Neolithic Farming in Central Europe: An Archaeobotanical Study of Crop Husbandry Practices / Edition 1

by Amy Bogaard

Overview

Neolithic Farming in Central Europe examines the nature of the earliest crop cultivation, a subject that illuminates the lives of Neolithic farming families and the day-to-day reality of the transition from hunting and gathering to farming.

Debate surrounding the nature of crop husbandry in Neolithic central Europe has focussed on the permanence of cultivation, its intensity and its seasonality: variables that carry different implications for Neolithic society.

Amy Bogaard reviews the archaeological evidence for four major competing models of Neolithic crop husbandry - shifting cultivation, extensive plough cultivation, floodplain cultivation and intensive garden cultivation - and evaluates charred crop and weed assemblages.

Her conclusions identify the most appropriate model of cultivation, and highlight the consequences of these agricultural practices for our understanding of Neolithic societies in central Europe.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780415324854
Publisher:	Taylor & Francis
Publication date:	09/16/2004
Pages:	224
Product dimensions:	6.12(w) x 9.19(h) x (d)

About the Author

Amy Bogaard is Lecturer at the Department of Archaeology, University of Nottingham. Her main research interests are early farming practices and archaeobotany.

Table of Contents

Introduction 1. The Study Area and its Archaeological ackground 2. Models of Crop Husbandry in Neolithic Central Europe 3. The Key Variables of Permanence, Intensity and Seasonality and their Wider Implications 4. Archaeobotanical, Ecological and Statistical Methodology 5. Testing the Four Major Crop Husbandry Models 6. Identification of Separate Ecological Gradients and Specific Crop Husbandry Practices 7. Conclusions: Neolithic Farming in Central Europe

Editorial Reviews

"This would be an enormously important and I am sure very widely read addition to the literature on the European Neolithic." - Alastair Whittle, Cardiff University

From the Publisher