International congress of byzantine studies belgrade, 22 27 august 2016

Anna Elena Reuter
Römisch-Germanisches Zentralmuseum,
Leibniz-Forschungsinstitut für Archäologie, Mainz, Germany; 
[e-mail]
Archaeobotanical Research in Early Byzantine Caričin Grad
The Early Byzantine town Caričin Grad (530-615 AD) is now in focus of archaeological research 
for more than 100 years. To gain more information about the human daily life, archaeobotanical 
research was conducted between the years 2013 and 2015 for the first time. The excellent preservation 
due to the undisturbed occupation layers provides an interesting insight in the plant material of a 
very short occupation period of only about 85 years. In the three years of investigation 233 soil 
samples were collected systematically from occupation layers and features in different parts of 
the town. Mainly from different structures ex. streets, buildings of the Upper Town Area in the 
north of the Acropolis. Besides, 35 hand-picked samples from the Upper and the Lower Town 
Areas, collected during former excavations were available for analysis. So far more than 200,000 
plant remains, mainly preserved in charred condition could be determined. The plant spectrum 
is dominated by crop species mainly by cereals like bread wheat (
Triticum aestivum
), broomcorn 
millet (
Panicum miliaceum
) and rye (
Secale cereal
). But also the spectrum of fruits and nuts is very 
diverse in the Upper Town Area. Especially grape vine (
Vitis vinifera
) occurs in high numbers and 
abundant in the samples. The whole plant spectrum gives a good insight into different activities 
of the inhabitants of the town, ex. crop processing, stock keeping or waste deposition. Compared 
to the results of other archaeobotanical investigations of Early Byzantine sites in the Balkan Area, 
mainly from the region of the lower Danube, the results of Caričin Grad help to characterize the 
crop spectrum of the entire region and to compare it to the other regions of the Byzantine Empire. 
Especially the Balkans cereal spectrum differs from the other regions of the empire. Bread wheat or 
durum wheat (
Triticum durum
)
 
and barley (
Hordeum vulgare
) were most widely used in all regions 
of the Empire during the Early Byzantine Period, but the cultivation of a greater variety of cereal 
species including the intensive cultivation of broomcorn millet and rye seem to be unique to the 
Early Byzantine Balkans.

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