Cereal Crops in Yorkshire, UK (4000 BCE – 1100 CE)

Abstract

The substantial corpus of unpublished commercial and research excavation reports produced in the United Kingdom provides valuable data for investigating macro-scale changes in the archaeobotanical record. This article presents a comprehensive synthesis and reanalysis of archaeobotanical evidence from Yorkshire spanning the first evidence of cultivated cereal crops from ca. 4000 BCE until 1100 CE. Yorkshire’s macro-botanical evidence has been collated and analysed using ubiquity and relative abundance data to establish long-term diachronic trends in the regional cereal crop records. Radiocarbon dated cereals have also been assembled to characterise the chronology of introductions and shifts in crop choice. The main outcomes of this analysis are: 1) a refinement of the chronologies for the introduction of new cereals to Yorkshire and 2) a clarification of their long-term trajectories as crops in the region. This article demonstrates that Roman-period arable practices were firmly rooted in pre-existing Iron Age traditions, with little alteration following conquest. Results also show a significant transition in the post-Roman period away from a spelt wheat agriculture to barley agriculture complemented by other emerging free-threshing cereals. The climatic and socio-cultural context of this transition in the 5th and 6th centuries CE is discussed.