Archaeobotanical remains of hulled and naked cereals in the Iberian Peninsula

Abstract

Archaeobotanical finds in Spain show differences in the representation of the different wheats and barleys. From the beginning of agriculture (around 5000 B.C.) onwards, all wheats and barleys can be found at the sites of the eastern Peninsula. But in later periods of the early Neolithic, free-threshing wheat becomes more important in the northeast and the southeast, compared to the hulled wheats (emmer and einkorn). Nevertheless, both naked and hulled barleys can be found in similar frequencies in this period. Seed analyses in the southeast and the east of Spain show the importance of naked barley compared with hulled barley in the third millenium uncal B.C. This is not the case in the northeast, where hulled barley has a similar frequency in this period until the Iron Age, when both hulled barley and free-threshing wheat are the most important taxa. The substitution of naked barley for hulled barley in the south-east Iberian Peninsula is very significant in the period of greatest growth of the Argar culture. Free-threshing wheat can be found at a similar frequency throughout the study area, and was an important human food source together with the barleys. Hulled wheats seem to have played a secondary role as food in all periods, although they are constantly present in our samples. Nevertheless spelt wheat does not appear until the Roman period, when it is only found on the Cantabrian north coast, where it is important.