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Making a Feast for the Deceased

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Making a Feast for the Deceased Making a feast for the deceased Archaeobotanical investigation of plant remains in ovens used for drying cereals and food consumption through ovens, graves, and bog bodies Daniel Smeds Master thesis, 30 ETCS Environmental Archaeology Masters programme, 120 ECTS Spring Semester 2019 Foreword First, I would like to express my deepest gratitude towards those who helped me in this endeavour. As I was able to conduct an internship at Moesgaard Museum at the department of conservation and natural science I owe a strong gratitude to all the personnel and staff, especially Peter Mose Jensen, who worked as my supervisor and board game friend as well as Peter Hambro Mikkelsen who allowed me to perform my internship there, as well as offerings his excellent noodle dinner. Tobias Danborg Torfing at Sydvestjysk Museer for allowing me to use his material for my thesis also deserves thanks. I also owe a big thanks to all the teachers I had throughout my university life, including Dr. Holmblad and Dr. Rundkvist. Dr. Buckland who has worked as my supervisor now for two theses. He has been a great support to have in my many times of need as well as filled with fun anecdotal information about archaeology and beetles. I also owe gratitude to Dr. Ivanka Hristova, who worked as co-supervisor and guided me through many hours of environmental archaeology sessions in the lab. Dr. Linderholm, who has been motivating all of us master’s students and constantly pushing us using his fermented herring and carrot method, deserves a sincere thanks. A special thanks to those two students who have been through all five years of university with me, I would like to thank, Ida Lundberg, who has also helped with a lot of knowledge about plants and wildlife and Love Eriksson. The other students from the master’s programme have also been of tremendous help such as Ola Lindgren with his GIS knowledge together with Eva Kourelas computer help. Stefano Vilardi and Balint Toth have also been of great help and fun during the many classes we had together. Stressing about work with all of You is more fun together than stressing on your own. Mats Eriksson, working at the environmental archaeology laboratory (MAL) in Umeå who has been supporting with motivation, statistical help, and good times. My parents should also be thanked as they have supplied me with endless encouragement throughout my life. Last but not least, I am also in debt to Ming-Hsin Lü, who has been a pillar during my theses work and the best partner one can have. Abstract Det finns många frågetecken kvar kring konsumtionsbeteende inom förhistoriska kulturer. Målet med denna studie var därför att studera och förbättra förståelsen av det arkeobotaniska materialet i ugnar gjorda för att torka sädeskorn och hur ugnarnas innehåll korrelerar med den växtbaserade matkonsumtionen, samt att försöka se potentiella samband mellan ugnarna, deponerade växtrester i gravar och de två mossliken Grauballemannen och Tollundmannens maginnehåll. De 14 ugnarna, belägna i Sydskandinavien och daterade till järnåldern, analyserades och jämfördes för att se hur deras innehåll förhåller sig både i tid och rum men även jämfört med det övriga åkerbruket från bronsåldern till medeltiden. Det arkeobotaniska fynden visade att i yngre bronsåldern odlades det Hordeum vulgare var. vulgare, vilket följdes av en period då Hordeum vulgare var. nudum odlades. Detta pågick till slutet av romersk järnålder då Hordeum vulgare var. vulgare igen blev den vanligaste grödan att odla. I slutet av järnåldern odlades både Avena sativa och Hordeum vulgare var. vulgare. Övriga sädeskorn som Triticum sp. och Secale cereale har även odlats, dock endast till en mindre grad enligt fynden från ugnarna. De arkeobotaniska fynden jämfördes sedan med den rådande bilden av matkulturen under järnåldern, vilket visar indikationer på att Chenopodium album, Fallopia convolvulus, Persicaria maculosa/lapathifolia, Plantago lanceolata, Poacea, Polygonum aviculare och Spergula arvensis troligen har konsumerats tillsammans med de funna sädeskornen. Flera av dessa påträffades i de samtliga analyserade fornlämningarna. Jämförelseanalyser i dendrogram mellan gravarnas och ugnars makrofossila rester samt de båda mosslikens maginnehåll visade inga definitiva samband. Dock fanns det gravar som korrelerade relativt starkt med ugnarnas innehåll, möjligen på grund av dess stora fyndmaterial av makrofossil. Dessa kunde visa indikationer på mat och måltid har deponerats i gravar. Keywords Archaeobotany, Cereal drying ovens, Food consumption, Grave deposition, Bog body stomach content 1 Table of contents 1. Introduction .......................................................................................................................... 4 1.2 Aims and research questions .......................................................................................... 5 1.3 Theoretical perspective ................................................................................................... 6 2. Background ......................................................................................................................... 10 2.1 Early farming in south Scandinavia .............................................................................. 10 2.2 Iron Age ovens .............................................................................................................. 13 2.3 Iron Age plant food ....................................................................................................... 14 3. Material and method ........................................................................................................... 19 4. Results ................................................................................................................................ 24 5. Discussion ........................................................................................................................... 34 5. 1 How do the archaeobotanical remains in ovens used for drying grains change through the Iron Age and how do they compare to the agricultural landscape of south Scandinavia? ........................................................................................ 34 5. 2 How do the archaeobotanical remains found in the ovens fit according to the current knowledge about Iron Age plant-based food? .............................................. 41 5. 3 What kind of similarities and differences are there between the ovens, graves, and bog bodies in terms of archaeobotanical remains and can any ritual meal be discerned? .................................................................................................... 47 6. Conclusion .......................................................................................................................... 52 References .............................................................................................................................. 54 Appendix ................................................................................................................................ 59 2 Figure index Figure 1. Potential operation sequence of processing cereals in southern Scandinavia during the Iron Age. Source for the figure: redrawn after Viklund 1998:35, by Sofia Lindholm ..................................... 8 Figure 2. Chronological description of time periods in south Scandinavian prehistory (Based upon Grabowski 2014).................................................................................................................................... 12 Figure 3. Distribution map of southern Scandinavia, showing the analysed features (Map by Ola Lindgren)................................................................................................................................................ 19 Figure 4. Agricultural species of the archaeobotanical remains in the ovens according to periods .... 24 Figure 5. Agricultural species of the archaeobotanical remains in the ovens according to their dated period .................................................................................................................................................... 25 Figure 6. Percentage of cereals found in each oven according to their dated period .......................... 26 Figure 7. Non-agricultural species of the archaeobotanical remains in the ovens according to their dated period .......................................................................................................................................... 27 Figure 8. Non-agricultural species of the archaeobotanical remains in the ovens according to periods ............................................................................................................................................................... 28 Figure 9. Archaeobotanical remains of the cereals found in graves, grouped according to the graves dated period .......................................................................................................................................... 29 Figure 10. Cluster analysis (A) of all ovens, graves and bog bodies using the Jaccard similarity coefficient. The analysis uses presence or absence of the taxa as comparison. Cluster analysis (B) of ovens, graves and bog bodies using the Bray-Curtis similarity coefficient. The analysis uses the abundance of the taxon in the features. Highlighted features are discussed in more depth (analysis done with PAST3 (Hammer & Harper 2001)) .......................................................................................
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