Landscape and Plant Use in High Albania: New Results from the Late Neolithic to Iron Age at Gajtan and Zagorës

Summary

This is an abstract from the "SAA 2019: General Sessions" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

From 2013 – 2015, the Projekti Arkeologjik i Shkodrës (PASH) conducted a regional surface survey and targeted excavation at several settlement and tumulus sites in the Shkodër province of northern Albania. Two of these settlement sites, Gajtan and Zagorës, are fortified hilltop sites that preserved intact deposits with well-preserved macrobotanical remains (wood, seeds). Gajtan, one of the largest hill forts in Albania, was occupied from the Late Neolithic to the Late Bronze Age (LBA). Zagorës was occupied slightly later, in the Eneolithic, continuing into the LBA. As part of the PASH focus on landscape archaeology, we discuss here evidence from the wood and seeds collected from flotation during the 2014 field season. Forest taxa represented include beech and fir, among others, while crop taxa are limited to the cereals einkorn wheat, spelt, hulled two-row barley, and millet, and the pulses lentil, pea, and bitter vetch. Analysis of this material provides insight into landscape dynamics, land use strategies, and plant use during these periods, revealing adaptive and resilient strategies.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 84th Annual Meeting, Albuquerque, NM (2019)

Keywords

Spatial Coverage

Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 26213