Marisia - Maros Megyei Múzeum Évkönyve 30/1. (2010)

Articles

Archaeobotanical Analyses Carried on Macro-Remains from Tärgu Mure$-Franciscan Friary

215

Einkorn type wheat is the only cereal which, due to the particularities of its ear, can withstand long rainy periods.5 The einkorn wheat species is a small plant, rarely exceeding 70 cm in height, with a relatively poor turnout, but it can survive on poor soil where other types of wheat would not endure. Its yellowish flour is nutritious, but it reduces the bread’s rising quality when baked. Despite this, einkorn wheat was consumed mainly as porridge or boiled.6

Peas, Pisum sativum, are an important source of proteins for human consumption (Fig. 2c). The seed contains proteins in a proportion of approximately 22%. At the present time, peas are classified as the second most important vegetable in the world. Peas are a diploid crop (2n =14 chromosomes) and mainly self-pollinating. As a consequence of the self-pollinating system, variations in species of peas are divided in numerous evolutive lines.

The discovery of the two fruit kernels belonging to the Prunus species is not something unusual (Fig. 2d). That fruit would have been a normal occurrence in the communities’ diets in those times. It was consumed fresh, but plums could also be baked or dried for storage over winter.

Fig. 2. a. Triticum aestivum, b. Secale cereale, c. Pisum sativum, d. Prunus sp.

* * *

*

In order to achieve a clear approach of the context surrounding plants cultivated by communities of that time one must not omit an important aspect of the era, namely the climate in the period we are referring to. Climate has always played a decisive role in the process of cereal cultivation. According to specific studies of the period under discussion, the climate was favourable to plant cultivation, as illustrated by the graph below (Fig. 3). TTius, one could presume that there were no unfavourable external factors which would influence crop quality. It is a known fact that crop rotation was employed in the Middle Ages. Thus, cereals were cultivated in the first year, vegetables the next, and in the

900 1000 1100 1200 1300 1400 1500 1600 1700 1000 1900 2000

Fig. 3. Climate fluctuations in the last millennium.

5 Kreuz et al. 2005, 244.

6 Zohary-Hopf 1988,28.