Functionality of early medieval roasters studied using archaeobotany and chromatography: preliminary studies

Abstract

AbstractRoasters are clay, quadrilateral vessels that are found in areas of whole Slavic region. For years, there has been a discussion on their functionality, in which various concepts of their use keep appearing. In this paper we present the results of botanical and gas chromatographic studies carried out on several fragments of roasters that originated in the Sudetes Mountain area and Sudetic Foreland. The analyzed artefacts in total of 26 pieces come from three early medieval sites: Gilów, Jelenia Góra–Grabary and Kamieniec Ząbkowicki. The obtained results allowed to concluding that these were the vessels used for thermal processing of cereal grains in both processes of food processing and food preservation. The results made it possible to move the beginnings of agrarian activity in the Sudetes Mountains by 400 years, earlier than it was thought, which has a key meaning for observation of the economy development in mountainous areas in the early Middle Ages.