bronze age environment and economy in the troad - Universität ...

chapter 3: analysis
from cleaned crops and still contained some weeds. Amongst
these plants Scirpus maritimus, thought to belong to the
moisture-indicating vegetation, was also present, which
underlines its function as a weed.
In D20 two graves of the Troy V period were excavated in
1993. The child grave contained a so-called ‛duck-askos’, a
small, spherical vase with a very narrow opening, a type which
is quite common at Aegean and Anatolian sites. A mixture of
einkorn, emmer and lentil was inside the askos, apparently a
gift to the child.
Preservation conditions in the area of trenches H17 and I17
were poor, and almost no archaeobotanical remains came from
the Post-Bronze Age and the Late Bronze Age samples of the
so-called ‛negative architecture’ cut into the limestone
bedrock. The only sample rich in remains from these contexts
was that of a Hellenistic pot. It was filled with barley, together
with a range of weeds, mainly Chenopodietea species.
3.2 Statistics
This chapter documents the statistical evaluation of the data.
Beside the plots from correspondence analysis from the
Kumtepe and Troy data, some descriptive diagrams are also
presented, in order to demonstrate interrelations between
samples and species in the different periods.
As described in chapter 2, one of the advantages of
correspondence analysis is, that samples and taxa can be
plotted on the same set of axes, which is presented here only
rarely, due to better visibility of patterns. The basis for
interpreting the material were assumptions like, species which
occur together tend to be grouped together in the plots, or
samples which are close to each other on the plots tend to be of
similar composition.
3.2.1 Kumtepe and Troy
The analysis of the whole data set shows the separation of
some Middle Bronze Age crop samples from the bulk of the
samples (Graph 1). These are storage samples of garden pea
and flax, separated from the other samples along the first and
second axes.
The enlargement of the dense cluster shows the ‛cloud-like’
distribution of the samples from some periods: Kumtepe B,
Early Bronze Age Troy and Troy VIIb.
When plotted on axes I and III (Graph 2), the separation of the
Troy VIIa samples from the bulk of the samples on the third
axis, due to the abundance of chick peas in the Troy VIIa
samples, becomes visible.
After elimination of the Middle Bronze Age samples that
caused the patterns in Graph 1 (D8-02, 07, 09, 15, 25 with
large amounts of pea, and D8-23, 24, 34, 37, 41 with
predominantly flax), and of the Troy VIIa samples (Z8-13, 15,
16, 17, 18 with chick pea), rough concentrations are visible for
samples from Kumtepe, Early Bronze Age, Troy VIIb and
Post-Bronze Age, whereas samples from Troy VIIa, Middle
Bronze Age and also Troy VI seem to spread over the whole
diagram (Graph 3).
Some of the Post-Bronze Age and Late Bronze Age samples
are separated on the first axis from the bulk of the samples, and
contain large amounts of those species thought to relate to
animal dung (Trifolium sp., Medicago sp., Carex divulsa-type,
Festuca sp., Poa trivialis-type). Another group of samples
(closer to the origin of the diagram) are Post-Bronze Age and
Late Bronze Age samples containing olive, pea and associated
weeds.
After elimination of all species occuring less than 10% ubiquity
in the sample set the pattern remains similar to that in
graph 3. Many of the Post-Bronze Age samples and a few Late
Bronze Age samples are separated on the first axis from the
bulk of the samples, as in graph 3, due to the wild species
thought to belong to dung remains. Some few samples from
Middle Bronze Age, Troy VI and VIIb are separated on the
second axis from the bulk of the samples, due to the large
amounts of barley grain they contain.
When the same data are plotted on axes I and III, samples from
the Early and Middle Bronze Age, Troy VI and Troy VIIb, are
separated from the bulk of the samples on the third axis due to
their high contents of Chara sp. (and Salsola kali).
High proportions of Triticum aestivum/durum grain also are
responsible for the separation of mainly Post-Bronze Age
samples (but also some Late Bronze Age samples) along the
second axis from the bulk of the samples (Graph 4). Plotted on
axes I-III the separation of the Troy VIIb samples from the rest
is obvious, mainly due to the abundance of legumes (Vicia
ervilia).
Due to the obvious similarities between Early Bronze Age
Troy and Kumtepe A and B samples in all the graphs, it was
decided to plot the samples from those three periods alone to
clarify any patterns. A sample from Kumtepe A (F28-20) was
separated from the remaining samples due to large amounts of
lentil, bitter vetch and Lathyrus sativus/cicera. An Early
Bronze Age Troy sample (D5-08) was dominated by species
associated with dung (Trifolium sp., Medicago sp., Carex
divulsa-type, Festuca sp., Poa trivialis-type). After the
elimination of these two samples a different pattern is visible
(Graph 5).
Chara sp. and chaff from hulled wheats, which were abundant
in the Early Bronze Age upper city of Troy, are responsible for
the pattern in the first and second quadrants. The species in the
fourth quadrant are grains from barley, emmer and einkorn and
associated weeds. Mainly Kumtepe B samples separate along
this second axis, because almost no grains were found in Early
Bronze Age Troy samples.
As mentioned in chapter 2, species diversity is often
interpreted in economic terms, i.e. specialisation is the
reduction of diversity (Pearsall 1989, Costin 1991).
Archaeologists often link specialisation to intensification and
build models of the social structure and organisation of the
state, assuming that intensification of agricultural production
necessarily implies a power structure which controls the
surplus. This unbalanced point of view has developed because
of a false equation of specialisation and intensification. It is
important to note that intensification has different meanings.
Intensification may coincide with specialisation, in which case
it involves a reduction of diversity. It may, however, also mean
37