Carbonized cereal grains and weed seeds in prehistoric houses - An experimental perspective

The result of two experiments involving the carbonization of cereal grains and weed seeds have shown that the proportion of charred grains of various types of cereals vary between each experiment. Taking the average numbers o f charred cereal grains found in repeated experiments, it was found that si milar quantities of each type of cereal grain were carbonized. These result s can be used to interpret the archaeobotanical material found in prehistor ic houses in Scandinavia, as these are often carbonized and have been depos ited continuously throughout the period during which the house was occupied . The experiments also show that different types of seeds, from different c ultivated plants and weeds, are carbonized to different extents. This depen ds upon the structure of the seeds. It is also shown that gently handling a nd flotation of the earth samples is critical.