ABSTRACT
Carbonised plant remains were present in all of the 65 samples received for analysis, with about half of the samples containing more than 300 fragments. Four cereal crops were represented: oats, wheat, barley and rye. Of these, oats were the most abundant in all of the samples, the proportion of the other three cereals varying considerably. Two species of cultivated oat were present. Most of the wheat was bread wheat although an unidentifiable brittle rachis wheat was also very occasionally present. Barley was mainly of the hulled variety and, from the proportion of twisted to straight embryos, was mostly 6-row barley. Other crops grown included peas and broad beans, and flax seeds were also present in a few samples. Lentils were recorded in one sample and have to represent an imported food. The ‘weed’ taxa were abundant and varied in most of the samples and were mainly representative of plants from arable fields and disturbed and waste ground. Plants of wet, muddy areas, pasture and meadow, and hedgerows were also represented. The data were analysed with two multivariate methods and both divided the samples into two groups, one mainly from inside and one mainly from outside the structure. The former were subsequently divided into two: — a) a group containing large amounts of seeds of traditional arable weeds seen as representing the main processing and storage of the grain from crops grown at the site and — b) a group containing many seeds of waste and abandoned ground taxa, and these are seen as representing the vegetation of the site immediately following the fire which destroyed it.
