Food and farming beyond the Alpine lake zone: the archaeobotany of the Copper Age settlements of Lenzing-Burgstall and Ansfelden-Burgwiese in Upper Austria, and an early occurrence of Triticum spelta (spelt)

An international research project (FWF I-1693) recently finished investigating archaeological sites in the hinterland of the lake pile dwelling sites of Mondsee and Attersee in Oberösterreich (Upper Austria), with the goal of reconstructing the spatial networks of Copper Age (agri-)cultural landscapes and human-environmental interactions in the region. Charred plant macroremains from the two hinterland sites of Lenzing-Burgstall (1,517 plant macrofossil finds in total) and Ansfelden-Burgwiese (24,115 total finds) from Copper Age (= Late Neolithic/Chalcolithic) cultural layers were analysed as a contribution towards elucidating the agricultural practices and food choices of the inhabitants. Despite the generally poor state of preservation at Lenzing-Burgstall, a rich spectrum of cultivated crops with barley, einkorn and emmer wheats, and lentil, together with surprisingly high quantities of hazelnut shell fragments were identified. The site of Ansfelden-Burgwiese, on the other hand, contributed not only additional taxa (free-threshing wheat and Triticum cf. timopheevii ) to the spectrum, but also the earliest evidence for Triticum spelta (spelt) in the region so far.