New evidence on the introduction, cultivation and processing of hemp (Cannabis sativa L.) in southern Sweden
Mikael Larsson and
Per Lagerås
Environmental Archaeology, 2015, vol. 20, issue 2, 111-119
Abstract:
Subfossil remains of Cannabis sativa L. (hemp) have been found at Lindängelund in the region of Malmö, southern Sweden. These represent the earliest robust evidence so far for hemp retting in Scandinavia. Finds of seeds, stems and pollen of C. sativa from a waterlogged context on a settlement dating to the Roman Iron Age demonstrate that the plant was locally cultivated and processed during the 1st–2nd centuries AD. An introductory phase in Scandinavia is proposed (c. AD 1–400) during which the cultivation of hemp was apparently small scale and processing was probably carried out within settlements. In the succeeding centuries, c. AD 400–550 (the Migration Period), remains of hemp are mostly found in pollen records from lake sediments, and less frequently in the archaeological record. This could indicate that the process of hemp retting relocated from settlements to lakes shores where activity became larger in scale and more integrated with the prevailing agricultural system.
Date: 2015
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:
Downloads: (external link)
http://hdl.handle.net/10.1179/1749631414Y.0000000029 (text/html)
Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.
Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.
Export reference: BibTeX
RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan)
HTML/Text
Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:taf:yenvxx:v:20:y:2015:i:2:p:111-119
Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
http://www.tandfonline.com/pricing/journal/yenv20
DOI: 10.1179/1749631414Y.0000000029
Access Statistics for this article
Environmental Archaeology is currently edited by Tim Mighall
More articles in Environmental Archaeology from Taylor & Francis Journals
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Chris Longhurst ().