Household storage, surplus and supra-household storage in prehistoric and protohistoric societies of the Western Mediterranean

Abstract

The objective of this paper is to assess foodstuff storage throughout Recent Prehistory (5600–50 BCE) from the standpoint of the three different types (household, surplus and supra-household) identified in the northeast of the Iberian Peninsula. The volumetric data of the underground silos serves as a proxy to evaluate the link between them and the agricultural systems and technological changes. The study also assesses the ability, and specifically, the will of the ancient communities of the northeastern Iberia to generate domestic and extra-domestic surpluses.

Voluminous Evidence for an Elusive Period: Storage Pits and Surplus from Middle Chalcolithic Anatolia

“…In its spatial configuration, this layout resembles the silo fields of northeastern Spain (Prats, Antolín, and Alonso 2020b), but it differs completely from the situation observed at the other Anatolian sites discussed, where storage was linked directly to houses. In the case of Çatalhöyük, the location of storage bins in secluded storerooms inside houses was presented as an expression of household "economic autonomy," suggesting that crop cultivation, processing, and storage was done at the level of individual households (Bogaard et al 2009, 664).…”

“…Some comparative figures can provide insightful contexts. The authors of a recent study of more than 1600 silo pits dating from the Early Neolithic-Late Iron Age from 172 sites in northeastern Spain demonstrate a chronological increase in storage capacity by calculating the range of volumes in the central 50% of pit volumes (Prats, Antolín, and Alonso 2020b). They find that 50% of pits in the Early Neolithic range between 319 and 677 L. By the Early Bronze Age, this has increased to between 540 and 1362 L, and by the Late Bronze Age to between 1320 and 2719 L. The authors argue that the figures, when combined with data on settlements, agricultural systems, and technology, show that, whereas surplus production was uncommon in the Neolithic, Bronze Age domestic units were customarily producing and storing surpluses (Prats, Antolín, and Alonso 2020b, 21).…”

Small Animals, Big Impact? Early Farmers and Pre- and Post-Harvest Pests from the Middle Neolithic Site of Les Bagnoles in the South-East of France (L’Isle-sur-la-Sorgue, Vaucluse, Provence-Alpes-Côte-d’Azur)

“…This change towards glume wheat would nonetheless lead to increasing the capacity of underground silos, as storage in the spikelet requires greater volume. However, calculations of the dimensions of storage pits in southern France in the late Middle Neolithic reveal a slight decrease of volume [ 12 , 116 , 117 ]. Several notions have been advanced concerning this issue, such as more diverse storage options [ 12 ].…”

Font del Ros y el Neolítico Antiguo en el nordeste de la península ibérica

“…La mayoría están extremadamente arrasadas, conservando el perímetro basal con escaso desarrollo vertical (entre 20-40 cm de potencia). Frente a lo señalado recientemente (Prats et al 2020) esto dificulta calcular su potencial capacidad de almacenaje.…”