by Paul Elliott
The Litsleby rock carving in Denmark depicts a ploughman and his team of oxen. He seems to be using a branch as a goad and is just beginning to plough his third furrow or ‘drill’. (P. V. Glob)
This rock carving from Val Camonic, in Italy, depicts a team of oxen drawing an ard across a field. One man guides the ard, another leads the oxen, while a third breaks up clods of earth behind the plough. (P. J. Reynolds)
Other sources of manure existed, such as bracken or seaweed. Turf could also be cut from grazing areas and mixed with manure that had been cleaned out of the cattle byre. Regularly turned and left to ferment, this midden would create an effective manure for the fields—although our evidence for such a practice only goes back to the Medieval period. Turf is a resource used to feed cattle and not to be squandered lightly, although it has been calculated that an area of turf around 1.5 hectares in size had to be cut in order to build a typical Bronze Age burial mound. Turves used to roof houses in parts of North West Europe (like the reconstructions at Flag Fen, near Peterborough) actually became rich in potash that rose from the household fire. Every few years these turves would be removed and broken up to be added as fertiliser to the fields. The close connection between field fertility and manure illustrates the fine line that existed between arable and pastoral farming and provided a strong justification for mixed farming in the prehistoric period.
Identifying the crops grown in Bronze Age and Iron Age fields can (in part) be done through the analysis of carbonised seed remains that are found on prehistoric sites. Eight types of cereals can be identified from hundreds of charred seeds found across Britain:
Cereals
•Emmer Wheat (Triticum dioccum)
•Old-bread Wheat (Triticum aestivum)
•Club Wheat (Triticum compactum)
•Spelt Wheat (Triticum spelta)
•Naked and Hulled Two-row (Hordeum distichum)
•Naked and Hulled Six-row Barley (Hordeum hexastichum)
•Rye (Secale cereale)
•Oats (Avena)
Spelt dominates the finds of cereal grains in the Late Iron Age and was without doubt the most popular strain of wheat to be grown prior to the Roman invasion. Pliny talked of a Celtic strain of spelt:
[It was] peculiar to that country … a grain of remarkable whiteness. Another difference, again, is the fact that it yields nearly four pounds more of bread to the modius than any other kind of spelt.
Pliny, Natural History, 18.11
Prior to the introduction of spelt in the Iron Age, emmer and bread wheat dominated the diets of prehistoric families. Limited evidence for the cultivation of oats comes from Bronze Age sites in North-West Europe where climatic conditions were cold and wet. It is thought that oats were not an important crop in prehistoric Britain.
Legumes
•Peas (Pisum sativum)
•Celtic Beans (Vicia faba minor)
Seeds from Celtic beans and peas do not survive well. Evidence for pea cultivation comes from an example found at Bronze Age Grimes Graves and another from Iron Age Hengistbury Head. The only beans found in prehistoric contexts is the small Celtic bean (‘tic’ or ‘horse bean’) and no other types seem to have been cultivated in this period. Since the legumes fix nitrogen into the soil while cereals extract it, a canny farmer will have learnt to grow legumes in one year, and in the second year sow wheat or barley. Unfortunately, hard evidence for crop rotation does not survive within the archaeological record.
Vegetables
•Turnip (Brassica rapa)
•Carrot (Daucus carota)
•Fat-Hen (Chenopodium album)
There is only one prehistoric record of turnip in Britain, at Bu, in the Orkneys, and that comes from an Iron Age context. Wild carrot is represented in the list, a thin and woody vegetable that was pale or purple in colour. The large edible carrots eaten today originated in the Middle East and arrived in Britain during the later Medieval period. Fat-hen is a weed, pulled up from flowerbeds in gardens across the modern Britain, yet seeds of fat-hen are commonly found on domestic prehistoric sites, outnumbered only by the cereal crops that are listed above. With this in mind, fat-hen was certainly cultivated and eaten prior to the Roman period. Fat-hen leaves are edible and its seeds can be ground up into flour to make bread. Lastly, the whole plant can be dried and fed to animals as winter fodder.
Other Crops
•Flax (Linum usitatissimum)
•Woad (Isatis tinctoria)
•Gold-of-pleasure (Camelina sativa)
•Opium poppy (Papaver somniferim)
•Hemp (Cannabis sativa)
Other crops were cultivated for uses other than food, and these are likely to have been grown in kitchen plots, adjacent to the roundhouse. Flax was grown both for its fibres and for the oil contained within its seeds.
Pliny the Elder remarked:
The part [of flax] that lies nearest to the outer coat is known by the name of ‘stuppa;’ it is a flax of inferior quality, and is mostly employed for making the wicks of lamps… There is a certain amount of skill required in hatchelling flax and dressing it: it is a fair proportion for fifty pounds in the sheaf to yield fifteen pounds of flax combed out. When spun into thread, it is rendered additionally supple by being soaked in water and then beaten out upon a stone; and after it is woven into a tissue, it is again beaten with heavy maces: indeed, the more roughly it is treated the better it is.
Pliny, Natural History, 19.3
Julius Caesar, in Gallic War, recorded that British warriors ‘dye their bodies with woad, which produce a blue colour’ (Caesar, Gallic War, 5.14). Considerable processing is required to extract the blue dye that is locked away within the woad plant. Woad also had medicinal properties and the Greek physician Hippocrates recommended the application of woad leaves in the treatment of ulcers. Like flax, gold-of-pleasure may have been cultivated for the oil within its seeds. Oil could also be extracted from hemp, for which there is some slight evidence of its cultivation; of course, hemp could also be used to manufacture twine and rope.
Crops need to be harvested and stored in order to be of any use. Throughout prehistory the hand sickle was used to cut through the wheat or barley stems. Initially made of flint, or of wood with attached flint blades, sickles were later manufactured from bronze and then from iron. The Roman writer and agriculturalist Columella stated that it took one man a day and a half to reap a plot of land 73 m × 37 m (around one third of a hectare). Barley and wheat offer two products in one, both of equal value; the heads (or ‘ears’) provided a source of flour while the stems were put to use as cattle feed, roofing material, bedding for people and animals, and as a raw material in basketry.
Although straw must have been a source of winter fodder, hay (cut and dried grass) provides far more nutrients for animals. Hay was important as a winter food for any farmer with cattle, but it had to be kept dry or else it would rot and become useless. The single upright post-holes found at many settlement sites may represent an upright post around which a haystack (or a straw stack) could be built. A circular ‘raft’ of timbers was most likely laid at the base of the post to prevent the straw coming into contact the ground. Once straw has been stacked around this central post, it made sense to construct a tall thatched roof on top of the stack that would keep off the rain. Haystacks at the Butser Ancient Farm are constructed in this manner. In 2010 I spotted similar haystacks in southern Nepal, adjacent to the wattle and daub houses of the Chitwan farmers. These haystacks were also built around a single post, but unlike their British prehistoric cousins, they protruded from a wooden platform that rested on short stilts. Monsoon rains required the elevation of hay well away from the ground.
Some archaeologists believe that prehistoric farmers harvested just the ears of wheat and barley, returning later (or followed on behind by family members) to cut the stalks. Diodorus Sicu
lus remarked of the Britons:
The method they employ of harvesting their grain crops is to cut off no more than the heads and store them away in roofed granges, and then each day they pick out the ripened heads and grind them, getting in this way their food.
Diodorus Siculus 5.21
Spelt almost requires this type of procedure, since this variety of wheat had to be parched before it could be threshed. Threshing is the beating or trampling of the sheaves of wheat to separate the grains from the inedible seed case (chaff) that surrounds it. Traditionally it takes place on a central threshing floor and is quickly followed by winnowing. Winnowing separates the now loose grains from the chaff that it is mixed up with, and in many societies this is done by tossing both into the air and catching only the grain while the breeze takes away the chaff. Imprints of chaff on some prehistoric pottery suggests that winnowing was done close to the roundhouse where activities like pottery making were going on.
Parching formed the final step in the processing of the cereal crop. We know that grain was baked before it went into storage. One storage pit at Itford Hill, Sussex, contained a large amount of parched barley grain while charred barley was found next to a grindstone inside a house on the Ness of Grunting, Shetland. A corn-drying oven found at Gwithian, Cornwall, dates from 1000 BC and illustrates the method by which farmers parched their grain. Parching was carried out to dry the grain in an attempt to lengthen its shelf life. Grain was stored as a food source that had to last a full year. The all-important cereal grains also had to be stored in a dry environment, and ideally one that was proof against rodents. During the Neolithic, grain was probably stored in sacks or pottery jars inside the house. Later, purpose-built wooden granaries were built that sat on four, six, or eight posts well away from hungry rodents and the damp ground. Their elevated position allowed air to circulate beneath the stored grain, an idea later used by the Romans in the construction of their own stone-built granaries, which all featured raised floors.
Roundhouse at Gwithian, Cornwall, which dates to the Early Bronze Age. (K. Morton)
Raised granaries were used during the Iron Age alongside the grain pit, an innovation that allowed farmers to safely deposit huge amounts of grain into cylindrical or bell-shaped pits cut into the bedrock. Capped with clay, these grain pits could be both watertight and proof against rodents. Diodorus Siculus commented that the ancient Britons ‘dwell in mean cottages covered for the most part with reeds or sticks. In the reaping of their corn, they cut off the ears from the stalks and so house them in repositories underground’ (Diodorus 5.16). Many of the storage pits that have been excavated have fairly large capacities and are deep enough to have held at least 1 ton of grain. An air tight seal kept moisture out and carbon dioxide (which was produced naturally by the stored grain) in—this inhibited any germination of the grains as well as the development of bacteria. Since a pit, once opened, could not be easily sealed again, it seems probable that most of them held, not cereals to be eaten, but seed corn in storage ready for planting next year. A single family would not be well-served by a high-capacity grain pit and a raised post granary would be much more accessible. Grain for consumption could be transferred in small amounts to the roundhouse and kept in jars or sacks ready for use. However, some pits were certainly holding grain in store for future meals: parched barley found in pits at both Itford and Fifield Bavant would never have sprouted, and clearly formed a large cache of food.
Livestock Farming
The prehistoric farm was mixed, rather than purely arable or pastoral. As we have seen, crop production and the raising of cattle was inextricably linked. Cattle and pigs were the first animals other than dogs to be domesticated in Britain and as the forest began to give way to more open, cleared countryside—sheep and goats were also introduced.
Throughout prehistory the breed of cattle dominating pastoral farming was the Celtic shorthorn, which closely resembled the modern Dexter cow. Cattle were resource rich, they provided milk and meat for human consumption as well as leather for the creation of bags, sacks, shoes, and items of clothing. In addition, their horns could be turned into an array of useful domestic items including cups, spoons, and combs. Dung dropped by cattle (amounting to around 25 kg per day) would have been collected and used to fertilise the fields. Archaeology suggests that cattle were kept together close to the roundhouse throughout the winter within corrals or round cattle sheds (byres). In Britain, this over-wintering period lasts almost 120 days, during which time the livestock must be close to a supply of winter fodder. Access to water, of which cattle need a good supply (something like 40 litres per day, per animal), must have been secured; although how this was managed is still not known.
Finally, the Celtic shorthorn brought muscle to the farm and served the prehistoric farmer as a tractor. Rock carvings, such as those at Val Camonic and Litsleby, show pairs of cattle working as a team and pulling ards across fields. They would also be useful in hauling carts and wagons, too—a wheel made of alder wood was unearthed at Flag Fen, dated to around 1300 BC. Throughout history, these pairs of trained animals were treated well and kept close to the farm, rather than be allowed to graze freely with the rest of the herd. Castration renders the bulls more docile and easier to control, and cattle given this treatment are known thereafter as oxen. Cattle were primarily kept as a source of meat and milk, but Iron Age Britons may also have bled their cattle during the winter and used the blood to mix with herbs and flour in order to make some form of black pudding. This was a renewable resource. In addition, many cattle bones from the prehistoric period show signs that they had been cracked and split to gain access to the edible marrow within.
During the Bronze Age it had been mainly the fabulous new metal bronze that marked one out as having wealth and power. The collection, hoarding, and giving of bronze items as gifts marked out the rich from the poor. As bronze trade networks fell away with the more local use of iron, bronze as a token of social currency also fell by the wayside. In the Iron Age, cattle now became the ultimate mark of a wealthy family, and it was not simply just the ownership of cattle that mattered, but the slaughter and consumption of the animals for food. This was feasting, conspicuous consumption, where the killing and eating of cattle and pigs was a social display, intended to impress. We are reminded of a similar practice from the Early Bronze Age burial mound at Irthlingborough, where scores of cattle were eaten and then buried with the deceased. Later Irish society was based around the concept of the séd, or milking cow, the value of which could be compared to other items. Two or three séd were equal to a cumal, the value of a female slave, and a measure of land (or varying quality and extent). A wonderful testament to the Iron Age emphasis on cattle is the 65,000-cubic-metre feasting midden (rubbish mound) at East Chisenbury, Wiltshire, dated to between 800 and 600 BC.
Production of both milk and beef involved a high degree of planning. Cows only produce milk after they have given birth to a calf, and then for only about ten months. Calves reach maturity in five or six years, after which they themselves can begin calving and producing milk. The danger for the farmer was that in letting cows have a calf every year in order to sustain the supply of milk, his herd would become so big that he could not provide enough fodder for it during the winter. A typical head of cattle chews through 15 kg of winter hay in a day. How many calves needed to be culled in order to maintain the herd? The farmer had to manage calving, milk production, and the butchery and storage of beef in a manner that could be sustained year after year.
Like cattle, sheep and goats were sources of meat, milk, and leather. Sheep, of course, were also an invaluable source of wool with which farm wives and their daughters made the family’s clothes. In fact, judging by the 2:1 ratio of rams to ewes at many Iron Age sites both here and on the continent, it seems as if wool was far more important a resource than mutton or sheep’s milk. The quality of wool taken from a large ram is generally superior to that of a smaller femal
e.
Ancient sheep closely resembled the modern Mouflon or the Soay sheep breeds, being hardy and tough with brown coats. The fleece of Soay sheep do not need to be sheared, but are instead ‘plucked’ during the annual spring moult. In the Neolithic and Early Bronze Age, flocks could have been grazed on open land away from the farm’s crops. With a greater degree of agricultural intensification during the Late Bronze and Iron Age, these animals are more likely to have been rotated around a number of fields closer to the roundhouse that were dedicated to pasture. Once they had manured the field and eaten the best of the grass they were probably moved on, and the field was then turned over to the growth of cereals or legumes. Winter fodder must also have been required for these animals, though of a lesser quantity, head-for-head, than cattle.
Both cattle and sheep had to be moved around the farming landscape and evidence from cropmarks and excavations have shown us how this was achieved. Field systems laid out from the Middle Bronze Age onwards show paddocks, farmyards, and fields linked together by tracks and purpose-built droveways. Dogs were undoubtedly used in handling both cattle and sheep and the bones of ‘man’s best friend’ occur at many sites across Britain. Fields with corner gateways were excavated at Flag Fen, as well as a number of other sites, and these are ideally suited to funnelling animals to one particular point.
