Journal articles on the topic 'Agricultura prehisto rica'

This essay argues that the primary socio-economic formations of premodern Japan were formed in the Bronze Age via processes of ancient globalisation across Eurasia. Multi-crop cereal agriculture combining rice, millet, wheat and barley with a minor contribution from domesticated animals spread from Bronze Age Korea to Japan at the beginning of the first millennium BC. This agricultural system gradually expanded through the archipelago while engendering new economic niches centred on trade, raiding and specialised fishing. From the fifth century AD the horse became widely used for warfare, transport and overseas trade. While alluvial rice farming provided staple finance for the early state, it is argued here that the concept of the ‘maritime mode of production’ better explains economic processes in the nonstate spaces of Japan until the early seventeenth century. Despite this diversity in socio-economic formations, the post-Bronze Age globalisation of food in Japan appears to have been delayed compared to many other regions of Eurasia and to have been less impacted by elite consumption. Further research is required to confirm this suggestion and the essay outlines several areas where archaeological research could contribute to debates over the ‘Great Divergence’ and the economic development of the modern world.

This essay argues that the primary socio-economic formations of premodern Japan were formed in the Bronze Age via processes of ancient globalisation across Eurasia. Multi-crop cereal agriculture combining rice, millet, wheat and barley with a minor contribution from domesticated animals spread from Bronze Age Korea to Japan at the beginning of the first millennium BC. This agricultural system gradually expanded through the archipelago while engendering new economic niches centred on trade, raiding and specialised fishing. From the fifth century AD the horse became widely used for warfare, transport and overseas trade. While alluvial rice farming provided staple finance for the early state, it is argued here that the concept of the ‘maritime mode of production’ better explains economic processes in the nonstate spaces of Japan until the early seventeenth century. Despite this diversity in socio-economic formations, the post-Bronze Age globalisation of food in Japan appears to have been delayed compared to many other regions of Eurasia and to have been less impacted by elite consumption. Further research is required to confirm this suggestion and the essay outlines several areas where archaeological research could contribute to debates over the ‘Great Divergence’ and the economic development of the modern world.

This paper presents the first systematic archaeological evidence from the early prehistory of south-east Ireland. The research is designed to investigate the colonization of the area during the Mesolithic period and the subsequent transition to agriculture. From a theoretical perspective, we offer a view of indigenous development. That is, we look for continuities between Mesolithic and Neolithic Ireland in terms of technology and settlement. The data, we are gathering include surface and excavated materials. Lithic assemblages were systematically collected from ploughsoils surrounding the Waterford Harbour area during the years 1983 through 1987. These materials are analyzed from the point of view of geography, raw material, reduction sequences, manufacturing technology, and chronological typology to yield an initial glimpse into the rich prehistory of the region and its pattern of settlement. Excavations during 1986, 1987 and 1989 have begun to fill in some detail including the region's first prehistoric barley, a Neolithic radiocarbon date, prehistoric pottery, a rhyolite quarry and several rich lithic assemblages.

The first domestications of plants and animals, which occurred between 10 K years and 5 K years BP, and which underpinned the inception of agricultural systems, represent a major turning point in cultural and environmental history. Whilst much has been written on these topics, new archaeological discoveries and the development of new methods of data collection require that these issues should be reappraised. One example of a new archaeological discovery is that of evidence for rice cultivation prior to 10 K years BP in the middle Yangtze Basin of China. This region is now considered to be the likely centre of rice domestication and, because of the discovery of settlement structures, it may have been home to China’s oldest civilization. In addition, further age determination may establish this region of China as the earliest centre of agricultural innovation, instead of southwest Asia. New methods of age estimation, notably by radiocarbon, have necessitated a reappraisal of the origins of agriculture in Mesoamerica, whilst biomolecular techniques are contributing to the identification of the wild relatives of domesticated plants and animals. Genetic analysis has also been applied to modern human populations in order to establish the relationships between different groups and thus to attempt to determine the movement of peoples in prehistory. Such relationships in Europe have been related to the spread of agriculture from its centre of origin in southwest Asia, although this is speculative rather than conclusive. Despite these advances, however, there is still no unequivocal evidence as to why agriculture was initiated.

The Chengdu plain of south-west China lies outside the main centres of early domestication in the Huanghe and Yangzi valleys, but its importance in Chinese prehistory is demonstrated by the spectacular Sanxingdui bronzes of the second millennium BC and by the number of walled enclosures of the third millennium BC associated with the Baodun culture. The latter illustrate the development of social complexity. Paradoxically, however, these are not the outcome of a long settled agricultural history but appear to be associated with the movement of the first farming communities into this region. Recent excavations at the Baodun type site have recovered plant remains indicating not only the importance of rice cultivation, but also the role played by millet in the economy of these and other sites in south-west China. Rice cultivation in paddy fields was supplemented by millet cultivation in neighbouring uplands. Together they illustrate how farmers moving into this area from the Middle Yangzi adjusted their cultivation practices to adapt to their newly colonised territories.

The origins and development of rice cultivation are one of the most important aspects in studying agricultural and socio-economic innovations, as well as environmental change, in East Asian prehistory. In particular, whether wet or dry rice cultivation was conducted is an important consideration of its impact on societies and the environment across different periods and places. In this study, carbon and nitrogen stable isotope analysis of charred crop remains from archaeological sites dating from the Early Bronze Age (ca. 1.1 k BC) to the Proto-Three Kingdoms (ca. 0.4 k AD) was conducted to clarify: (1) if there were any shifts from dry to wet cultivation around 1500 years after rice adoption as previously hypothesized and (2) the difference in stable carbon and nitrogen isotope values between rice and dry fields crops excavated from the same archaeological context to understand the cultivation environment. The result show that stable isotope values of charred rice grains have not changed significantly for around 1500 years. Moreover, rice possessed higher nitrogen stable isotope values than dry crops across all periods. While other potential factors could have influenced the 15N-enrichment of soils and crops, the most reasonable explanation is bacteriologic denitrification in anaerobic paddy soil where the rice was grown.

This paper is dedicated to John Evans, environmental archaeologist extraordinaire, who died 14 June 2005, while this paper was in press. He continually reminded us that environmental data should address questions of people and landscape and be relevant to the understanding of Prehistory by our archaeological colleagues.The Beaker period in north-west Europe is abound with objects, burials, and monuments, but evidence of settlement and domestic life is often absent or less easily found, and England is no exception. Despite the thousands of barrows with rich artefacts assemblages (eg, Amesbury Archer) and the numerous pits with non-domestic assemblages of placed items, evidence for houses and settlement are sparse despite the indication of increased agriculture and sedentism. This paper explores this problem on the chalklands of southern England that are rich in Beaker finds, and which are generally recognised as one of the best studied and well understood landscapes in Europe. From this study it is suggested that Beaker domestic sites are present, but are often in low lying positions on the chalk downs and have subsequently been buried by variable depths of hillwash, making them invisible to normal archaeological survey and reconnaissance.

ABSTRACT Native Americans have lived in the Susquehanna River Valley for at least 10,000 years. Archaeological research along the banks of the river has discovered a rich prehistory stretching from the Paleoindian era through the Archaic and Woodland periods up to and through early contact with Europeans. This paper summarizes the major environmental changes that affected the cultural evolution of Native Americans over this long time span and the technological innovations that occurred. Because the same areas in which Native Americans made their camps or villages have also been desirable areas for subsequent European settlement and industrial development, the archaeological record is incomplete and a number of questions remain unanswered and require additional research. Among them are the origins of various archaeological cultures; the size of native populations at in various time periods; and why agriculture/horticulture was so late in developing along the river. A brief discussion of Native American migrations and relocation in the Contact Period is included. Attention is also given to the emergence of organizations over the last two decades in the river basin which claim native descent.

AbstractThis paper examines choices of earth-working tools made by Neolithic Chinese populations. In the Hemudu Culture (7000–5000 B.P.), bone (scapula) digging tools were used from the earliest times, whereas peoples in surrounding areas used stone spades. A range of experiments on manufacturing costs, durability, and use efficiency under realistic conditions show that bone and stone spades are functionally equivalent when soils are soft, but that stone implements provide significant and easily perceived advantages when working harder soils. The persistence of scapular spades in the Hemudu Culture would have constrained decisions about undertaking large construction projects under normal soil conditions. Our results show that, in addition to generalized labor for construction, labor demands for producing earth-working implements for large-scale prehistoric earthworks could have also been substantial. These findings not only help explain the processes of intensifying rice-agriculture and sedentary settlements in the Lower Yangzi Basin, but also create a solid foundation for further investigation of how the recruitment of both generalized and specialized laborers, the organization of craft production, and the relevant logistics for large-scale earthworks may have paralleled concentrations of political power in prehistory.

Past Pleistocene topography of the loess uplands is rich in local sinks (closed depressions (CDs)) influencing sediment fluxes. Soil-sediment sequences from CDs constituting geoarchives where landscape changes under natural and anthropogenic conditions have been recorded. Pedo-sedimentary archives from 10 CDs in the Polish loess belt and human settlements were analysed. Phases of the Holocene evolution of the CDs were correlated with landscape dynamics in loess areas in Poland and Central Europe. Phases of infilling of CDs occurring (2) from the late Boreal/early Atlantic Period until the (middle) late Bronze Age/early Iron Age and (4) since the early Middle Ages until today were documented. These were phases of long-term soil erosion and colluviation corresponding to the increasing agricultural land use of Polish loess uplands. Phases of soil formation related to geomorphic stabilization of CDs occurred (1) from the late Vistulian until the late Boreal/early Atlantic Period and (3) from the late Bronze Age/early Iron Age until the early/high Middle Ages. These were phases of decreased soil erosion and landform conservation in a considerable part of Poland’s loess areas. Pedo-sedimentary archives from the CDs have recorded soil erosion strongly related with human-induced land-use changes. The mean soil erosion rate in the catchment of CDs was 0.33 t·ha−1·yr−1 during prehistory and 4.0 t·ha−1·yr−1 during the last approximately 1000 years. Phases of CD evolution are representative for the main phases of sediment and landscape dynamics in Poland’s loess areas recorded in various archives, and are not synchronous with some of these phases in Central Europe.

A large two-aisled house at Nørre Holsted in southern Jutland – Analysis of a longhouse from Early Bronze Age period IIn 2011 and 2012, Sønderskov Museum investigated an area of 65,000 m2 at Nørre Holsted, between Esbjerg and Vejen. The investigation revealed a multitude of features and structures dating from several periods, including extensive settlement remains from the Late Neolithic and Bronze Age. Excavations have also been carried out in this area previously, resulting in rich finds assemblages. This paper focuses on the site’s largest and best preserved two-aisled house, K30, which is dated to Early Bronze Age period I (1700-1500 BC). This longhouse therefore represents the final generation of houses of two-aisled construction. It also contained charred plant remains, which provide information on arable agriculture of the time and the internal organisation of the building at a point just prior to three-aisled construction becoming universal. The remains indicate continuity in both agriculture and in internal organisation between the late two-aisled and early three-aisled longhouses. The two-aisled house at Nørre Holsted can therefore make a significant contribution to the long-running debate about this architectural change, which has often focussed on developments in farming: The increased importance of cattle husbandry is said to have been the main reason for breaking with the tradition of two-aisled construction.The Nørre Holsted locality comprises the top of a sandy plateau that forms a ridge running north-south. The slightly sloping plateau lies 38-42 m above sea level and the ridge is surrounded by damp, low-lying terrain that, prior to the agricultural drainage of recent times, was partly aquiferous. The site occupies a central position in the southern part of Holsted Bakkeø, a “hill island” that is primarily characterised by sandy moraine. People preferred to live on well-drained ridges with sandy subsoil throughout large parts of prehistory and this was also true in the Late Neolithic and Bronze Age. On the area uncovered at Nørre Holsted, remains were found of 16 two-aisled houses, of which three had sunken floors. Ten of these houses are dated to the Late Neolithic and three are assigned to the first period of the Bronze Age. During Early Bronze Age periods II and III, a total of 14 three-aisled longhouses stood on the sandy plateau. As can be seen from figure 2, the houses from the Late Neolithic and Early Bronze Age lie more or less evenly distributed across the area. However, the buildings from the Late Neolithic/Early Bronze Age period I form a distinct cluster in the eastern part, while a western distribution is evident for the houses from Early Bronze Age periods II-III. The western part of the site lies highest in the terrain and a movement upwards in the landscape was therefore associated with the introduction of the three-aisled building tradition. Tripartition of the dimensions can be observed in both the two- and the three-aisled houses, with this being most pronounced in the latter category. The three-aisled Bronze Age houses from periods II and III, which represent the typical form with rounded gables and possibly plank-built walls, show great morphological and architectonic uniformity. Conversely, the two-aisled house remains are characterised by wider variation. The small and medium-sized examples, with or without a partly-sunken floor, represent some very common house types in Jutland. Conversely, the largest longhouse, K30, represents a variant that is more familiar from areas further to the east in southern Scandinavia.The largest two-aisled house at Nørre Holsted was located on the eastern part of the sandy plateau, where this slopes down towards a former wetland area (fig. 3). The east-west-oriented longhouse had a fall of 1.5 m along its length, with the eastern end being the lowest part at c. 38 m above sea level. Its orientation towards the wet meadow and bog to the east is striking, and it stood a maximum of 50 m from the potential grazing area. A peat bog lay a further 100 m to the east and in prehistory this was probably a small lake. Sekær Bæk flows 600 m to the north and, prior to realignment, this watercourse was both deeper and wider where it met the former lake area. Access to fresh water was therefore optimal and opportunities for transport and communication by way of local water routes must similarly have been favourable. It should be added that the watercourse Holsted Å flows only 1 km to the south of the locality.House K30 had a length of 32 m and a width of 6.5-7 m, with the western part apparently being the broadest, giving a floor area of more than 200 m2. The eastern gable was slightly rounded, while that to the west was of a straighter and more open character. The wall posts were preserved along most of the two sides of the building and the internal (roof-) supporting posts were positioned just inside the walls. Two transverse partition walls divided the longhouse, with its ten central posts, into three main rooms (fig. 5). These posts were the building’s sturdiest and most deeply-founded examples. Charcoal-rich post-pipes could be observed in section, and these revealed that the posts consisted of cloven timber with a cross-section of c. 25 cm. The central posts were regularly spaced about 3 m apart, except at the eastern and western ends, where the spacing was 4 m (fig. 5). The posts along the inside of the walls were less robust and not set as deeply as the central posts. There were probably internal wall or support posts along the entire length of the walls. These were positioned only 0.5 m inside the walls and must therefore have functioned together with these. Based on the position of these posts, the possibility that they were directly linked to the central posts can be dismissed. It seems much more likely that they were linked together by transverse beams running across the house – a roof-supporting feature that, a few generations later, moved further in towards the central axis to become the permanent roof-bearing construction. The actual wall posts or outer wall constituted the least robust constructional element of the longhouse.Remains of the walls were best preserved in the eastern part, and the wall posts here were spaced 1.5 m apart in the eastern gable and 2 m apart in the side wall (fig. 5). The wall posts had disappeared in several places, particularly in the central part of the building. Entrances could not be identified in the side walls, possibly as a consequence of the fragmentary preservation of the post traces. Two transverse partition walls, each consisting of three posts, were present in the western and eastern parts, with the latter example being integrated into a recessed pair of posts. The western room had an area of 59 m2 and contained two pits, while the eastern part was filled with charred plant material, consisting largely of acorns. The actual living quarters may have been located here, even though the larger central room, with an area of c. 85 m2, could just as well represent the dwelling area with its large, deep cooking pit (fig. 5). The eastern room had an area of 60 m2 and therefore did not differ significantly in area from that to the west.The entire fill from features that could be related to longhouse K30 was sieved. The objective was to retrieve small finds in the form of micro flakes and pottery fragments that are normally overlooked in conventional shovel excavation. The associated aims included ascertaining whether the flint assemblage could reveal the production of particular tools or weapons in the building. Unfortunately, not a single piece of pottery or any other datable artefacts were recovered. Only a few small flint flakes, which simply show that the finds from house K30 conform to the typical picture of a general reduction in the production of flint tools at the transition from Late Neolithic to Early Bronze Age. The 11 flint flakes from the longhouse merely reflect the simple manufacturing of cutting tools. Consequently, no bifacial flint-knapping activities took place within the building, and there is a lack of evidence for specialised craftsmen. The great paucity of finds is typical of houses from the Late Neolithic and Early Bronze Age which do not have a sunken floor. It is therefore important to look more closely at the charred plant material (plant macro-remains) concealed in the fills of the postholes and pits. In the case of house K30, the soil samples have provided a range of information, providing greater knowledge of what actually took place in a large house in southern Jutland at the beginning of the Bronze Age.The scientific dating of house K30 is based on barley grains from two roof posts and from a wall post in the eastern part. The three AMS radiocarbon dates assign the longhouse to Early Bronze Age period I, with a centre of gravity in period Ib (fig. 6). Plant macro-remains have previously been analysed from monumental three-aisled Bronze Age houses in southern Jutland. It is therefore relevant to take a look inside a large longhouse representing the final generation of the two-aisled building tradition. Do the results of the analyses indicate continuity in the internal organisation of these large houses or did significant changes occur in their functional organisation with the introduction of the three-aisled tradition?During the excavation of longhouse K30, soil samples were taken from all postholes and associated features for flotation and subsequent analysis of the plant macro-remains recovered. An assessment of the samples’ content of plant macro-remains and charcoal revealed that those from two central postholes and a pit contained large quantities of plant material (fig. 7), whereas the other samples contained few or no plant remains. It was therefore obvious to investigate whether there was a pattern in the distribution of the plant macro-remains that could provide an insight into the internal organisation of the house and the occupants’ exploitation of plant resources. The plant macro-remains can be used to investigate the organisation of the house because the house site lay undisturbed. The remains can therefore be presumed to date from the building’s active period of use. The plant remains lay on the floor of the house and they became incorporated into the fill of the postholes possibly as the posts were pulled up when the house was abandoned or when the posts subsequently rotted or were destroyed by fire. The plant macro-remains therefore reflect activities that have taken place in the immediate vicinity of the posthole in question.Only barley, in its naked form, can be said to have been definitely used by the house’s occupants, as this cereal type dominates, making up 80% of the identified grains (fig. 8). It is also likely, however, that emmer and/or spelt were cultivated too as evidence from other localities shows that a range of cereal crops was usually grown in the Early Bronze Age. This strategy was probably adopted to mitigate against the negative consequences of a possible failed harvest and also in an attempt to secure a surplus. Virtually no seeds of arable weeds were found in the grain-rich samples from the postholes where the central posts had stood; just a few seeds of persicaria and a single grass caryopsis were identified. This indicates that the crops, in the form of naked barley, and possibly also emmer/spelt, must have been thoroughly cleaned and processed. In contrast, the sample from pit A2500, in the western part of the house, contains virtually no cereal grains but does have a large number of charred acorn fragments (fig. 9). The question is, how should this pit be interpreted? If it was a storage pit, then the many acorns should not be charred, unless the pit and the remnants of its contents were subsequently burnt, perhaps as part of a cleansing or sterilisation process. It could also be a refuse pit, used to dispose of acorns that had become burnt by accident. In which case this must have been a temporary function as permanent refuse pits are unlikely to have been an internal feature of the house’s living quarters. Finally, it is possible that this could have been a so-called function-related pit that was used in connection with drying the acorns, during which some of the them became charred.From the plant macro-remain data it is clear that the occupants of longhouse K30 practised agriculture while, at the same time, gathering and exploiting natural plant resources. It should be added that they probably also kept livestock etc., but these resources have not left any traces in the site’s archaeological record – probably due to poor conditions for the preservation of bones. A closer examination of the distribution of plant macro-remains in house K30 reveals a very clear pattern (fig. 9), thereby providing an insight into the internal organisation of the building. All traces of cereals are found in the eastern half of the house and, in particular, the two easternmost roof postholes contain relatively large quantities, while the other postholes in this part of the building have few or no charred grains. This could suggest that there was a grain store (i.e. granary) in the vicinity of the penultimate roof-bearing post to the east, while the other cereal grains in the area could result from activities associated with spillage from this store, which contained processed and cleaned naked barley. No plant macro-remains were observed in the posthole samples from the opposite end of the building. The plant remains in this part of the house all originate from the aforementioned pit A2500, which contained a large quantity of acorns, together with a few arable weed seeds. The pit should possibly be interpreted as an acorn store or a functional pit associated with roasting activities or refuse disposal.The distribution of the plant macro-remains provides no secure indication of the location of the hearth or, in turn, of the living quarters. However, if the distribution of the charcoal in the house is examined (fig. 10), it is clear that there was charcoal everywhere inside house K30. This indicates that the longhouse was either burned down while still occupied or, perhaps more likely, in connection with its abandonment. A more detailed evaluation of the charcoal found in the various postholes and other features reveals the highest concentrations in the central room, suggesting that the hearth was located here, and with it the living quarters. This is consistent with the presence of a large cooking pit, found in the eastern part of this room. Perhaps this explains the presence of open pit A2500 in the western part of the house, which constitutes direct evidence against the presence of living quarters here. Another explanation for the highest charcoal concentrations being in the central room could also have been the entrance area, where there would be a tendency for such material to accumulate.Plant macro-remains have previously been analysed from large Bronze Age houses in the region, namely at the sites of Brødrene Gram and Kongehøj II, and plant remains from a somewhat smaller Late Neolithic house at Brødrene Gram were also examined. In many ways, K30 corresponds to the houses at Brødrene Gram (houses IV and V) and Kongehøj II (house K1). There is continuity with respect to the cereals represented in the Late Neolithic house at Brødrene Gram and the three-aisled Early Bronze Age houses at Brødrene Gram and Kongehøj II; naked barley and emmer/spelt are the dominant cereal types. There is, however, some variation in the cereal types present in the three-aisled Bronze Age houses, as hulled barley also occurs as a probable cultivated cereal here. It therefore seems that, with time, an even broader range of crops came to be cultivated when houses began to have a three-aisled construction. Another marked difference evident in the composition of the plant macro-remains is that the grain stores in the two-aisled houses contain only very few weed seeds, while those in the later houses are contaminated to a much greater extent with these remains. This could be due to several factors. One possible explanation is that the grain was cleaned more thoroughly before it was stored at the time of the two-aisled houses. Another explanation could be that there were, quite simply, fewer weeds growing in the arable fields in earlier periods, possibly because these fields were exploited for a shorter time and less intensively. This would mean that the field weeds were not able to become established to the same degree as later and fewer weeds were harvested with the cereal crop. As a consequence, the stored grain would contain fewer weed seeds relative to later periods. If the latter situation is true, the increase in field weeds could mark a change in the use of the arable fields, whereby each individual field was exploited for a somewhat longer period than previously.A common feature seen in all the houses is that they had grain stores in the eastern part of the building and storage was therefore one of the functions of this part. No secure evidence was however found of any of the houses having been fitted out as a byre. The three-aisled house IV at Brødrene Gram apparently also had a grain store at its western end – where K30 had its acorn-rich pit. However, while the western end of the Brødrene Gram house, and that of the other houses, is interpreted as a dwelling area, this room apparently had another function in K30, where the living quarters appear to have been located in the central room, as indicated by the cooking pit and the marked concentration of charcoal.Longhouse K30 differs from the later houses at Brødrene Gram and Kongehøj II in that these two three-aisled houses contain large quantities of chaff (spikelet forks) of wheat, possibly employed as floor covering, while no such material was observed in K30. However, it is unclear whether this is due to differences in the internal organisation of the buildings or to preservation conditions. Conversely, the use of possible function-related pits, like the one containing acorn remains in house K30, appears to have continued throughout the subsequent periods, as the Bronze Age house at Brødrene Gram also contains similar pits, the more precise function of which remains, however, unresolved. A high degree of continuity can thereby be traced, both in the crops grown and the internal organisation of the two- and three-aisled longhouses in southern Jutland. There was, however, some development towards the cultivation of a wider range of crops.In turn, this suggests that, in terms of arable agriculture and internal building organisation, there was no marked difference between the late two-aisled and early three-aisled houses – or, more correctly, between the large houses of Bronze Age periods I and II in southern Jutland. More secure conclusions with respect to continuity and change in the internal organisation of the buildings would, however, require a significantly larger number of similar analyses, encompassing several house types of different dimensions from a longer period of time and across a larger geographic area. Nevertheless, let us address the problem by including house sites in other regions, because this should enable us to gain an impression of the degree to which the picture outlined above for southern Jutland is representative of larger parts of southern Scandinavia.In several cases, both in the large two-aisled longhouses from Late Neolithic period II to Early Bronze Age period I and the large three-aisled longhouses from Early Bronze Age periods II-III, we see an internal division of the building into three main rooms. This tripartite division does, however, become clearer and more standardised with the advent of the three-aisled building tradition, which is a special characteristic of the longhouses of southern Jutland. Food stores were apparently often kept in the eastern parts of these houses. This is shown by the concentrations of charred grain found in these areas, and in some cases the larders must have been positioned immediately inside the eastern gable. Over time, traces of grain stores have been recorded from sunken areas in a number of house sites in Jutland. As a rule, these sunken floors constituted the eastern part of two-aisled houses of Myrhøj type, which were particularly common, especially in Jutland, during the Late Neolithic and the first period of the Bronze Age. One reason for lowering the house floor in this way was possibly a requirement for more space to store grain. It has been pointed out that a sunken floor gives greater head clearance in a room which, in turn, optimises the possibility of keeping the grain dry. In some cases, these sunken floors were almost totally covered by charred barley and wheat grains; surely the result of stored grain having fallen from an open loft during a house fire.In the Late Neolithic, arable agriculture apparently increased in importance as it became more intensive and diverse, with a wider range of crops now being cultivated. Agriculture in the Early Bronze Age was simply a continuation of the agricultural intensification evident in Late Neolithic arable agriculture. There was a possible difference in that fields were probably more commonly manured in the Early Bronze Age, though the first secure evidence for manuring dates from the Late Bronze Age. The plant macro-remains from the Early Bronze Age include significantly greater numbers of weeds, suggesting that individual arable fields had a longer period of use. Moreover, nutrient-demanding hulled barley came on to the scene as a cultivated crop. This has been demonstrated for example in the aforementioned longhouses at Brødrene Gram and Kongehøj II, both of which date from the Early Bronze Age period II. However, a large component of hulled barley has actually been demonstrated in remains from a Late Neolithic sunken house site at Hestehaven, near Skanderborg.Most Late Neolithic and Early Bronze Age farms in what is now Denmark were located on nutrient-poor sandy soils, and this was also the case at Nørre Holsted. In itself, location on these soils suggests that soil-improvement measures were employed. Indirectly, it can also tell us something of the significance of livestock, if it is assumed that cattle supplied a major proportion of the material used to manure the arable fields. Domestic livestock is, however, virtually invisible in the Late Neolithic settlement record, compared with that from the three-aisled contexts of the Bronze Age. There are records from Jutland of about 15 longhouses with clearly evident stall dividers, but this total seems very modest relative to a total number of Bronze Age house sites of around 1000. It has long been maintained in settlement archaeology that the three-aisled building tradition was better suited to the installation of a byre. On the face of it, this seems plausible for animals tethered in stalls. But the byre situation is, however, unlikely to have been a direct cause of the change in roof-bearing construction, as highlighted by recently expressed doubts in this respect. Neither are there grounds to dismiss the possibility that byres were installed in two-aisled longhouses. There is an example from Hesel in Ostfriesland, northwest Germany, where a large two-aisled house, measuring 35 x 5-6 m, contained stall dividers in its eastern half. An example from Zealand can also be mentioned in this respect: At Stuvehøj Mark near Ballerup there was a two-aisled longhouse, measuring 47 x 6 m, with possible post-built stall dividers in its eastern half. It stood on a headland surrounded by wetland areas and, like longhouse K30 at Nørre Holsted, it had a marked fall from the west to east gable.Preserved stall dividers in Bronze Age houses are, therefore, still a rare phenomenon and phosphate analysis of soil has yet to produce convincing results in this respect. There must be another explanation for the change in building architecture. It is possible that the massive monumentalisation process of Early Bronze Age period II played a crucial role in this respect. As described in the introduction, the first three-aisled houses were built higher up in the terrain. A position on the highest points of the landscape is a recurring feature at many other localities with longhouses from Early Bronze Age periods II-III. This visualisation process involved consistent use of the timber-demanding plank-built walls and took place primarily in southern, central and western Jutland. Here, forests had to yield to the huge resource consumption involved in constructing three-aisled houses because it was here that the tradition of plank-built walls was strongest. This situation must be seen in conjunction with barrow building, where there was a corresponding and coeval culmination in the construction of large turf-built burial mounds. Was the three-aisled tradition introduced quite simply because it became possible to build both wider and higher? Period II has the largest longhouses found in Scandinavia to date and these could reach dimensions of 50 x 10 m. The buildings became much wider and the earth-set posts for the plank walls were in some cases founded just as deep as the roof-bearing post pairs, which could extend 50-70 cm down into the subsoil. This could, in turn, suggest that some longhouses had more than one storey. It should also be pointed out that the large-scale construction of longhouses and barrows came to a halt at the same time – in the course of period III, i.e. shortly before 1200 BC. It therefore seems likely that the three-aisled building tradition was introduced as an important step in the actual monumentalisation process rather than as a result of a need to adjust to new requirements for internal organisation. At the end of the Early Bronze Age and throughout the Late Bronze Age, the dimensions of three-aisled houses were reduced and the houses adopted a much less robust character. There was no longer a need for monumental construction. The significance and symbolism by the large buildings constructed in the Early Bronze Age period II and the first part of period III is though a longer and more complex story and it should not be studied in isolation from the barrow-building phenomenon of the time.Lars GrundvadMuseet på SønderskovMartin Egelund PoulsenMuseet på SønderskovMarianne Høyem Andreasen Moesgaard Museum

Lystrup ØstergårdA Neolithic workshopIn 2007 a remarkable small site dating from the later part of the Early Neolithic Funnel Beaker culture was discovered at Lystrup, north of Aarhus in Eastern Jutland. Careful total excavation of the site revealed a well-defined cultural deposit with dense concentrations of flint debitage and implements lying in situ in a shallow hollow resulting from a group of windthrows. Via a series of analyses, the distribution of the finds relative to the individual features which were demonstrated, including a central hearth, has made it possible to reconstruct the events which took place, thereby permitting a detailed characterisation of the site. It can be perceived as a workshop which lay isolated in the landscape, at some distance from the actual settlement areas.The finds primarily reflect two activities at the site: The production of blanks for thin-butted flint axes, where the raw material was obtained from the local moraine clay, and an activity which probably involved the working of bone or antler, judging from the remarkable number of burins which were recovered. Flake scrapers, normally the commonest tool type at settlements of this period, were virtually absent. The marked occurrence of burins and the site’s potential with respect to finds-distribution analysis together constitute a situation rarely encountered in a Neolithic context. Through identification of the various sequences of events, the activities acquire the character of brief targeted incidents.Analyses of small Neolithic sites and the identification of specialised workshops can make a significant contribution to our understanding of the period’s patterns of ­settlement and activity – and prompt a critical examination of the settlement models used for the period to date.In a series of regional investigations of Funnel Beaker culture settlement over the last three decades, a model has been applied whereby the sites are divided up into base settlements and hunting stations, respectively. Associated with these were sites related to the ritual sphere: offerings, graves and causewayed enclosures. Collectively, these reveal the general organisation of the population in the landscape. But this model is constructed on the basis of a general consideration that has, in particular, demonstrated changes in the settlement development through time. If we take a closer look at the individual sites in order to obtain a better understanding of the dynamics of Neolithic settlement, the pattern of ‘base settlements and hunting stations’ becomes too rigid to work with – and perhaps even misleading.LandscapeThe site lies within the broad Egå valley, formed at the end of the Ice Age by glacial erosion and melt water. In Atlantic times a 5.5 km long and 1.5 km wide fjord, Egå Fjord, extended inland from the Bay of Aarhus. In the Early Sub-Boreal, when the site was active, the fjord was partially closed at its mouth by beach ridges and constituted a sheltered, shallow brackish water environment. The site lay on a low undulating moraine surface at the foot of the hilly northern side of the valley, 0.8 km from the shore of the fjord (fig. 1).The siteOn the edge of a slight elevation running down towards a narrow, peat-filled depression, the Neolithic finds extended over an area of 47 m2 – 12 m in length and 5.5 m in width – within a shallow hollow (figs. 2-4). The hollow was characterised by two crescent-shaped features (A16, A41), together with a further oval feature to the north (A8) (see figs. 5-6). The crescent-shaped features were able to shed some light on the formation of the hollow. Their form and stratigraphy revealed that they resulted from windthrows. In an archaeological context this phenomenon is often connected with disturbances that have disrupted the stratigraphy of archaeological deposits. But in this case the trees had been blown over prior to formation of the archaeological deposits and the shallow root pits functioned as an actual surface for the activities.The archaeological deposits had an average thickness of 5 cm and comprised dark, charcoal-rich sandy clay within which there was an even spread of dense finds concentrations. These lay directly over the heavy, stony yellow moraine clay. Intervening layers, for example earlier vegetation horizons, were not encountered. In certain areas, the finds, first and foremost flint debitage, a number of flint tools and a small quantity of potsherds, lay densely concentrated in up to three layers, one above the other. In some instances, heaps of homogeneous flint and axe flakes and chips could be readily distinguished, giving the impression of relatively undisturbed episodes of flint working.In spite of a careful search, no traces of post-built dwellings were found associated with the archaeological deposits. A central hearth was, however, revealed as well as possible traces of a fence or a flimsy hut wall (figs. 9-10). The distribution and composition of the finds around the hearth revealed this to be the hub of the site’s structure, where various activities had taken place. Close to the hearth were two large stones which could have served as seats or work surfaces. An elongated flat-bottomed pit of uncertain function located directly north of the hearth should perhaps, together with the discovery of a polygonal axe, be seen as an indication of ritual activities.The orientation of the windthrow pits shows that the trees fell away from each other, resulting in the formation at the site of a small sheltered hollow with exposed moraine clay (figs.7-8). The site stratigraphy suggests that only a short period of time elapsed before the finds were deposited within this hollow. This observation prompts the article’s hypothesis that the windthrow pits gave access to the moraine clay’s rich content of flint, which was then worked in situ.The artefactsThe artefacts are predominantly of flint. In their manufacture, use was made of local moraine-deposited flint which in this area is of particularly good quality and varied type. The flint tools and flint debitage have a total weight of 74.1 kg; the tools number 295 examples, while the debitage is estimated to include c. 10,000 pieces.The distribution of flint and stone artefacts is given in tables 1-2. Almost half the flint debitage can be linked to the production of axes of thin-butted type. In addition to large quantities of various axe flakes/chips, there are seven discarded blanks/rough-outs and 20 hammerstones (fig. 16).In the tool inventory, special attention should be drawn to the 120 burins (40.7%), an unusual feature in a Neolithic context (figs. 11-14), in addition to 38 core and flake drills (12.9%) and 35 knives (11.9%) (fig. 15). Further to these are 52 small tools in the form of blades or flakes with retouch or visible use-wear (17.6%). The burins were produced on simple robust flakes that appear to have been specially produced for the purpose. Transverse burins on retouch are in the majority, followed by edge burins (table 3). One find stands out from the rest, namely half of a finely-worked polygonal axe of basalt (fig. 17). This was not made at the site.A small, poorly-preserved assemblage of pottery (1.8 kg) lay deposited in concentrations around the site. In terms of vessel forms, the presence has been demonstrated of funnel beakers, a lugged beaker and a bowl. The decoration is characterised by simple rim ornamentation, vertical belly stripes and the use of twisted cord (fig. 18). The minimum number of vessels represented in the assemblage is calculated to be seven.DatingThe typological date for the site is based on the pottery, the flint axes, the polygonal axe, denticulates, a single ‘disk knife’ and, to a certain extent, the burins. The vessel form and decoration of the pottery corresponds to the Funnel Beaker culture’s phase TN II. There are close parallels in the pottery recovered from the palisade ditch at Sarup I, which is linked to the Fuchsberg group (note 38). This date is also supported by the flint and stone tools, although these also open up the possibility of a component from the subsequent MNA I.A radiocarbon analysis of a charred seed coat from the archaeological deposits near the hearth shows, with a probability of 95.4% (±2 standard deviations), a double peak with an 8.6% probability of a date of between 3630 and 3580 BC and a 86.8% probability for 3530-3360 BC. The greatest part of the curve corresponds, accordingly, with the radiocarbon dates for Sarup I.With a possible small component from MNA I, the date for the archaeological deposits falls within the Funnel Beaker culture’s TN II phase with links to the Fuchsberg group.SubsistenceThe conditions for preservation of bone at the site were unfortunately very poor. The humus content of the archaeological deposits does, however, bear witness to the presence of a certain amount of degraded organic material. The animal remains comprise two badly-preserved teeth of, respectively, a young domestic cow and a large ruminant. Further to these, 11 small bones were found by fine sieving, of which three are fish bones, probably cod.Soil samples processed by flotation yielded 23 charred cereal grains, of which 11 were of barley and one of wheat, while the others were unidentifiable. Charred hazelnut shells featured in several samples and a single charred apple pip was recorded.A strange component of small water-rolled stones found in the deposits could possibly originate from seaweed, bladder wrack, gathered on the coast. The function of the seaweed is unclear, but there are a number of possibilities, e.g. a soft underlay, fuel, animal fodder or manure; it could also have constituted human food.Activities and activity areasThe natural sources of good raw flint in Eastern Jutland are the coastal cliffs and potentially also the banks of streams and rivers, where the flint is exposed naturally and can be gathered directly. On the forest floor of the interior, flint would have been rarely encountered. It seems therefore very likely that the hollow created by the windfalls gave very welcome access to the flint in the moraine deposits, which could then have been the subject of more systematic searches and collection. Several of the flint nodules found in the archaeological deposits have only one or a few scars resulting from blows, probably resulting from testing of the flint quality. One very large block (42 kg) was found in four pieces scattered around the site, with a few missing pieces that could have been worked further (fig. 19).The debitage from the axe production has been analysed with the aim of discovering the types and number of axes produced at the site. Several definite axe-knapping episodes have been distinguished on the basis of in situ concentrations, identification of debitage from the same flint nodules and with the aid of refitting (figs. 21-23, table 4). The flint flakes have been classified according to the use of hard and soft knapping techniques, i.e. the employment of, respectively, hammerstones and fabricators of antler, in order to discover the number of stages in the production of the four-sided axes present at the site (figs. 20, 24-27). In the course of this analysis the character and extent of the material was compared with related finds and the results of modern experiments (note 60).Large flakes retaining the original cortex of the flint show that some pieces were produced in situ from raw unworked flint nodules (stage I), whereas other examples appear to have been brought to the site as roughly-worked axe blanks (stage II). The aim of the production was the manufacture of axes up to stage III. No clear traces of stage IV, the last trimming of the axe sides and edges, or of the final polishing, stage V, could be demonstrated. A total of about 15 individual axes were worked at the site, of which about half were abandoned and discarded at the site as failures, while the finished examples were taken away to another workshop or a base settlement to be given their final finish. Through comparisons with modern experiments, the total time expenditure for the axe production is estimated as a maximum of 12 hours. If production was continuous, then all that was involved was a single day’s work for two flint knappers. The quality of the work is considered to be fully on a par with the general level in the Funnel Beaker culture.The other activity that characterises the site is apparent from the large number of burins in the assemblage. Burins are associated with the working of hard materials such as antler and bone, and this was confirmed by wear analysis of 13 pieces from the site. The activity could well have involved other elements of the inventory such as drills, knives and diverse tools with retouch. The activities took place in particular in the vicinity of the hearth, but a particularly high concentration of burins and burin spalls was found on the eastern periphery, in the deeper part of the hollow, behind a possible fence (fig. 28). This could represent the deposition of burin waste or the existence of a small isolated work place.Even though burins rarely occur in large numbers at the settlements of the period, they are occasionally present and in a few cases they are seen in large numbers as for example at the site of Grønvang 2, near Kalundborg in Western Zealand.The items which were produced could have been antler axes, chisels, bodkins or harpoons. A close relationship with the production of flint axes is also conceivable in the form of the manufacture of antler fabricators. This is, however, not supported by evidence from other flint axe workshops, where burins have never been recorded in the tool inventory.The settlement around Egå Fjord in TN II (- MNA I)The area around the site and along the northern side of the fjord has, over the course of the past 12 years, been subjected to extensive and comprehensive archaeological investigation in connection with road construction and development of building land. It is therefore now possible to see the site in a wider settlement-related perspective for the period TN II - MNA I (fig. 29). The nearest settlement-like finds have been located 325 m ENE of the workshop site, but these are difficult to evaluate in detail due to disturbance later in prehistory. Possible base settlements with the remains of houses were encountered 2.1 km north and 7 km west of the site, respectively. In addition, possible hunting stations were demonstrated on the nearby shore of the fjord. Four other sites within a 2 km radius bear witness to ritual activities; these comprise two isolated system-ditch complexes and two dolmen sites.The area within a radius of 300 m of the site has been investigated via field-walking and trial excavations, and these did not reveal the existence of any contemporaneous settlement traces here. It can therefore be reasonably securely concluded that the workshop lay at a distance from the settlement sites. It is possible that it was located on the edge of recently-established arable fields. Clearance of the primeval forest would have given the wind easy access to the old forest trees which then, at the woodland edge, became easy victims for storms.Workshop sites of the Funnel Beaker cultureDuring the Funnel Beaker culture, workshops were often associated with flint quarrying and flint-knapping sites and several of these were specifically oriented towards axe production, for example that at Hastrup Vænget in Eastern Zealand.Apart from axe production, specialised workshop activities have rarely been recognised in the Funnel Beaker culture. The above-mentioned Grønvang 2 on Zealand resembles Lystrup Østergård with respect to its size and a large content of burins. Another site with a specialised activity is Studeli Klit in Northern Jutland, characterised by a huge number of flake drills.Neolithic sites that were not actual ordinary settlements but sites for special workshop activities are possibly under-represented in the overall archaeological record, either because they are small and easily overlooked during archaeological investigations or because their uniform and more specific site circumstances are more vulnerable to repeated and possibly also changing use of the localities. Several of the sites we perceive as base settlements could possibly represent the accumulated remains of more specialised activities. An important feature type relative to so-called base settlements is the house! Investigations of Scandinavian house remains from the period have demonstrated a clear tendency for houses, activity areas and refuse deposits not to be located in the same place; there may possibly have been rules with respect to cleanliness around settlement areas. This tendency has subsequently been demonstrated in connection with new archaeological investigations in Scania and in the Sarup area in SW Funen.Consequently, we must see settlement and activities in the early agricultural society as a more widespread and dynamic use of the landscape. In future regional investigations it will be important to look critically at the term ‘settlement’ and distinguish to a greater degree between sites for activities, refuse deposition and habitation. During excavations we should be aware of the minor find complexes and focus on their possible unique features – and remember that houses are to be looked for at some distance from the find-rich areas.Uffe RasmussenMoesgård Museum

Iso-Wetlands is a new, NERC-funded collaborative research project involving researchers at UCL Institute of Archaeology, the University of Leeds and the UK Centre for Ecology and Hydrology. The project is developing sulfur isotope analysis of archaeological plants and animals as a new tool for exploring hydrological conditions under which agricultural production was taking place. This development has the potential to improve understanding of water management strategies in the past, particularly in relation to seasonal floodwater agriculture and wetland agriculture (for example, rice paddy systems). The project will open wider possibilities for the use of sulfur isotopes in archaeology and ecology to examine wetland habitat use by both people and animals.

Dogs served in a variety of capacities in prehistory. After their domestication in Paleolithic hunter-gatherer societies, the emergence of agriculture shifted their partnerships with people. However, the associations between dogs and early farmers are not readily visible in the archaeological record. In the present study, dog coprolites, uncovered from two groups of early agricultural societies in China during the Neolithic Age, the early rice agricultural site of Tianluoshan in the lower Yangtze River, and three early millet-rice mixed agricultural sites of Shuangdun, Yuhuicun, and Houtieying along the middle Huai River, were examined based on the comparisons of lipid and palynological results to reveal different relationships of dogs and humans. The Tianluoshan dogs showed a plant-dominated diet with higher contents of plant sterols and fatty alcohols with longer chain lengths. Dogs may have lived on foraging or been provisioned with refuse for the cleanness purpose. On the contrary, dogs from the sites of Shuangdun, Yuhuicun, and Houtieying showed a meat-dominated diet with higher proportions of animal sterols and short-chain fatty alcohols. It most probably referred to their assistance in hunting and thus being provisioned with meat. Furthermore, activity areas of the dogs also reflect different deployment strategies and agricultural systems, evidenced by pollen spectra from the coprolites. Dogs at Tianluoshan mostly appeared in the rice field area, in correspondence with the labor-consuming rice cultivation as the main targeted resource, showing their participation in daily agricultural activities. On the other hand, high concentrations of pollen from forest and grassland revealed that hunting dogs played a regular role in the early millet-rice mixed farming societies, probably related to the importance of hunting activities in the daily subsistence.

AbstractThis paper compares the later prehistory in two regions of Thailand. The Mun Valley lies on the eastern side of the Phetchabun Range, the Lopburi Region (LR) to the west. They are linked by a major pass. While the Lopburi area is rich in copper ore, the Mun Valley has none. Quality salt is abundantly available in the Mun Valley but less so in the LR. This study explores the inter-relationships between the areas over a period of 2300 years which sharpens our understanding of both, and presents explanations and possibilities in the context of cultural transmission theories. Neolithic farmers with ultimate origins in China, arrived in the first half of the second millennium BC. Widespread exchange in prestige goods was a factor in the adoption of copper-base metallurgy in the late 11th century BC, when the LR became a producer, the Mun Valley an importer. With the Iron Age, (from about 500 BC), sites grew in size. During the course of this period, gold, silver, agate, carnelian and glass ornaments were ritually placed with dead elites. It is in these powerful and wealthy Iron Age communities that we can identify the early transition into states with population growth, agricultural intensification, conflict and increased production and competition over salt and metal for exchange.

Ancient China is one of the most important regions for the development of agriculture in human history, contributing the two key crops millet and rice. Meanwhile, it was closely connected to the wider Eurasian network, receiving wheat and barley from the West. Because of the large isotopic differences between C3 and C4 crops, we are able to track their changing importance in different regions of China and underlying connections to their cultural and environmental contexts. We take a ‘big data’ approach, assembling the stable isotopic measurements on over 2000 ancient human bones. This is the first comprehensive meta-analysis of ancient Chinese human stable carbon and nitrogen isotope results and creates a more efficient tool for scholars to establish a fuller picture of dietary practices in ancient China. By charting their spatial-temporal variation, we can show that the primary crop facilitating the rise of the early Chinese state in the Central Plains was millet, particularly during the Bronze Age. The dominance of millet (C4), from an isotopic viewpoint, offers an opportunity to investigate the major changes in dietary practice through the proxy of δ13C, as a result of shifts between millet and other major C3 crops (rice, wheat and barley). More importantly, millet is probably one of the earliest examples for the existing local system in the Central Plains within which other imported elements (e.g. wheat) have to fit. This pattern, which has also been repetitively discovered with bronze and iron technology in later periods, starts to characterise some intrinsic features of Chinese prehistory.

The tropical forests of the Philippine Archipelago are some of the most threatened in the 21st century. Among the most prominent threats are the introduction of new plant and animal species, as well as new forms of land management (e.g. plantations), that have accompanied industrial expansion. Such threats have a potentially long-term history and prehistory in the Philippines, not just as a consequence of Spanish colonial administration and land-use changes from the 16th century, but also in the context of pre-colonial introductions of rice agriculture and domesticated animals. However, the impacts of such arrivals on local Philippine societies and ecologies have remained relatively unexplored, especially in comparison to contemporary exchanges between Europe and the Neotropics. Here, we evaluate archaeological and historical evidence for the integration of novel plants, animals and economic strategies into local Philippine cultures and economies from 4000 years ago to the 19th century AD. This includes material culture, archaeozoological and archaeobotanical analysis, as well as archival references to pre- and post-colonial urban settlements, the evolution of land management and rural settlements across the Archipelago. We argue that prehistoric land-use changes, as well as the colonial introduction of crops and domesticated animals, represent a potentially interesting contrast to other tropical regions that came under Spanish imperial control between the 15th and 19th centuries. Nevertheless, to determine the full extent of their impacts on social organisation and Philippine landscapes more detailed, long-term multidisciplinary investigation is required.

Only a few ancient architectural monuments remain standing in the central region of the Hungarian Great Plain. However, the kurgans’ unique 5000-year-old treasures still exist in this area, with many landscape archaeological, archaeological topography, and landscape ecological survey prospects. Mounds can be found on the banks of no-longer exisiting rivers and at some points of higher altitude areas. The oral tradition of the Great Hungarian Plain marked the man-made, artificial, conical rises in the landscape that are associated with ancient, archaeological periods as mounds. According to their origin, kurgans can be classified as burial sites and sacred points of nomad people in prehistory. The two „Török-halom” kurgans are the biggest burial mounds of the kurgan field near Kétegyháza (Békés County, Hungary) in the Körös-Maros National Park (Kígyósi-puszta). Built by people of the Yamnaya Entity in the Late Copper Age (3000–2700 BC), the northern kurgan and its surface is intact without drastic disturbance, and in the vicinity there are natural sites, especially saline grasslands. Our research team worked on landscape archaeological, landscape historical, and GIS informatical investigations. We made a 3D field model of the kurgan, and created the landscape history and local changes of the last 300 years based on boundary charters, handmade and printed maps, archive, air and orto photos. Due to the botanical survey we made a complete list of the vascular plant species found on the surface of the original northern kurgan. The flora of the earth monument is species-rich. Most species have a generalist loess grassland or ruderal character, though there also occur some valuable species of botanical and nature conservation importance (e.g. Ranunculus illyricus, Rosa rubiginosa, Ononis spinosiformis subsp. semihircina, Stachys germanica, Carthamus lanatus). The southern Török-halom kurgan was mined by the local agricultural cooperative in 1967. Before the full mining of the site an archaeological excavation was carried out on the kurgan, during which the central burial site and three other burials were documented. After the mining only a little part of the bottom remained on the north-west side, which conserved original loess vegetation. In a large-scale project the southern kurgan was rebuilt by the Körös-Maros National Park Directorate in 2011, and its surface has reconstructed loess vegetation. Since no settlements of the nomadic Late Copper Age/Early Bronze Age Yamnaya communities have been discovered yet in the Carpathian Basin, the only way to collect more information on these people is through the analysis of their special graves, the burial mounds.