- Chapter Eleven -
Figure II.4 Emmer wheat (Triticum dicoccum) at harvest time. (Copyright: Peter Reynolds.)The harvest, whether it was double or triple, spanned most of August and
September and involved its transfer from the fields into the settlement area. Bearing
in mind that the focus of archaeological attention is invariably upon the settlement,
only that plant material which is transferred from the fields has any chance of being
represented in excavated data. The incompleteness of that data is emphasized
when one examines a harvested field after the removal of the crop. A large range of
low-growing arable weeds is present but unrepresented in the harvest itself. Typical
examples include the corn pansy (Viola arvensis) and scarlet pimpernel (Anagallis
arvensis). In fact, the overall view of a harvested field immediately suggests its value
as animal fodder, especially as the grass grows only poorly at this time of year.
The principle of turning livestock out into the stubble, both to clean the fields
and manure them at the same time, is self-evident. The other alternative of burning
the stubble is a real possibility but to prove it further work needs to be done in
examining surviving and undisturbed prehistoric fields.
Similarly it is, as yet, impossible to identify the methods or zones of treatment of
the harvest itself. The critical process is the preparation of the cereals, in particular
for storage. All the cereals in question are bearded, and for practicable storage it is
necessary to remove the beards or awns to reduce the bulk. The beards may have