The Archaeobotany of Mikulčice: Food Supply to the Early Medieval Stronghold

Description

Edited by Lumír Poláček and Pavel Kouřil. The 11th volume in the SBM – Studien zum Burgwall von Mikulčice – series returns to archaeobotanical issues. This volume draws on the nowadays classic research by Emanuel Opravil, published in SBM volumes 3 through 5. Unlike the “original” stage of Mikulčice archaeobotany associated with E. Opravil, which evaluates finds from a closed stage of large-scale open area excavations in Mikulčice from 1954–1992, the “new” stage, represented in this book by Michaela Látková, is based on the results of modern excavations conducted in Mikulčice in recent years. Geographically, this work includes the whole territory of the early medieval agglomeration including the Slovak (Kopčany) part of the monument area, which is in line with the modern concept of the Mikulčice research. Thanks to a thorough stratification of the finds, and in particular to the new unified methodology of sampling and the separation and evaluation of samples, the results of our new archaeobotanical research are key elements in the reconstruction of the economic conditions in the early medieval agglomeration. The presented results are groundbreaking in a way – in some respects even contradictory to the archaeological findings so far – which is why a valuable specialised discussion concerning the newly presented subsistence models can be expected. The present work asks specific questions relevant to today’s interdisciplinary research into Mikulčice, particularly its economic and environmental activities. At the same time, it contributes to the highly topical subject of the current Moravian and Central European medieval studies: the knowledge of the economic foundations of Great Moravia and its power centres.