Abstract
Hay malting and hay meadows have long been of fundamental ecological, economic and social importance in temperate Europe. A variety of archaeological sources suggests that hay making may date back to the Iron Age, but direct archaeobotanical evidence for this practice is problematic. Past grassland communities are imperfectly represented and preserved in archaeobotanical assemblages, and ancient meadow and pasture communities may not resemble present-day communities in terms of management practices or botanical composition. This paper explores the potential of ‘FIBS’ (Functional Interpretation of Botanical Surveys) in the archaeobotanical investigation of ancient grassland management. The botanical composition of present-day grassland communities was analysed in terms of functional attributes (e.g. canopy height) relevant to cutting, grazing and habitat productivity. The utility of these attributes for distinguishing between present-day meadow, pasture and unmanaged grassland communities has been evaluated. Similar analyses were performed on archaeobotanical data from Neolithic to post-Medieval northwestern and central Europe. Functional shifts over time, interpreted in the light of the functional analysis of modern grassland, suggest that hay-making was well established by the Iron Age. Avenues are suggested for the refinement and further development of the FIBS methodology in the archaeobotanical investigation of grassland management.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Barker G (1985) Prehistoric farming in Europe. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge
Barrett JC (1994) Fragments from antiquity: an archaeology of social life in Britain, 2900–1200 BC. Blackwell, Oxford
Bayliss-Smith T (1982) The ecology of agricultural systems. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge
Behre KE (ed) (1986) Anthropogenic indicators in pollen diagrams. Balkema, Rotterdam
Behre KE, Jacomet S (1991) The ecological interpretation of archaeobotanical data. In: van Zeist W, Wasylikowa K, Behre KE (eds) Progress in Old World palaeoethnobotany. Balkema, Rotterdam, pp 81–108
Birks HH, Birks HJB, Kaland PE, Moe D (eds) (1988) The cultural landscape — past, present and future. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge
Brinkkemper O (1992) Wetland farming in the area to the south of the Meuse estuary during the Iron Age and Roman period: an environmental and palaeo-economic reconstruction. Analecta Praehist Leidensia 24: 1–226
Charles M, Jones G and Hodgson JG (1997) FIBS in archaeobotany: functional interpretation of weed floras in relation to husbandry practices. J. Archaeol Sci 24: 1151–1161
Delille G (1977) Agricoltura e demografia nel regno di Napoli nei secoli xviii e xix. [Agriculture and demography in the Kingdom of Naples in the 18th and 19th centuries]. Guida Editori, Naples
Ellenberg H (1988) Vegetation ecology of central Europe (4th edn). Cambridge University Press, Cambridge
Greig J (1984) The palaeoecology of some British hay meadow types. In: van Zeist W, Casparie WA (eds) Plants and ancient man. Balkema, Rotterdam, pp 213–226
Greig J (1988) Some evidence of the development of grassland plant communities. In: Jones M (ed) Archaeology and the flora of the British Isles — human influence on the evolution of plant communities. Oxford University Committee for Archaeology, Oxford, pp 39–54
Grime JP (1979) Plant strategies and vegetation processes. Wiley, Chichester
Grime JP, Hodgson JG, Hunt R (1988) Comparative plant ecology: a functional approach to common British species. Unwin Hyman, London
Grime JP, Hunt R (1975) Relative growth rate: its range and adaptive significance in a local flora. J Ecol 63: 393–422
Grime JP, Thompson K, Hunt R, Hodgson JG, Comelissen JHC, Rorison IH, Hendry GAF, Ashenden TW, Askew AP, Band SR, Booth RE, Bossard CC, Campbell BD, Cooper JEL, Davison AW, Gupta PL, Hall W, Hand DW, Hannah MA, Hillier SH, Hodkinson DJ, Jalili A, Liu Z, Mackey JML, Matthews N, Mowforth MA, Neat AM, Reader RJ, Reiling K, Ross-Fraser W, Spencer RE, Sutton F, Tasker DE, Thorpe PC, Whitehouse J (1997) Integrated screening validates primary axes of specialisation in plants. Oikos 79: 259–281
Hillman G (1991) Phytosociology and ancient weed floras: taking account of taphonomy and changes in cultivation methods. In: Harris DR, Thomas KD (eds) Modelling ecological change. Institute of Archaeology, University College London, London, pp 27–40
Hodgson JG (1989) The use of autecological information for selecting and managing plant materials used in habitat construction and the creation of species-rich vegetation. In Buckley GP (ed) Habitat reconstruction, transplantation and repair. Belhaven Press, London, pp 45–67
Hodgson JG (1990) The role of autecological accounts. In: Hillier SH, Walton DHW, Wells DH (eds) Calcareous grasslands — ecology and management. Bluntisham Books, Huntingdon, pp 161–168
Hodgson JG (1991) The use of ecological theory and autecological datasets in studies of endangered plant and animal species and communities. Pirineos 138: 3–28
Hodgson JG, Colasanti R (1995) Monitoring grasslands, vol. 2. English Nature Research Report No 156. English Nature, Peterborough
Hodgson JG, Grime JP (1990) The role of dispersal mechanisms, regenerative strategies and seed banks in the vegetation dynamics of the British landscape. In: Bunce RGH, Howard DC (eds) Species dispersal in agricultural habitats. Belhaven Press, London, pp 65–81
Hodgson JG, Grime JP, Hunt R, Thompson K (1995) The electronic comparative plant ecology. Chapman and Hall, London
Hodgson JG, Wilson PJ, Hunt R, Grime JP, Thompson K (in press) Allocating C-S-R plant functional types: a soft approach to a hard problem. Oikos
Hodkinson S (1988) Animal husbandry in the Greek polis. In: Whittaker CR (ed) Pastoral economies in classical antiquity. Cambridge Philological Society Supplementary Volume 14: 35–74
Jacomet S (1997) Landnutzung im- Zusammenhang mit Viehwirtschaft: die Anfänge von Grünland. In: Schibler J, Hüster-Plogmann H, Jacomet S, Brombacher C, Gross-Klee E, Rast-Eicher A (eds) Ökonomie and Ökologie neolithischer und bronzezeitlicher Ufersiedlungen am Zürichsee. Monographien der Kantonsarchäologic Zurich 20, Zurich, pp. 272–277
Jones G, Charles M, Colledge S, Halstead P (1995) Towards the archaeobotanical recognition of winter-cereal irrigation: an investigation of modern weed ecology in northern Spain. In: Kroll H, Pasternak R (eds) Res archaeobotanicae. IWGP, proceedings of the 9th symposium, Kiel, 1992. Oetker-Voge, Kiel, pp 49–68
Jones M (1981) The development of crop husbandry. In: Jones M, Dimbleby G (eds) The environment of man: the Iron Age to the Anglo-Saxon period. BAR British Series 87, Oxford, pp 95–127
Knörzer K-H (1975) Entstehung und Entwicklung der Grünlandvegetation im Rheinland. Decheniana 127: 195–214
Küster H (1991) Phytosociology and archaeobotany. In: Harris DR, Thomas KD (eds) Modelling ecological change. Institute of Archaeology, University College London, London, pp 17–26
Lambrick G, Robinson M (1988) The development of floodplain grassland in the Upper Thames valley. In: Jones M (ed) Archaeology and the flora of the British Isles. Oxford University Committee for Archaeology, Oxford, pp 55–75
Langdon J (1986) Horses, oxen and technological innovation: the use of draught animals in English farming from 1066 to 1500. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge
McGovern TH (1992) Bones, buildings, and boundaries: palaeoeconomic approaches to Norse Greenland. In: Morris CD, Rackham DJ (eds) Norse and later settlement and subsistence in the North Atlantic. Department of Archaeology, University of Glasgow, Glasgow, pp 193–230
Noddle BA (1984) A comparison of the bones of cattle, sheep and pigs from ten Iron Age and Romano-British sites. In: Grigson C, Clutton-BrockJ (eds) Animalsand archaeology, 4: husbandry in Europe. BAR International Series 227, Oxford, pp 105–123
Rodwell JS (1993) British plant communities. 3. Grassland and montane communities. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge
Sherratt AG (1981) Plough and pastoralism: aspects of the secondary products revolution. In: Hodder I, Isaac G, Hammond N (eds) Pattern of the past: studies in honour of David Clarke. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, pp 261–305
Stace C (1991) New flora of the British Isles. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge
Williamson T (1988) Settlement, hierarchy and economy in northwest Essex. In: Branigan K, Miles D (eds) The economies of Romano-British villas. JR Collis, Sheffield, pp 73–82
Williamson T (1998) Fodder crops and the ‘agricultural revolution’ in England, 1700–1850. In: Charles M, Halstead P and Jones G (eds) Fodder: archaeological, historical and ethnographic studies. Environ Archaeol 1: 11–18
van Zeist W (1991) Economic aspects. In: van Zeist W, Wasylikowa K, Behre KE (eds) Progress in Old World palaeoethnobotany. Balkema, Rotterdam, pp 109–30
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Hodgson, J.G., Halstead, P., Wilson, P.J. et al. Functional interpretation of archaeobotanical data: Making hay in the archaeological record. Veget Hist Archaebot 8, 261–271 (1999). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01291778
Received:
Accepted:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01291778