Principal : Christine Shaw
This is perhaps the most all-embracing area of work associated with the Butser programmes.
In his war commentaries, Caesar refers to the export of grain and leather to the continent from Britain in the first century BCE (Before the Common Era). Given the regular recovery of carbonised cereal grains (Provenance of Carbonised Seeds) from excavations of Iron Age sites, a logical line of enquiry for the prehistorian is to attempt to quantify potential yields (Publications - Occasional Papers Volume II) from this period, in order to understand the implications of international commerce at this time. There are also social implications as outlined in the Introduction of The Impacts of Experimentation.
From the inception of the Ancient Farm, a major research programme has been devoted to exploring present day yields of the typical cereals of the Iron Age, namely Emmer (Tr. dicoccum), Spelt (Tr. spelta), Einkorn (Tr. monococcum), Club Wheat (Tr. aestivo-compactum) and Barley (Hordeum vulgare). From these yields, obtained under a range of closely recorded and controlled conditions, it is possible to project likely outcomes in the Iron Age environment.
The critical uncontrolled variables of this programme are local climate, weather and soil type, bearing in mind that any results are necessarily location dependent.. Thus recording of the weather (Weather Station) is crucial to any meaningful projections. As far as soil type is concerned, the approach is to study yields on as wide a range of soil types as practicable. Initial work on the original site at little Butser was on a shallow (100mm depth) friable redzina over an underlying rock of Middle Chalk. The second site at Hillhampton Down had the same underlying geology but with a greater soil depth (300mm), while being a mixture of a similar redzina with clay and flint. The third site , at Bascomb Copse, has a more complex soil of increased depth (400mm). The underlying rock is Upper Chalk. The upper layers are a mixture of hill wash and valley bottom soils, on top of a horizon of clay mixed with chalk particles, itself atop a horizon of clay with large flints, all above the rock level. A rather limited amount of data was obtained on a rich deep Brick Earth soil at Fishbourne but its value is constrained by the short duration of the trials, 3 years only. Since most of these sites are on less than preferable soils and in climatic zones which are, if anything, rather severe, it could be argued that the yields obtained are more likely to represent the lower bounds of Iron Age production, taken as a whole across the available agricultural land and climatic zones.
The Butser core sites are complemented by other sites in Britain, Hungary and Spain. Nevertheless, long term results from a greater range of zones would enhance the overall picture.
The managed variables comprise the choice of genotype, the seed input level (sowing rate), planting time (autumn or spring), manuring or non-manuring, and crop rotation against continuous cropping, along with fallowing or not. This last highlights a supplementary uncontrolled factor that differs from other uncontrolled factors, in that it is subject to modification by management practices such as hoeing and weeding, the only methods available until herbicides (not just modern petrochemically based materials) were found. That factor is the nature of the background weed community (Arable Weed Communities). Earlier studies have included the effects of Ploughing and Hoeing and Weed Control as agricultural practices.
Ploughing with replicated prehistoric ards (Ploughing) has provided additional insights into the efficacy of prehistoric farming techniques (for example the Donnerupland ard survives into the present day in the form of the multi-tined chisel plough). The same work provided data on the likely movement of sherds under prehistoric farming regimes. This led to the long term study of the impact of the modern multi-furrow turn-over plough (Artefact Movement Within the Plough Zone). The final results of this study have been collected this year and are intended to be the basis of the next Monograph (the issue currently in preparation covers parts of the Earthworks programme - Sedimentation, Erosion and Plant Revegetation in Experimental Earthworks).
The area of cereal studies afforded opportunities for supplementary research projects including Pollen Rain and its Environmental Significance phytolith deposition on stone and metal harvesting tools and during cereal preparation for food (Phytoliths as Evidence of Function) and short and long-term cereal storage (Storage of Grain in Underground Silos). The contribution of manuring practices, or their absence, allows studies from magnetic susceptibility surveys and the use of survival indicators, such as lipids, to be used as Indicators of Agricultural Activity.
For anyone who has ever doubted the antiquity of the use of food grains, the following clay model of a shrine from Popudnia, Western Ukraine, dated to about the mid-4th millennium BC is instructive. In the top left corner, there is a figurine of a kneeling woman grinding grain next to a large rectangular oven (Gimbutas 1982).
Reference : "The Goddesses and Gods of Old Europe 6500 - 3500 BC", Marija Gimbutas, new updated edition, Thames & Hudson 1982 (reprinted 1996).
Storage of Cereals in Underground Silos
Provenance of Carbonised Seeds
The Effect of Ploughing on the Movement of Artificial Sherds
Indicators of Agricultural Activity
Return to The Impacts of Experiment
Return to Crops of the Iron Age
Created 01 August 2001 - Updated 01 February 2003