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Pearl millet (Pennisetum glaucum) is the most widely cultivated millet in Africa and India but has not yet been identified in Europe, while the earliest remains of sorghum (Sorghum bicolor) are attested in Italy in the fifth century AD. This paper presents evidence that pearl millet was introduced to Iberia during the 11th–12th centuries AD. This is the first documented evidence for this African crop in Europe. Sorghum, on the other hand, appears as a later introduction (14th century AD) in Iberia. We present archaeobotanical data from eight Andalusi sites in Valencia and Andalucía (southern Iberia) where both crops have been found. We have also examined medieval textual data where references to pearl millet appeared to be absent, and we conclude that the word "dacsa", currently used to refer to sorghum, should be understood as a reference to pearl millet. From the 16th century onwards, this term was given to maize, when the American cereal replaced the African millets. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study aimed to reconstruct the environmental conditions and the crop management practices and plant characteristics when agriculture appeared in western Europe. We analyzed oak charcoal and a large number of cereal caryopsides recovered from La Draga (Girona, Spain), an early (5300 to 4800 cal. BC) agricultural site from the Iberian Peninsula. The carbon isotope discrimination (Δ13C) values of oak, the dominant forest species in the region, indicates prevalence of a wet climate at the site. Further, we reconstructed crop management conditions, achievable yield, and crop characteristics through the analysis of Δ13C, nitrogen isotope composition (d15N), nitrogen content, and the reconstructed weight of wheat and barley caryopsides, following protocols developed by our team [Araus et al., Nat. Commun. 5, 3953 (2014)] and comparison of these parameters with present-day organic agriculture in the region. In parallel, a regional perspective was achieved through the study of wheat and barley grains of seventeen Neolithic sites from the western Mediterranean. The results suggest that rather than small-garden cultivation, a more extensive agriculture was practiced under good water availability and moderate manuring. Moreover, results from La Draga evidence that grain weight and spike morphology were comparable to contemporary cereals. Growing conditions and the prevalence of improved crop traits indicate that agriculture was fairly consolidated at the time it reached the western edge of Europe. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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The island of Formentera, with its small extension and flat orography, was settled relatively late in Mediterranean prehistory between the third and second millennium BC. The sites presented in this paper, Cova des Fum and Cova des Riuets, offer evidence of the island's first occupation. Cova des Fum comprises a necropolis of the Bronze Age and two sanctuary spaces (used, at least, from 2035 cal BC), with hearths and water management structures. Cova des Riuets is a habitation site from the beginning of the Bronze Age (available dates ranging from 2030 to 1760 cal BC). This landscape study, among the first on the ancient occupation of the island, focuses on the plant macro-remains from both sites, providing new data on the vegetation of the surrounding areas and the use of both wild and domesticated plant resources for various daily and ritual tasks. The firewood came from evergreen thermo-Mediterranean formations well adapted to drought and summer heat, as well as rocky environments, and could have been collected in the vicinity of the sites. The autochthonous character of some species, such as the fig tree, has also been investigated and has provided the oldest existing date for this species on the island. This study reveals some peculiarities in the island's subsistence strategy that are relevant to the study of small islands more generally. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]