Original scientific paper
https://doi.org/10.33254/piaz.40.2.1
Archaeobotanical Analysis of “Liburnian” Pottery from the Nadin – Gradina site
Dolores Knežić
; Sisak, Croatia
Renata Šoštarić
; Division of Botany, Department of Biology, Faculty of Science, Zagreb, Croatia
Martina Čelhar
; Department of Archaeology, University of Zadar, Zadar, Croatia
Abstract
The paper analyses plant macroremains on clay sherds containing organic inclusions from the Nadin – Gradina site in northern Dalmatia. Sherds of a large pottery vessel intended for storage have been found in a closed settlement context (SU 419), dated using radiocarbon method to the Early Iron Age, that is, to the period between the last quarter of the 9th century BC and the middle of the 8th century BC. Organic inclusions in pottery pastes have been used since the earliest times with the intention of influencing the properties of the final ceramic product. Such dried or fired pottery contains traces of the plant temper employed, in the form of imprints and plant remains. The identified plant remains consist mainly of remains of cereal threshing: grains, stems and leaves, glumes and remains of ears. The analysis of the imprints and remains of plant temper allowed us to identify large-grained cereals – barley (Hordeum sp.) and wheat (Triticum sp.) – and small-grained cereals: broomcorn/foxtail millet (Panicum/Setaria sp.). Among other finds, there are traces of olive (Olea europaea) and cornelian cherry (cf. Cornus mas), and of grasses (Poaceae). The imprints and plant inclusions in pottery often remain unnoticed, but they are a valuable complement to the classical analysis of plant macrofossils, and provide additional information on the economic strategies and environment of the community which produced the pottery.
Keywords
plant macroremains; plant imprints on pottery; Liburni; Nadin – Gradina; organic inclusions; Early Iron Age; threshing; cereals
Hrčak ID:
312432
URI
Publication date:
28.12.2023.
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