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This contribution focuses on the preliminary results of the AGRIWESTMED project which focuses on the archaeobotanical analyses of early Neolithic sites in the western Mediterranean region (both in Iberia and in northern Morocco). A large number of sites has been studied producing an interesting dataset of plant remains which places the earliest examples of domesticated plants in the second half of the 6th millennium cal BC. Plant diversity is high as it is shown by the large number of species represented: hulled and naked wheats, barley, peas, fava beans, vetches, lentils and grass peas. To more crops, poppy and flax, are also part of the first agricultural crops of the area. Although agriculture seems to occupy a first place in the production of food, gathering is well represented in the Moroccan sites where a large number of species has been identified., The research leading to these results has received funding from the European Research Council under the European Union’s Seventh Framework Programme (FP7/2007- 2013)/ERC Grant Agreement nº 230561. In addition, the research has also benefited from the project I-COOP0011 funded by the CSIC (Spanish National Research Council) and from projects TPC-CSD2OO7-00058, HAR2008- 09120/HIST and HAR2011-23716 funded by the Ministry of Science and Innovation of Spain. L. Zapata is part of the Research Group in Prehistory IT622-13/ UFI 11-09 of the University of the Basque Country UPV/EHU.

[ES]En este artículo se presentan los datos arqueobotánicos relacionados con la agricultura existentes para el 6º y el 5º milenio en Andalucía. Tras la descripción de los principales conjuntos arqueobotánicos documentados en los que predominan los trigos y las cebadas desnudos, con un peso variable de los trigos vestidos, seguidos por una gran variedad de leguminosas, y por la presencia de lino y adormidera, se abordan cuestiones relacionadas con las diferencias y similitudes entre esta región y el resto de la Península Ibérica. Igualmente se compara el inicio de las prácticas agrícolas en Andalucía con Europa incidiendo en la enorme diversidad de la agricultura de esta región., [EN]This study focuses on the archaeobotanical data related to agriculture in the Early Neolithic (6th-5th millennium BC) of Andalusia (Spain). First, the archaeobotanical record is described, showing a predominance of free-threshing wheats, fluctuating proportions of hulled wheats, and a varied assemblage of legumes. Flax and poppy are also documented at some of the sites analysed. The pattern detected is compared to that found in other regions of the Iberian Peninsula and eventually to that reported for central Europe. Particular emphasis is placed on the considerable crop diversity found in Andalusia., El trabajo de los autores forma parte del Proyecto AGRIWESTMED (Origins and spread of agriculture in the western Mediterranean region) financiado por el ERC (European Research Council) a través de un Advanced Grant (ERC-AdG-230561) y del Proyecto HAR2008-01920/HIST Orígenes y expansión de la agricultura en el sur peninsular y norte de Marruecos: aportaciones desde la arqueobotánica y la genética y del MICIIN ambos dirigidos por L. Peña- Chocarro. Se agradece también la colaboración con el proyecto de investigación HAR2008-06477-C03- 03/HIST. La investigación de L. Peña-Chocarro se inserta además en el Programa Consolider TCPCSD2007- 00058.

Agricultural activities, including practices, crops and techniques have evolved throughout history undergoing tremendous changes. From the early Neolithic farmers in the Mediterranean focused on cereal agriculture and only later, during the 4th/3rd millennium cal. BC in the Eastern basin, other species such as fruit trees were introduced into the agrarian system transforming the model that had been in use for millennia. Fruit tree management required innovation and investment and more importantly multi-year foresight as the new crops entailed a new pace of work with delayed returns and, thus, a greater entanglement with the land. Processes of social complexity and urbanization accompanied the emergence of arboriculture which occurred at different pace at both ends of the Mediterranean. This paper focuses on the Iberian Peninsula, the most western Mediterranean region, during the 1st millennium cal. BC when arboriculture spread after commercial encounters with oriental seafarers. Here we report the earliest archaeobotanical evidence (seeds and fruits) for the introduction of fruit cultivation in Iberia. Results from several sites indicate that the spread of fruit cultivation was a long process that varied regionally. In some areas the new crops were rapidly adopted and integrated into the Mediterranean trading networks while in other regions arboriculture was not developed until the end of the millennium. Of the various fruit products that were commercialized, wine occupied a most relevant role., This paper is an output of the project FRUITCOM “Un Nuevo modelo agrícola: frutales, hierro y comercio durante el I milenio A.E.” (CIDEGENT/2019/003) funded by Generalitat Valenciana, and “Fenicios e indígenas en el Sureste de la Península Ibérica: Bronce Final y Hierro Antiguo entre el Vinalopó y el Segura” (HAR2017-87495-P) funded by the Spanish Ministerio de Economía, Industria y Competitividad. SPG is currently granted with a postdoctoral grant by Generalitat Valenciana (APOST/2019/179).

This paper focuses on the new macro-botanical evidence of South-Western Asian cultivated plants from northern Moroccan Neolithic sites. Due to the reduced presence of plant remains from previous excavations in the region, archaeological evidence of agriculture is rare and the arrival of domesticated plants and the role of farming in the Early Neolithic of North Africa are still poorly understood. Here we present results of the analysis carried out in three sites recently excavated: Kaf Taht el-Ghar, Khil, and Ifri Oudadane. Charred seeds of domesticated cereals (Triticum dicoccum, Triticum monococcum/dicoccum, Triticum durum, Triticum aestivum/durum, Hordeum vulgare, Hordeum vulgare var. nudum) and pulses (Lens culinaris, Pisum sativum, Vicia faba) have been recorded in all sites analyzed. Radiocarbon dating of crop seeds indicates that farming, along animal herding and pottery, was most probably introduced in the region at the interval between 5500 and 5000 cal. BC. Absence of evidence for Neolithic farming in other regions of North-Western Africa suggests that the first crops arrived into Morocco through a maritime route, more likely from the Central or Northern Mediterranean shores. Similarities in both radiocarbon dates and crop assemblages from early Neolithic sites in Northern Morocco and the south of the Iberian Peninsula point to an almost simultaneous East to West maritime spread of agriculture along both shores of the Western Mediterranean., Research has been carried out within the framework of the AGRIWESTMED project ERC-AdG 230561 coordinated by Leonor Peña-Chocarro. J.M. is part of the Research Group IT-622-13/UFI 11/09 of the University of the Basque Country and his work is funded by ERC-CoG 614960. GPJ work has been carried out within the postdoctoral contract FPDI-2013-16034 funded by the Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad, Spain. J.L. would like to express his thanks to Abdessalam Mikdad from INSAP (Institut National des Sciences de l'Archéologie et du Patrimoine) in Rabat, Morocco, and to Josef Eiwanger, DAI (Deutsches Archäologisches Institut), Bonn, Germany for long-term, amicable cooperative work and the providing of site data. J.L. also thanks the German Research Foundation (DFG) for financing his fieldwork in the framework of the CRC 806 ‘Our way to Europe’.

This paper presents new data regarding agricultural developments in the Balearic Islands between the end of the third millennium bc and the arrival of the Romans in the 2nd century bc. Data available so far reveals that agriculture, together with raising livestock, were the population’s source of livelihood. Agriculture in the third and second millennium consisted essentially of growing cereals and legumes. The available data point to an agricultural development similar to that of the continent, in the region stretching between the south of France and the south of the Iberian Peninsula. The similarities, in fact, possibly reflect contacts. Arboriculture was first introduced in the island of Ibiza in the first millennium in contexts linked to Phoenician colonisation. Olive oil and wine production developed remarkably on this island and were oriented toward export. Although the chronology of this process is still unclear, it seems that in Mallorca and Menorca it took place at a later period.

Agriculture was introduced in the Iberian Peninsula in the mid-6th millennium cal BC. The first Iberian farmer communities grew seven different cereal species (hulled and free-threshing wheats and hulled and naked barley), seven legumes (broad beans, lentils, peas, grass/red pea, common vetch and bitter vetch) and two oil crops (flax and poppy). The distinct agricultural diversity from area to area gave way to a complex mosaic of regional variability. This paper aims at exploring not only the main features characterising Neolithic agriculture in Iberia, but also at delineating its variability and the underlying causes linked to numerous factors including environmental constraints, economic and social issues, and cultural traditions and their demographic movements., The current research was carried out in the framework of both the AGRIWESTMED project ERC-AdG-230561 funded by the European Research Council, and the Orígenes y expansion de la agri- cultura en el sur peninsular y norte de Marruecos: aportaciones desde la arqueobotanica y la gen etica (HAR, 2008-01920/HIST) project funded by the Spanish Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovacion . The work of G. Perez-Jord a was undertaken within the post-doctoral con- tracts FPDI-2013-16034 and IJCI-2015-25082 funded by the Spanish Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad. J. Morales is beneficiary of a Ramon y Cajal research fellowship (RYC-2015-18072) funded by the Spanish Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad.

This study is an overview of the state of research on the process of neolithisation of the northwesterncorner of Morocco. Particularly noteworthy are the recentfindings of a Spanish-Moroccan team in theframework of the AGRIWESTMED project carried out between 2011 and 2013 for the most part at thecaves of Magharat el-Khil (Tangier), Kaf Taht el-Ghar (Tetouan) and Ifri n'Amr or Moussa (Khemisset).These excavations brought to light occupations from the Moroccan Early Neolithic Impressed-Cardialware complex, levels that correspond to the earliest horizon of agricultural and animal husbandrypractices in the northwestern corner of Africa.

This paper presents an overview of the current state of research on Roman, Late Antique and medieval agriculture in the Iberian Peninsula through the study of archaeobotanical samples (seeds and fruits) collected on a large number of rural and urban sites spread throughout Iberia's geography. It includes published and unpublished data. The plant taxa of economic interest are grouped into various categories: cereals, cereal chaff, legumes, domesticated fruits, oil/fibre plants, condiments and spices, and wild species. According to the data, naked wheats and hulled barley are the dominant cereal species throughout the Iberian Peninsula. There are, nonetheless, particularities like the prevalence of hulled wheats (mainly emmer and spelt) in the North-west. Cultivated fruits also show a great diversity, and new species such as Morus nigra or Prunus armeniaca appear for the first time in the archaeobotanical record. There are also novelties regarding herbs and spices., The contributions of L. Peña-Chocarro and G. Pérez Jordà are within the framework of the project FRUITFUL: La introducción y el desarrollo de la arboricultura en la Península Ibérica (HAR2015-64953-P) funded by the Spanish Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad and coordinated by L. Peña-Chocarro. G. Pérez Jordà's participation is carried out within the post-doctoral contract IJCI-2015-25082 funded by the Spanish Ministerio de Economía, Industria y Competitividad. Natàlia Alonso's participation is within the framework of projects SGR2014-273 and HAR2016-78277-R: Prácticas agroalimentarias, asentamientos y espacios domésticos. Relaciones y evolución en los llanos sur-pirenáicos (III-I milenios ANE), funded by Ministerio de Economía, Industria y Competitividad (SGR2014-273 and HAR2016-78277-R) and coordinated by N. Alonso. J.P. Tereso was supported by a Post-doc grant (SFRH/BPD/88250/2012) from Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologi

This paper presents ethnographic, historic and archaeological data from the western Mediterranean in order to explore the variability of storage methods and the various strategies that may have existed in the past in this region. The paper includes ethnographic information on traditional storage methods collected in farming communities in northern Morocco (Rif area). We record the use of plant fibres such as canes (Arundo donax), dwarf palm (Chamaerops humilis), esparto grass (Stipa tenacissima) and dis (Ampelodesmos mauritanica) to make containers. Recipients made of cow dung and unfired clay, as well as underground silos, have been also used in this region to store food. In addition, we explore historical and ethnohistorical data on the use of large storage structures, including the study of communal granaries, a particular type of granary located at inaccessible places, such as cliff faces or mountain tops, or within fortified buildings, from which harvests can be easily protected and defended. We also examine the archaeological evidence of storage strategies in the Iberian Peninsula during prehistoric times. The paper informs of the large variety of systems and materials used, the functioning of storage structures, and more generally, provides a framework for reflecting on the enormous diversity of solutions that could have existed in the past and that may have left little or none archeological traces., The research leading to these results has received funding from the European Research Council under the European Union's Seventh Framework Programme (FP7/2007-2013)/ERC Grant Agreement n° 230561. In addition, the work of Guillem Pérez has been carried out within the PIE 201410E006. The work by Lydia Zapata was carried out within the project HAR2011–23716 Nuevos cultivos, nuevos paisajes from the Spanish Government. She is part of the Research Group of the Basque Government UPV/EHU IT-288–07 and UPV/EHU UFI UFI11/09

The spread of agriculture in the Iberian Peninsula is documented from at least ca. 5600–5500BC, although botanical data are absent or very limited for large areas. Archaeobotanical information shows from the beginning an imported agrarian system with a great diversity of crops: hulled and naked wheats and barleys, legumes such as pea, lentil, fava bean, vetches and grass peas, flax and poppy. This diversity of plants with different requirements, processing and uses, implies that the first farmers quickly imported or acquired a wide range of agrarian knowledge. Regional and inter-site agrarian differences are discussed in relation to factors like ecology, culture, use of the cultivated plants and management of the risk of crop failure. The adoption of farming resulted in significant ecological, economic, dietary, and social changes for the Neolithic people of Iberia.