The history of rye cultivation in Europe

Some of the earliest Western European macroremains of rye (Secale cereale) have been recently recovered in Northwest Iberia. However, the chronological and cultural contexts of these remains have not been yet exhaustively analysed. To address this gap of research, previous and unpublished assemblages have been reviewed and analysed through an analytical set of methods: biometry, radiocarbon dates and integrating the remains of rye in the broad archaeobotanical record of the region. Results show the earliest macroremains of rye in the Iberian Peninsula date to a period between the 3 rd century and the first half of the 1 st century BCE. Rye was usually found in assemblages dominated by spelt and other cereals, in whose fields it was likely acting as a weed. There is no record of rye for about the two following centuries, after which it is probably reintroduced, now as a crop. It is found in several sites from the 3 rd-4 th centuries CE onwards, suggesting it is a staple crop as in other regions in Europe. Significant differences in grain size are only recorded in a 10 th-11 th century settlement, suggesting few changes in grain morphometry before Medieval times.

In this paper we review the earliest Secale (rye) records, both pollen and macroremains, from the eastern Baltic region (northeast Poland, Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia and Finland) in order to understand the processes evident in the beginnings of rye cultivation. By taking note of the abundance of recovered Secale grains and pollen in relation to other cereals found in published archaeobotanical data, we try to understand when rye began to be used regionally as a staple food. The clarification of the timing of Secale in the East Baltic, that had social and economic implications, is of particular importance. In this publication we also present a radiocarbon date directly derived from dating a Secale grain from a Roman period hillfort in Lithuania. The date obtained constitutes the earliest record of Secale in the eastern Baltic region, showing that rye cultivation traditions and concomitant innovations in agricultural technology started there much earlier than previously suggested.

Agronomy -Special Issue: Histories of Crops, between Niche Construction, Domestication and Diversification., 2021

Rye (Secale cereale ssp. cereale L.) is a secondary domesticate, considered to have originated as a weed in wheat fields and to have developed traits of domestication by evolving similar physio-logical and morphological characteristics to those of wheat. Although it migrated into Europe as a weed possessing domestication traits, it became one of the most significant crops grown in large parts of Europe from the medieval period onward. Within the modern borders of Germa-ny, rye was grown using at least two divergent cultivation practices: eternal rye monoculture and three-field rotation. The straw of rye was used to produce Wellerhölzer, which are construc-tion components in traditional half-timbered houses that have enabled a desiccated preservation of the plant remains. In order to assess the impact of cultivation practices, local environmental conditions and genetic variation on the genetic diversification of rye, we seek to integrate well-established archaeobotanical methods with aDNA sequencing of desiccated plant remains obtained from Wellerhölzer from Germany. In the current contribution, we present a proof of concept, based on the analysis of plant remains from a Wellerholz from the Old Town Hall of Göttingen. We use arable weed ecology to reconstruct cultivation practices and local environ-mental conditions and present a phylogenetic analysis based on targeted loci of the chloroplast and nuclear genome. Our results emphasise that the study of desiccated remains of plants from Wellerhölzer offer a unique opportunity for an integration of archaeobotanical reconstructions of cultivation practices and local environment and the sequencing of aDNA.

Columella : Journal of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences, 2014

It seems that rye is a twice domesticated cereal. Then, in the course of the Early Iron Age in Central or Eastern Europe, it is again transformed from weed to crop plant. We summarized the development of rye and his spread in the Carpathian Basin based on archaeobotanical data. The grains of the rye were found always in charcoal form. The rye appeared in Carpathian Basin during the Neolithic Age. Sporadic occurrences of rye were also found in Early Bronze Age Bell Beaker-Csepel Group and Early Iron age Scythian cultures. The prehistoric grains were small and longshaped. In the Prehistoric Ages rye should be exist as weed of hulled wheats. His cultivation started in the Roman Age. The grains found in roman sites are always big and reel shaped like recently. Only a few grains were found in the Migration Period. Among cereals of the conquering Hungarians rye is present. Rye became common product in the Late Medieval Ages. It was grown in a big quantity everywhere, but not independently, but mixed with the wheat.

Vegetation History and Archaeobotany, 2003

Analyses have been carried out on well-preserved carbonised rye and barley plants and associated plant remains preserved in iron smelting furnaces from southern Jutland, Denmark. The furnaces are dated archaeologically to the transition between the Roman and Germanic Iron Ages (ca. a.d. 400). The results of the analyses allow detailed reconstruction of the contemporary fields, revealing them as having been well tended with a dense stand of crop plants and few weeds. The composition of the weed assemblages suggests that the rye was autumn-sown. Analysis of the culm bases and roots showed that rye had probably been broadcast sown, followed by a light harrowing to cover the sown grain.

Vegetation History and Archaeobotany, 1992

Archaeobotanical results from the investigations of cereal finds in southwestern Germany and northern Switzerland have been mapped. Seven phases are distinguished, from Roman to early modern (Post-medieval). Methodological problems are discussed concerning sampling, identification, preservation, type of site, feature and assemblage, which influence the representation of the results. The main results are as follows. In the Roman period, Triticum spelta was the main crop, except in the upper Rhine valley (Oberrheinebene) where T. aestivum was more abundant. In the Migration period and Early Medieval period several crops are of similar importance. The reason was a rather simple economic system, a subsistence economy for each village, and perhaps cereal and grassland rotation (Feld-Gras-Wirtschaft). In the High Medieval period, Secale cereale was the dominant grain in the northern part of the region up to the Danube (Donau). In Switzerland, T. spelta dominated. In the landscape in between, from Lake Constance (Bodensee) to the upper Neckar valley, there was a mixture of both. These rather clear spectra, commonly dominated by one cereal species, express the changed economic system: the three field system (Dreifelderwirtschaft) and an increasing role of the market economy. Even in the Late Medieval and Post-medieval periods S. cereale and T. spelta remained the main crops. The present dominance of T. aestivum and Hordeum vulgare is a very recent development, less than a century old. The less important cereals, T. monococcum and Panicum miliaceum, occur regularly until Post-medieval times. T. dicoccum was very rare in this region from the Roman period onwards.

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Scientific Reports, 2025

This study explores how major climatic shifts, together with socioeconomic factors over the past two millennia, influenced buffer crop selection, focusing on five crops: rye, millet, buckwheat, oat, and hemp. For this study, we analyzed archaeobotanical data from 135 archaeological contexts and historical data from 242 manor inventories across the northeastern Baltic region, spanning the period from 100 to 1800 AD. Our findings revealed that rye remained a main staple crop throughout the studied periods reflecting environmental adaptation to northern latitudes. The drought-tolerant and thermophilic millet crop exhibited resilience during the adverse dry climatic conditions of the Medieval Climatic Anomaly while showing a significant decline during the Little Ice Age. During the period of post-1500 AD, a significant shift towards cold-resilient summer crops such as buckwheat and hemp is recorded. This study enhances our understanding of how historical agricultural systems responded to both socioeconomic factors and climatic change in northern latitudes, offering notable potential solutions for modern agricultural practices in the face of future climate variability trends.

The Holocene, 2016

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Vegetation History and Archaeobotany, DOI:10.1007/s00334-013-0429-8, 2014

Plant macrofossil (carpological) and morpho-metric analyses were carried out on plant remains from the medieval castle of Miranduolo, Siena, a rural settlement in central Italy with a long sequence of occupation between the 8th and the 11th centuries A.D. The presence of Triticum aestivum/durum and Vicia faba var. minor from the first phase of the Lombard farming village suggests continuity with the agricultural tradition of the preceding Roman world, and the use of good cultivation techniques that allowed quality yields to be obtained from rather poor soils. At the same time, the significant presence of the primitive cereal T. monococcum, compared with the ar-chaeobotanical literature of north-central Italy, allows to us consider it as a ''cultural'' element of Lombard farming. In the next cultural phases, with the Carolingian manor and then with the feudal castle, the stable presence of T. aes-tivum/durum and the reduction of T. monococcum in favour of more productive cereals such as Secale cereale and Hordeum vulgare indicate a further improvement in pro-ductivity. This is also confirmed by the appearance of fruits and nuts such as Castanea sativa, Vitis vinifera and Prunus persica. The increase in caryopsis sizes of T. monococcum and T. aestivum/durum in the transition from the village to the manorial phase is a consequence of the improvements in farming. The decrease in caryopsis size of T. mono-coccum from the manor phase to that of the castle testifies the decreasing importance of this cereal. The good date resolution of this research allows us to detect the crops, the storage and the processing practices, as well as the changing role of crop plants in the rural economy. This highlights the geographical, historical-cultural and political factors of the medieval transition from the Lombard to the Carolingian and then to the feudal period in central Italy.