From Vilauba to Vila Alba: Changes and continuities in animal and crop husbandry practices from the Early Roman to the beginning of the Middle Ages in the north-east of the Iberian Peninsula

Colominas, Lídia; Antolín, Ferran; Ferrer, Marc; Castanyer, Pere; Tremoleda, Joaquim

doi:10.1016/j.quaint.2017.12.034

Cited by 13 publications

(4 citation statements)

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“…The study of age at death shows that they were all adults when they died, with a predominance of 6-to 8-year-old individuals, except for one individual that was 2-3 years old and two individuals that were 8-10 years old. These ages at death are similar to the slaughter patterns documented during the early Roman phase of the villa, with a clear predominance of animals slaughtered at adult and older ages [20,50]. Therefore, these ranges of ages would be the predominant cattle ranges of age present at the villa.…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 78%

What Happened in That Pit? An Archaeozoological and GIS Approach to Study an Accumulation of Animal Carcasses at the Roman Villa of Vilauba (Catalonia)

Colominas

Castanyer²,

Frigola³

et al. 2021

Animals

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Some of the deposits of animal remains documented throughout prehistory and history are clearly something other than ordinary waste from meat consumption. For the Roman period and based on their characteristics, these assemblages have been classified as butchery deposits, raw material deposits, deposits created for the hygienic management and disposal of animal carcasses, or ritual deposits. However, some are difficult to classify, and the parameters that define each of them are not clear. Here, we present a unique deposit from the Roman villa of Vilauba (Catalonia). A total of 783 cattle remains were found in an irregular-shaped 187 m2 pit originally dug to extract the clay used in the construction of the villa walls around the third quarter of the 1st century AD. The application of a contextual taphonomy approach, with the integration of archaeozoological variables, stratigraphy and context, and a GIS analysis, allowed us to document the nature and formation of this singular assemblage. It consisted of the carcasses of 14 cattle individuals from which the meat had been removed to take advantage of it by preserving it. Therefore, the parameters that characterise the refuse of this activity are presented here as a baseline for other studies.

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Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 78%

What Happened in That Pit? An Archaeozoological and GIS Approach to Study an Accumulation of Animal Carcasses at the Roman Villa of Vilauba (Catalonia)

Colominas

Castanyer²,

Frigola³

et al. 2021

Animals

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“…In other Northwestern Roman and Late Antique contexts rye is rare (CDG, CDCR, TONG, CRES, GUIF, QCREST, AST), and, overall, these provided small fruits/seeds assemblages [ 99 , 101 , 129 – 131 ]. It was also recorded in several sites from Northeast Iberia, and also in the Visigothic village of Gózquez in Central Spain, dating to the 6 th –8 th centuries CE [ 54 , 55 , 58 , 60 , 64 , 66 ]. Despite the caution that pollen data demand (see above), the increasing presence of Secale taxa after the Roman period in Iberia seems to strengthen the idea that rye cultivation expanded during Late Antiquity.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The early history of rye cultivation in the Iberian Peninsula has not been addressed in a systematic way, though since long, it has been identified in several Late Antique and Medieval sites ( S1 Table ). The earliest macrobotanical findings of rye from Northeast Iberia were recorded in Late Antique contexts from sites such as Carrer dels Bafart (Lleida) and Vilauba (Girona) [ 53 – 55 ], and in the surrounding areas, such as Andorra or Aragon. Still, in most sites rye was scarce [ 54 – 64 ].…”

Section: Rye In Iberiamentioning

confidence: 99%

The introduction and spread of rye (Secale cereale) in the Iberian Peninsula

et al. 2023

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Some of the earliest Western European macroremains of rye (Secale cereale) have been recently recovered in Northwest Iberia. However, the chronological and cultural contexts of these remains have not been yet exhaustively analysed. To address this gap of research, previous and unpublished assemblages have been reviewed and analysed through an analytical set of methods: biometry, radiocarbon dates and integrating the remains of rye in the broad archaeobotanical record of the region. Results show the earliest macroremains of rye in the Iberian Peninsula date to a period between the 3rd century and the first half of the 1st century BCE. Rye was usually found in assemblages dominated by spelt and other cereals, in whose fields it was likely acting as a weed. There is no record of rye for about the two following centuries, after which it is probably reintroduced, now as a crop. It is found in several sites from the 3rd-4th centuries CE onwards, suggesting it is a staple crop as in other regions in Europe. Significant differences in grain size are only recorded in a 10th-11th century settlement, suggesting few changes in grain morphometry before Medieval times.

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“…For example, the abundance of thin-leaved species such as common corncockle (Agrostemma githago L.), false thorow-wax (Bupleurum lancifolium Hornem. ), and darnel (Lolium temulentum L.) could reflect a lack of crop rotation in the Roman and Visigothic periods at a site in the northeastern Iberian Peninsula (Colominas et al 2019). In a different study, Neveu et al (2021) suggest that an increase in perennial weeds and grassland plants during the Iron Age in northwestern France could be explained by crop rotation involving pasturing.…”

Section: Crop Rotationmentioning

confidence: 96%

In the ruins: the neglected link between archaeology and weed science

2022

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The aim of this paper is to bring attention to weed ecology research that is taking place in an unexpected discipline: archaeology. While archaeobotanists (archaeologists or botanists who specialize in archaeological plant remains) have been accessing literature in weed ecology for decades and applying the findings to their own studies, their results are almost exclusively published in archaeological journals such as the Journal of Archaeological Science or Vegetation History and Archaeobotany. For this reason, their work is underutilized by weed ecologists, especially those who have an interest in historical weed ecology. Archaeobotanical research could help weed scientists understand the long-term effects of agricultural practices on weed communities and predict the potential impacts of climate change. This paper begins with a brief review of the history of archaeobotany as a discipline, then describes ways in which weed ecology is applied in archaeobotany, including Functional Interpretation of Botanical Surveys (FIBS). Finally, we present opportunities for future collaboration between archaeobotanists and weed scientists.

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From Vilauba to Vila Alba: Changes and continuities in animal and crop husbandry practices from the Early Roman to the beginning of the Middle Ages in the north-east of the Iberian Peninsula

Cited by 13 publications

References 14 publications

What Happened in That Pit? An Archaeozoological and GIS Approach to Study an Accumulation of Animal Carcasses at the Roman Villa of Vilauba (Catalonia)

What Happened in That Pit? An Archaeozoological and GIS Approach to Study an Accumulation of Animal Carcasses at the Roman Villa of Vilauba (Catalonia)

The introduction and spread of rye (Secale cereale) in the Iberian Peninsula

In the ruins: the neglected link between archaeology and weed science

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