Hunter, S. and Franklin, Kate and Hovsepyan, R. and Berlekamp, A. and McCorriston, J. (2024) Agricultural economies and provisioning relationships in medieval Armenia: an archaeobotanical analysis of Ambroyi village and Arai-Bazarjugh caravanserai. Vegetation History and Archaeobotany , ISSN 0939-6314.
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Abstract
Archaeobotanical work in the Caucasus has focused on prehistoric sites, the advent of agriculture, and on large urban centres, while the Medieval and smaller, rural villages have remained understudied. This paper examines the archaeobotanical assemblages from two medieval archaeological sites associated with the Armenian village of Ambroyi (13th–14th c. ce). The Arai-Bazarjugh caravanserai (A-Bc) was a caravan inn, which hosted travellers of the Silk Road and was provisioned by local villagers. The Ambroyi village site (Avs) is a household complex 500 m to the west of the caravan inn. The paper tests if the provisioning relationship identified through the excavation and ceramics analysis of the village site and the caravanserai is representative of the provisioning of botanical material (food and fodder). The analysis suggests that the A-Bc was provisioned with Hordeum vulgare (barley) and Triticum aestivum/durum (wheat) in the form of fodder for animals and food for travellers, which was prepared in the village. A contrast is identified between the A-Bc and the Avs in the presence of arboreal crops and non-staple economic crops including Punica granatum (pomegranate), Phoenix sp. (date), Ficus sp. (fig), Gossypium sp. (cotton), Prunus cf. insititia/cerastifera (plum), and Vitis vinifera (grape) at the A-Bc and the absence of these crops at the Avs. This contrast suggests a unidirectional movement of plant material from the village site to the caravanserai, furthering our understanding of the agricultural economy of villages and caravanserais along the medieval Silk Road.
Metadata
| Item Type: | Article |
|---|---|
| School: | Birkbeck Faculties and Schools > Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences > School of Historical Studies |
| Depositing User: | Kate Franklin |
| Date Deposited: | 12 Feb 2025 13:53 |
| Last Modified: | 30 Mar 2025 03:28 |
| URI: | https://eprints.bbk.ac.uk/id/eprint/54980 |
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