DOI chapter:
Changing Worlds – The Spread of the Neolithic Way of Life in the North
DOI chapter:Kirleis, Wibke: Subsistence change? Diversification of plant economy during the Neolithic in northern Germany
DOI Page / Citation link:https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.66745#0448
Wiebke Kirleis
447
A similar picture arises when looking into agrar-
ian strategies. Stable isotope analyses show an elabo-
rate treatment of the different cultivars: no massive
manuring, but directed care for such species that
were esteemed valuable. The spectrum of cultivation
technologies widened during the Neolithic when the
ard was introduced (cf. also Klims ch a / Neumann
this volume). An animal-drawn ard allows for tilling
large fields. Our investigations show that this new
technology of extensive cultivation on large arable
fields did not take over, but complemented already
consolidated horticulture strategies, whereever suit-
able and beneficial. Intensive crop cultivation by use
of the hoe continued on small garden-like plots. The
opening of woodlands can be traced in the region-
al pollen records and indicates the enlargement of
arable fields, most probably by means of extensive
cultivation, but near-site and on-site archaeobotani-
cal studies are necessary to give a complete picture,
highlighting plant gathering and the continued small-
scale cultivation practices (Feeser et al. 2012; Feeser /
Dorfler 2015; Kirleis 2019a).
To sum up, the diachronic development of crop
cultivation in the northern German Neolithic shows
one main pattern: It is the pattern of diversification
that applies for the cultivars as well as for the socio-
technological management of crop cultivation. The
early Neolithic starts off with a narrow spectrum
of crops that is widened towards the Late Neolithic
and all the way through accompanied by gathered
plants to a variable extent. The cultivation strategies
applied can be described as a modular system. The
first farmers grew their crops on small plots. With the
invention of the animal-drawn ard, large arable fields
as a new module supplement the widely consolidated
crop cultivation on garden-like plots. Plant gather-
ing may even have benefitted from the large-scale
woodland opening, since the number of woodland
edges increased. Woodland edges are the favourable
habitat of many of the gathered plants, such as crab
apple, hazel or blackberry. Resource availability was
most probably amplified (Kirleis 2018).
Discussion
Subsistence change in the archaeological
context of the northern German Neolithic
For the northern Neolithic, a stepwise adoption of
subsistence strategies is indicated (Hartz et al. 2007;
Sorensen 2014; Kirleis 2019b). In the subsistence
of Early Neolithic groups in southern Scandinavia
as well as in northern Germany domestic animals,
next to game, played an important role. The adop-
tion of animal husbandry indicates the commence-
ment of farmers’ activities, with pastoral activities
contributing to the opening of the woodland canopy
(Hartz et al. 2007; Feeser / Dorfler 2019a). The
woodland opening was further triggered by direct hu-
man activities, i.e. the foundation of farmsteads, but
also ritual sites with different expressions of monu-
mentality. Such open areas in the densely forested
environment served as main precondition for crop
cultivation based on free-threshing barley and emmer
in northern Germany. From joint palaeo-ecological
and archaeological studies it is already known that
the phase of the highest intensity of monument build-
ing activities and the highest rate of land opening
overlap (Feeser / Furholt 2014; Muller 2019). Par-
ticularly during the Funnel Beaker period, economic
and ritual activities were closely interrelated (Brozio
et al. 2019a). Palynological investigations show that
the megalithic tombs in the northern and western
Funnel Beaker region were often erected on former
arable land and former settled areas. In particular,
clumped pollen grains of cereals, ribwort plantain,
and wild grasses, often together with ard marks,
prove local cereal cultivation in the Early Neolithic
(Feeser / Dorfler 2019b). The first consolidation of
an economic and cultural landscape is expressed by
a massive, relatively stable openness in the landscape
and by intensive monument building, especially from
3,600 to 3,200 calBCE (Muller 2019). It reflects a
newly established economic system that was now,
next to animal husbandry, building on cereal cul-
tivation as a second important pillar of subsistence
economy, with the growing of free-threshing barley
and emmer. The agrarian technological innovations
(ploughing with the ard, the use of draught animals)
widened the arable practices applied. Extensive culti-
vation strategies complemented intensive crop grow-
ing and show that diversified cultivation techniques
were established from 3,300 calBCE onwards. The
crop spectrum, however, remained basically the same
all throughout the Early and Middle Neolithic, with
emmer and barley as the main cultivars. This also
accounts for the MN V that is archaeologically char-
acterised by the ‘Store Valby phenomenon’, which is
now interpreted as expressing socio-cultural changes
in the area of the Cimbrian Peninsula / southern
Scandinavia, with Funnel Beaker societies declin-
ing, while at the same time the rise of the Globular
Amphora phenomenon with its own coarse ware, axe
and adze types, as well as cattle burials is observed
(Brozio et al. 2019c). From an archaeobotanical
447
A similar picture arises when looking into agrar-
ian strategies. Stable isotope analyses show an elabo-
rate treatment of the different cultivars: no massive
manuring, but directed care for such species that
were esteemed valuable. The spectrum of cultivation
technologies widened during the Neolithic when the
ard was introduced (cf. also Klims ch a / Neumann
this volume). An animal-drawn ard allows for tilling
large fields. Our investigations show that this new
technology of extensive cultivation on large arable
fields did not take over, but complemented already
consolidated horticulture strategies, whereever suit-
able and beneficial. Intensive crop cultivation by use
of the hoe continued on small garden-like plots. The
opening of woodlands can be traced in the region-
al pollen records and indicates the enlargement of
arable fields, most probably by means of extensive
cultivation, but near-site and on-site archaeobotani-
cal studies are necessary to give a complete picture,
highlighting plant gathering and the continued small-
scale cultivation practices (Feeser et al. 2012; Feeser /
Dorfler 2015; Kirleis 2019a).
To sum up, the diachronic development of crop
cultivation in the northern German Neolithic shows
one main pattern: It is the pattern of diversification
that applies for the cultivars as well as for the socio-
technological management of crop cultivation. The
early Neolithic starts off with a narrow spectrum
of crops that is widened towards the Late Neolithic
and all the way through accompanied by gathered
plants to a variable extent. The cultivation strategies
applied can be described as a modular system. The
first farmers grew their crops on small plots. With the
invention of the animal-drawn ard, large arable fields
as a new module supplement the widely consolidated
crop cultivation on garden-like plots. Plant gather-
ing may even have benefitted from the large-scale
woodland opening, since the number of woodland
edges increased. Woodland edges are the favourable
habitat of many of the gathered plants, such as crab
apple, hazel or blackberry. Resource availability was
most probably amplified (Kirleis 2018).
Discussion
Subsistence change in the archaeological
context of the northern German Neolithic
For the northern Neolithic, a stepwise adoption of
subsistence strategies is indicated (Hartz et al. 2007;
Sorensen 2014; Kirleis 2019b). In the subsistence
of Early Neolithic groups in southern Scandinavia
as well as in northern Germany domestic animals,
next to game, played an important role. The adop-
tion of animal husbandry indicates the commence-
ment of farmers’ activities, with pastoral activities
contributing to the opening of the woodland canopy
(Hartz et al. 2007; Feeser / Dorfler 2019a). The
woodland opening was further triggered by direct hu-
man activities, i.e. the foundation of farmsteads, but
also ritual sites with different expressions of monu-
mentality. Such open areas in the densely forested
environment served as main precondition for crop
cultivation based on free-threshing barley and emmer
in northern Germany. From joint palaeo-ecological
and archaeological studies it is already known that
the phase of the highest intensity of monument build-
ing activities and the highest rate of land opening
overlap (Feeser / Furholt 2014; Muller 2019). Par-
ticularly during the Funnel Beaker period, economic
and ritual activities were closely interrelated (Brozio
et al. 2019a). Palynological investigations show that
the megalithic tombs in the northern and western
Funnel Beaker region were often erected on former
arable land and former settled areas. In particular,
clumped pollen grains of cereals, ribwort plantain,
and wild grasses, often together with ard marks,
prove local cereal cultivation in the Early Neolithic
(Feeser / Dorfler 2019b). The first consolidation of
an economic and cultural landscape is expressed by
a massive, relatively stable openness in the landscape
and by intensive monument building, especially from
3,600 to 3,200 calBCE (Muller 2019). It reflects a
newly established economic system that was now,
next to animal husbandry, building on cereal cul-
tivation as a second important pillar of subsistence
economy, with the growing of free-threshing barley
and emmer. The agrarian technological innovations
(ploughing with the ard, the use of draught animals)
widened the arable practices applied. Extensive culti-
vation strategies complemented intensive crop grow-
ing and show that diversified cultivation techniques
were established from 3,300 calBCE onwards. The
crop spectrum, however, remained basically the same
all throughout the Early and Middle Neolithic, with
emmer and barley as the main cultivars. This also
accounts for the MN V that is archaeologically char-
acterised by the ‘Store Valby phenomenon’, which is
now interpreted as expressing socio-cultural changes
in the area of the Cimbrian Peninsula / southern
Scandinavia, with Funnel Beaker societies declin-
ing, while at the same time the rise of the Globular
Amphora phenomenon with its own coarse ware, axe
and adze types, as well as cattle burials is observed
(Brozio et al. 2019c). From an archaeobotanical