Garam Éva szerk.: Between East and West - History of the peoples living in hungarian lands (Guide to the Archaeological Exhibition of the Hungarian National Museum; Budapest, 2005)

The environment of ancient man (Katalin T. Bíró, Zsófia Medzihradszky, Andrea Torma, István Vörös)

Late Bronze Age and Early Iron Age. A qualitative shift in wheat cultivation occurred with the introduction and spread of naked wheat species. While durum wheat and bread wheat have been identified among the plant remains since the Neolithic, these species became more frequent from the Iron Age, and by the Roman Age they practically replaced hulled species. The consumption of bread wheat became almost exclusive in Pannónia during the Roman Age; the occasional finds of hulled wheat species can be linked to the pre-Roman native population and the barbarian peoples living beyond the province's borders. Barley was another cereal whose cultivation can be noted from the earliest Neolithic onwards in the Carpathian Basin. It is suitable both for animal fodder and for human consumption as gruel and the basic ingredient for beer. Similarly to wheat, there are hulled and naked barley varieties (the latter being more suited to human consumption). The other crop used for preparing gruels was millet, an undemanding species with a short maturation time, whose cultivation can similarly be documented throughout later prehistory. Millet was an important dietary supplement, becoming more widespread during the Roman Age. Greater amounts of this crop have been found in military towns and camps, reflecting its importance in alimentation. Rye and oat were secondary cultivated plants, domesticated from wild ancestors occurring as field weeds. Even though the first cultivated rye finds in the Carpathian Basin date from the Copper Age, its widespread cultivation falls into the Roman Age, when it became the second most important cereal after bread wheat. Oat was used for fodder, rather than for human consumption. Although charred wild oat grains have been found on Neolithic sites, its cultivation began much later. Massive finds of cultivated common oat first occur among medieval botanical samples, even though its use has been documented in the Roman Age too. In addition to cereals, the cultivation of various legumes can also be demonstrated from the Neolithic. Most popular among these were lentil and pea, followed by chickling pea, bitter vetch and broad bean. The textile remains found on sites of the Körös culture provide the earliest evidence for the cultivation and use of flax. Flax was exploited doubly: its seeds were consumed, while its fibres were woven into textiles. In addition to crop cultivation, prehistoric communities continued to gather the plants in their environment. Only the wild varieties of fruits, vegetables and salads, dyeing plants and herbs were exploited for a long time. The less resistant plant parts, such as leaves and fruits, rarely survive over the millennia, while fruit seeds are more likely to occur in samples. On the testimony of these finds, the gathering of fruits rich in vitamins was continuous from the Neolithic: cornelian cherry, wild apple, wild pear, wild cherries, blackthorn, wild grape, hawthorn, elder, blackberry and acorn figured prominently in the diet. The first cultivated fruits are known from the Iron Age: these were all species whose wild ancestors were not native to the Carpathian Basin (plum, peach, wine grapes). The first real flourishing of fruit cultivation fell into the Roman Age, when a number of new species were introduced (almond, apricot, sorb apple, medlar, honeydew melon). On the testimony of the botanical finds, the domestic variants of several wild species appeared during this period (apple, pear, cherry, nut). The remains of imported fruits and products, which could hardly have been grown locally and are thus important indicators of trade in the Roman world, too have been found on several sites (dates, figs, olives). In spite of the Emperor Domitian's prohibition against vine cultivation, the first largescale vine planting began during the Roman Age in Pannónia. Although the turmoils of the Migration period disrupted the developed economy of the Roman Age, most of the species introduced during this period survived into later ages.