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The study examined plant remains from the Smólsk 2/10 site, situated on the border of two different landscapes and preserving traces of Neolithic occupation from several cultures: Early Linear Pottery culture (LBK, ca 5300-5200 cal. BC to ca 5000 cal. BC). Stroke Band Pottery culture (SBP, ca 4700-4400 cal. BC), the Brześć Kujawski group of Lengyel culture (BKG, ca 4500-4000/3900 cal. BC), Funnel Beaker culture (TRB, ca 3950-3380 BC), and also some features of the Lusatian culture (Hallstatt C, ca 970-790 cal. BC).

This paper summarises archaeobotanical studies of plant macroremains derived from medieval town deposits of Kraków, focusing on cultivated plants. Correspondence analysis was used in interpreting the botanical data and their archaeological context. Changes in cultivated plant composition were connected mainly with the chartering of the town under Magdeburg law in 1257, and are discussed in terms of their temporal relation to the chartering of Kraków and possible changes in the food preferences and wealth of the residents. Millet and wheat remains are rarer in specimens from after the establishment of the town; this seems connected mainly with the relocation of the mills outside the city walls. The number of cultivated plants generally increased in the late medieval samples, but hop and mallow were more frequent in the tribal period than later. Problems in the definition of cultivated plants are discussed. The probable escape of cultivated amaranth (Amaranthus lividus L. var. lividus) from gardens to ruderal communities is indicated in the samples. A comparison of archaeobotanical data from written sources shows the incompleteness of both types of source, including the clear underrepresentation of some cultivated plants in the archaeological deposits of the town (especially peas, Pisum sativum), a deficiency which should be considered in other archaeobotanical and palaeodietary studies.

Palaeoecological and archaeological studies conducted in Mozgawa (southern Poland) demonstrated a long-term sustainable land-use by inhabitants of a large settlement occupied during the second half of the fourth millennium BC. The Middle Neolithic society established a settlement that covered an area of about 30–35 ha and functioned during at least three centuries, as validated by the absolute chronology. A thorough analysis based on the fuzzy-logic principle combined with archaeobotanical and archaeozoological data showed that the subsistence model was based on agricultural practices, related with both crop cultivation and animal husbandry, together with an important component of hunting, fishing and gathering. Ecological requirements of plants and animals represented by fossil remains suggested that the exploited area included a variety of habitats. In the open landscape, wet and dry grasslands, used partly as pastures, cultivated fields and marshes were present. Wooded areas included deciduous lime-oak-elm forests, also of open canopy type, and riparian forests. This was due to the transitional location of the Mozgawa site on a loess-mantled hill, covered with fertile soils, but right on the border with a vast alluvial plain of the Nida River. Such ecologically diversified micro-region became a managed landscape, which provided rich resources for seasonal diets of the settlement's inhabitants. The case study of the Mozgawa site offers a unique insight into the palaeoeconomy of the Funnel Beaker culture in central Europe. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Differentiating between charred and uncharred plant remains may appear straightforward but for some taxa (here fat-hen, Chenopodium album type) can be very problematic. Recognition of the preservation state is obviously crucial for archaeobotanical data derived from dry, open-air sites. Fat-hen as a common weed, is also one of the most important components of a persistent soil seed bank. It is also a well-known food plant, gathered or cultivated. Numerous findings of fat-hen seeds in unclear states of preservation were noted in the Early Neolithic sites of the Linear Pottery culture in Kuyavia (N Europe). In previous studies such specimens were omitted as probably uncharred. Re-examination of Neolithic finds of fat-hen from that region showed the link of their abundancy with the earliest phases of the Neolithic occupation. The plant probably played an important role in the diet of the early Neolithic settlers there. It may indicate intensive use of local, open, fertile, probably alluvial areas. Distinguishing between ancient and modern specimens of that common weedy plant, producing large amounts of small, black, resistant seeds is thus very important, holding a great potential to shed new light on the origins of agricultural societies in this part of northern Europe. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]