Cereal Agriculture in Prehistoric North-Central Europe and South-East Iberia: Changes and Continuities as Potential Adaptations to Climate

Abstract

During recent years many crop failures related to the ongoing climate crisis have been reported. From palaeo-climatic archives it is known that also in the past people had to cope with hazardous climatic anomalies such as the so-called 4.2 ka event. Similarly, pronounced changes in the crop spectrum have been documented from archaeo-botanical studies, such as the introduction of new crops or the decline in crop diversity.However, the impact of climatic anomalies for such past changes in the crop spectrum are still not well understood. Here, we discuss the influence of climatic anomalies on agrarian decision-making during the Neolithic and Bronze Age on the basis of a synthesis of available archaeo-botanical and palaeo-climatic data from two study areas within the Mediterranean and Atlantic climate zones of Europe. We find a significant correlation between climate anomalies and crop data in the Mediterranean zone, and a more nuanced situation in the Atlantic zone.