ABSTRACT
Recent excavations at Wangels, on the border of the Oldenburg channel in Eastern Holsatia (54.17 N 10.52 E), unearthed rich archaeological deposits dating to the Mesolithic/early Neolithic and the middle Neolithic of the Funnel Beaker culture. Only the archaeobotanical material from the middle neolithic layer is presented here; the mesolithic layer had no cultivated plants. Two different types of samples were submitted for analysis: handpicked material from the wetsieving process (i.e., for the recovery of bones, shells, microliths, sherds and beads), and unsieved deposits. Carbonised and uncarbonised (waterlogged) plant material was preserved in the middle neolithic layer. The handpicked samples comprised some specimens as small as cereal grains although in many cases only items as large as hazelnuts had been extracted. The finds from Wangels are perfectly preserved, not only the flint and ceramics but also the bones and plant remains. Wangels is not a settlement site, but a place visited at the water’s edge, so that the cultural layers have become mixed as a result of trampling by people and domestic livestock. The continuously rising sea level of the Baltic has sealed the layer until now. For the first time, from the rich array of plant species represented at Wangels, it is possible to throw some light on the developed nature of the neolithic Funnel Beaker culture in northern Central Europe.
