of 3,637 seeds of 116 different species. The study of this part of the material is not yet finished, so just preliminary results are presented herein. All wild plant seeds were present in samples with cereals. They likely originate from various stages of crop processing or represent discarded household waste. After finalising the identification of problematic finds, the taphonomic analysis of sample assemblages will be performed. It should then be possible to reveal the origin of each sample and define which stage of crop processing it comes from. After doing so, further interpretation re164
