Middle Neolithic farming of open-air sites in SE France: new insights from archaeobotanical investigations of three wells found at Les Bagnoles (L'Isle-sur-la-Sorgue, Dept. Vaucluse, France)

Previous reviews of Middle Neolithic agricultural practice (4400-3500 calbc) in southern France have highlighted a change in crop assemblages after 4000 calbc, with a reduction of naked wheat and an increase of emmer and partly of einkorn. The recent investigation of three wells from the site of Les Bagnoles (4250-3800 calbc) in the periphery of the southern Rhone valley yielded an unprecedented amount of waterlogged uncharred and charred plant macro remains that offer new insights into crop diversity and its changes over time. The results from the wells at Les Bagnoles were compared with other dated sunken features from open-air sites (in contrast to caves and rock shelters), with the aim of identifying patterns suggesting changes in the crop spectra between the early (MN1) and late (MN2) Middle Neolithic phases from taphonomically comparable contexts. The results from Les Bagnoles demonstrate that oil crops and pulses are underrepresented in dry sites and that they were a significant part of Middle Neolithic agriculture. They also indicate an increase in the representation of einkorn (instead of emmer) during MN2 that is also visible in other open-air sites. The comparison of the archaeobotanical results with silo storage capacity values as a proxy for average production capacity per household leads us to propose a possible drop in naked wheat productivity and opens new questions in factors affecting crop choice at the beginning of the 4th millennium calbc.

Automated summary

The study reveals that oil crops and pulses were underestimated in dry sites during the Middle Neolithic agriculture and were actually a significant part of it. Additionally, there was an increase in the representation of einkorn (instead of emmer) during the MN2 phase, which was also observed in other open-air sites.