You can manage bookmarks using lists, please log in to your user account for this.
Media type:
E-Article
Title:
Plant remains from two cesspits (15th and 16th century) and a pond (13th century) from Göttingen, southern Lower Saxony, Germany
Contributor:
Hellwig, Maren
imprint:
Springer, 1997
Published in:Vegetation History and Archaeobotany
Language:
English
ISSN:
0939-6314;
1617-6278
Origination:
Footnote:
Description:
<p>A variety of well-preserved plant remains was recovered from a pond and two cesspits from late medieval and post medieval Göttingen. Cultivated plants included cereals, oilseeds and fibre plants, vegetables, fruit, nuts and spices. Rice and spices were imported from India and Africa and point to the relative wealth of the users of one of the pits. Additionally, a number of wild fruit, including Sorbus torminalis (wild service), was gathered from woods, clearings or hedges. Gardens were situated in the town or around its walls. Hops and grapevines were grown in special gardens in favourable places out of town. Apart from human (and sometimes animal) faeces, mostly kitchen refuse and waste from cleaning grain and processing flax in the town were deposited in the pits. Thus weeds of arable land are well represented, some of them indicating mainly basic soil conditions on the cornfields. Short-lived as well as persistent ruderals found suitable growing conditions. Poor grasslands were grazed, those on more fertile soils were also used for haymaking. Swampy areas were exploited for litter. A number of the recorded plants, especially some arable weeds or ones needing damp conditions, are nowadays threatened or extinct in the region.</p>