FRANKFURT. “Diversification and Change – Analyzing settlement patterns and agricultural practice during the 5th millennium BC in Central Europe” – this is the title of the interdisciplinary project conducted by Goethe University Frankfurt and the University of Cologne. Funded by the German Research Foundation (DFG), the project brings together the disciplines of prehistoric archaeology, archaeobotany, vegetation history, archaeozoology, and dendroarchaeology. The research team, led by Professor Dr. Silviane Scharl and Dr. Astrid Röpke (both from the Institute of Prehistoric and Protohistoric Archaeology at the University of Cologne) and Associate Professor Dr. Astrid Stobbe (Goethe University Frankfurt), discovered that farming societies already began to integrate new grain varieties into their crop spectrum nearly 7,000 years ago. The researchers gained deeper insights into the underlying processes and were able to place these agricultural innovations in chronological order. The results of the study, titled “Dynamics of early agriculture – multivariate analysis of changes in crop cultivation and farming practices in the Rhineland (Germany) between the 6th and early 4th millennium BCE,” have been published in the Journal of Archaeological Science.

The first farmers in Central Europe belonged to the so-called Linear Pottery Culture, which populated the continent between about 5400 and 5000/4900 BCE. They cultivated almost exclusively the ancient wheat varieties emmer and einkorn, both spelt grains. With these cereals, the grain kernel must be freed from its outer husk before processing (dehusking). It was previously known that new types of cereal such as naked wheat (which does not require dehusking) and barley were introduced during the Neolithic period – more precisely, during the so-called Middle Neolithic period (ca. 4900 to ca. 4500 BCE) – although the exact timeline and processes were previously unknown. To better understand these processes on a regional level, the research team collected and analyzed data from archaeobotanical macro-remains found at 72 Neolithic sites in the Rhineland (Germany). The samples consist of charred remains of seeds and date from the late 6th to the early 4th millennium BCE. They were recovered from settlement pits of Neolithic farmers.

Using multivariate statistics, the researchers were able to demonstrate significant differences between the Neolithic phases. Surprisingly, the study revealed that agricultural changes characteristic of the Middle Neolithic period were already recognizable at the beginning of this era. “The integration of new types of grain made agriculture more resilient and flexible. It enabled not only the cultivation of winter crops but also summer crops and the potential use of a greater variety of soils as well as a possible reduction in labor,” says Professor Scharl. A steady increase in cereal diversity was also confirmed by a diversity analysis, which shows that Neolithic farmers reached the greatest diversity in their cultivation spectrum around 4350 BCE. After that, it declined markedly, indicating a renewed transformation of the agricultural system, which is the subject of further research. Some evidence suggests that livestock farming – especially cattle rearing – increased during this subsequent period.

The current study illustrates that Neolithic farmers gradually developed agricultural techniques and practices that allowed them to respond flexibly to regional and changing environmental conditions. In regions with more challenging environments, they cultivated cereals that could yield harvests even under such conditions. This demonstrates that farmers had a profound understanding of their local environments and adapted their food production strategies accordingly. The studies conducted by Goethe University Frankfurt, as well as those still in progress on landscape changes in Hesse during this period, also show that people made strategic use of the land around their settlements and, depending on available resources, found different ways to feed their livestock.