Plants and People in Late Neolithic and Early Bronze Age Northern Greece - An archaeobotanical investigation (Paperback)

Subsistence practices are frequently argued to have been important factors in the Neolithic-Bronze Age transition, although all too often very little systematic research has provided any empirical data on which to base such arguments. The research on which this volume is based analysed archaeobotanical evidence retrieved from five sites in Macedonia and Thrace covering the late Neolithic and early Bronze Age period. Valamoti aims to provide a better understanding of the nature of settlements, settlement expansion and the development of hierarchies during this period through the interrogation of plant remains. In so doing, she provides valuable insights into aspects of land use, plant exploitation (wild versus cultivated), husbandry methods, seasonality, grazing patterns, animal feeding and so on and is able to make some preliminary arguments for the role of agricultural practices in socio-economic organisation and settlement patterns, leading the way for future research.