Roman and medieval crops in the Iberian Peninsula: A first overview of seeds and fruits from archaeological sites

This paper presents an overview of the current state of research on Roman, Late Antique and medieval agriculture in the Iberian Peninsula through the study of archaeobotanical samples (seeds and fruits) collected on a large number of rural and urban sites spread throughout Iberia's geography. It includes published and unpublished data. The plant taxa of economic interest are grouped into various categories: cereals, cereal chaff, legumes, domesticated fruits, oil/fibre plants, condiments and spices, and wild species. According to the data, naked wheats and hulled barley are the dominant cereal species throughout the Iberian Peninsula. There are, nonetheless, particularities like the prevalence of hulled wheats (mainly emmer and spelt) in the North-west. Cultivated fruits also show a great diversity, and new species such as Morus nigra or Prunus armeniaca appear for the first time in the archaeobotanical record. There are also novelties regarding herbs and spices.
The contributions of L. Peña-Chocarro and G. Pérez Jordà are within the framework of the project FRUITFUL: La introducción y el desarrollo de la arboricultura en la Península Ibérica (HAR2015-64953-P) funded by the Spanish Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad and coordinated by L. Peña-Chocarro. G. Pérez Jordà's participation is carried out within the post-doctoral contract IJCI-2015-25082 funded by the Spanish Ministerio de Economía, Industria y Competitividad. Natàlia Alonso's participation is within the framework of projects SGR2014-273 and HAR2016-78277-R: Prácticas agroalimentarias, asentamientos y espacios domésticos. Relaciones y evolución en los llanos sur-pirenáicos (III-I milenios ANE), funded by Ministerio de Economía, Industria y Competitividad (SGR2014-273 and HAR2016-78277-R) and coordinated by N. Alonso. J.P. Tereso was supported by a Post-doc grant (SFRH/BPD/88250/2012) from Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologi