Veget Hist Archaeobot (2005) 14:453464

DOI 10.1007/s00334-005-0092-9

ORIGINAL ARTICLE

Ksenija Borojevic

Nutrition and environment in medieval Serbia: charred cereal,

weed and fruit remains from the fortress of Ras

Received: 24 September 2004 / Accepted: 25 May 2005 / Published online: 23 July 2005

Springer-Verlag 2005

Abstract This study presents the results of archaeob-
otanical examination of remains from the medieval
complex of Ras in Serbia. The samples were collected
from the fortress situated on the hilltop (Gradina) and
from a settlement below (Podgradje) during the archae-
ological excavations of 19721984. They were taken
primarily from the buildings containing charred cereals
dating to the 12th and 13th centuries. The main staple was
bread wheat, followed by rye. Grains of barley, oats, and
millet were also present. The weeds, including ruderals,
were represented by many species. Agrostemma githago
(corn cockle) was an important contaminant of the cereal
fields. Exceptional finds include a piece of charred round
bread, the cereal content of a pot, and peach stone frag-
ments. Previous information about the agriculture and
food in medieval Serbia was based solely on documents
that were either written after this period or that were not
pertinent to the region. This study is the first direct evi-
dence providing information about agriculture and food of
the inhabitants of medieval Serbia.
Cvijic (1911), when describing the relief of the region,
states that two important anthropo-geographic character-
istics of this central valley are that it is hidden and well-
protected so that it became the economic and political
centre of the pastoral population, and several narrow
passages that allow exit from this concealed valley in all
directions.
The geographical position of Ras in a protected but
still accessible region has been important in the past.
According to the principal investigator M. Popovic, who
is also the author of the monograph The Fortress of Ras
(Popovic 1999), the complex of Ras is characterized by
several stages of occupation and development since pre-
history. Remains of a hill fort settlement date to the early
Bronze Age and late Iron Age. Excavated remains at
Podgradje indicate Roman occupation in the 3rd century
a.d. The first fortress, which occupied only a small part of
the hill and eastern part of the plateau below the fortress,

Keywords Archaeobotany. Medieval Serbia. Fortress.

Stores. Prunus persica. Bread

Introduction
The site of Ras is located in southwest Serbia, 11 km
southwest of the city of Novi Pazar, in the very centre of
the medieval Serbian state (Fig. 1). The fortress of Ras is
situated on the top of a hill (750 m asl) called Gradina
(Fig. 2). Below Gradina, the settlement of Podgradje is
situated on a flat surface (620 m asl), close to the con-
fluence of the Sebecevska and Raka rivers. Gradina and
Podgradje form a part of the single settlement and forti-
fication complex of Ras (Popovic 1999). The geographer

K. Borojevic ())
Department of Anthropology,
University of Alabama at Birmingham,
Birmingham, AL, 35294-3350, USA
e-mail: borojevi@uab.edu Fig. 1 Map of southeast Europe showing location of Ras
454
Fig. 2 Aerial view of the Ras fortress (photo I. Dimitrijevic, after
Popovic 1999)
was constructed in the 4th century a.d. and was aban-
doned in the 6th century. Construction started again from
the mid 9th to the 11th century, and ramparts and pal-
isades were erected on the hill so that the buildings oc-
cupied the entire hill and the plateau below. Toward the
end of the third decade of the 12th century, the fortress
was burnt and destroyed. Shortly after its destruction, the
fortress was rebuilt again in 1149 when the Byzantine
emperor Manuel I Comnenus started a campaign against
the Serbs. Soon after the campaign, the fortress of Ras
became the main defensive stronghold in the central part
of the newly formed Serbian state under the Nemanjic
dynasty that had to defend the ruler and his court. During
the reign of the Serbian king Stefan Radoslav (1228
1234) of the Nemanjic dynasty, the first coins were
minted at the fortress. Besides the buildings on the hill
plateau surrounded by the wall and ramparts (Gradina), a
suburb (Podgradje) developed on the eastern slopes of the
Table 1 Building horizons at Building horizons
the medieval fortress of Ras,
dating, provenance and the II
number of plant samples taken
III-a
III-b
IV
hill. The fortress of Ras was abandoned after being de-
stroyed in a fire in the fourth decade of the 13th century.
The destruction is not recorded in historical sources and
can possibly be explained as a result of conflicts among
the heirs to the throne. Although the region of Ras re-
mained the centre of the Serbian lands, the fortress was
not rebuilt (Popovic 1999).
During the systematic archaeological research of the
medieval complex of Ras (19721984), buildings dating
to the 12th and 13th centuries containing charred cereals
were excavated. The cereal supplies had been burnt in a
sudden conflagration probably connected with the de-
struction of the fortress in the fourth decade of the 13th
century (Popovic 1999). M. Popovic (Archaeological In-
stitute, Belgrade), the principal investigator of Ras, sub-
mitted the samples to the author of this paper for exam-
ination.
Until this study, not a single botanical investigation
had been undertaken from a medieval site in Serbia.
Therefore, the main aims of the analysis were 1) to
identify plant remains and to find out what crops were
stored at the early Serbian stronghold; 2) to reconstruct
possible cereal cultivation and processing; 3) to determine
the food of the inhabitants of the fortress; and 4) to
compare the results obtained by this analysis those from
other Slavonic strongholds, and with the scarce informa-
tion about agriculture and diet from literary and historical
sources of the period.
Materials and methods
Archaeological context of the archaeobotanical samples and dating
Based on the archaeological record, it was possible to identify a
sequence of four building horizons or phases (BH) for the Medieval
fortress (Table 1). Dating of the horizons is supported by the finds
of coins (in situ) and ceramic typology (Popovic 1999). Twelve
archaeobotanical samples were taken from two building horizons
(BH III-a and BH IV). Archaeobotanical samples were collected by
the excavators from concentrations of charred seeds visible in the
soil (M. Popovic, pers. comm.). The locations of the buildings and
houses from which samples were analyzed are shown in Fig. 3.
Three samples are from the third building horizon (BH III-a),
dated to the second half of the 12th century. One of the samples
from BH III-a is a piece of bread found in House 36. The remaining
two samples represent charred peach stones which were also re-
covered from cultural layers of BH III, one from a southeast
quadrant of Gradina and the other from a cultural layer excavated in
the Podgradje settlement below Gradina.
Eight samples are from stores found in houses 49, 50, and 52,
which are situated along the west wall of the fortress and are at-
tributed to BH IV, dated to the first decades of the 13th century.
Dating Features (number of samples)
End of 11th century a.d. until fourth No samples taken
decade of 12th century
After a.d. 1130 until mid 12th century House 36 (1); cultural layer (3)
Second half of 12th century No samples taken
First decades of 13th century until House 49 (3); House 50 (3);
a.d. 1233 House 52 (3)

Fig. 3 Plan of the Ras fortress (12th and 13th centuries) showing
location of the buildings from which samples were analyzed:
Houses 36, 49, 50, 52 (modified from Popovic 1999)
One sample from BH IV represents the contents of a pot found in
House 52.
From House 49, three samples were collected from cereal de-
posits found dispersed on the floor. In the southern part of the house
two rotary querns were excavated (Popovic 1999). All these finds
indicate that the wheat may have been stored in some sort of bags in
the northern part of the house, while the milling of the cereals
probably took place in the southern part of the house, which is
dated to the fourth decade of the 13th century.
From House 50, three samples were collected from the southern
part of the house. Two samples were taken from the floor of the
455
house, whereas the third one was gathered from a pit in which a
large concentration of cereals was found. The investigators of the
site believe that the pit represents remains of a storage pit laid with
wood where cereals were stored. In this rather large pit, in addition
to cereals, several items were found: wood charcoal, the metal rings
of a wooden barrel, and two coins of Stefan Radoslav (12281234).
The presence of coins dates the building to the first decades of the
13th century (Popovic 1999). The wood charcoal from this pit was
identified as Acer sp. (maple) by Vilotic (1999, pp 446447).
From House 52, three samples were collected. Two samples
were from the floor and one from a pot. In this house, a well-
preserved cooking oven was also excavated (Popovic 1999). The
house was dated by the partially minted coins of king Radoslav to
the first decades of the 13th century.
Preservation, analysis and identification
All plant remains had been charred. Plant samples were labelled
with the provenance information of the excavation units, for ex-
ample G/17, indicating 1010 m quadrants; the grid is shown in
Fig. 3. The letters a, b, c, d (for example G/17-c) designate four
smaller 55 m units within the large 1010 m quadrants. The plant
samples were stored in the Archaeological Institute in Belgrade
until 1997 when M. Popovic gave them to the author for analysis.
The samples were then analyzed in the Palaeoethnobotany labo-
ratory of the Department of Anthropology at Washington Univer-
sity in St. Louis and in the Palaeoethnobotany laboratory of the
Department of Anthropology at the University of Alabama at
Birmingham. Samples were analyzed separately and tabulated for
each house. After the initial weight of samples was recorded, the
plant material was sieved through five U.S. graduated geological
sieves to facilitate sorting. The sieve meshes used were 2.8, 2, 1,
0.5 and 0.355 mm. For each sample weighing more than 50 g, half
or a quarter of the fraction from each sieve was analyzed in full,
whereas the remaining half or quarter was scanned to determine
whether the subsamples contained the same spectrum of plants as
the analyzed parts. The total numbers of specimens were multiplied
(2 or 4, respectively) and represent the extrapolated numbers for
whole samples. Percentages of counts (presented in pie diagrams)
were computed out of the total number of seeds per sample, al-
though quantifying and comparing diverse types of plant remains
(for example weed seeds and cereal grains) remain problematic
considering different seed production per plant and different
preservational biases. However, they can be used to compare the
analyzed storage finds.
Identification of plant macro remains was done using low-
power (6.363) microscopes. Scanning electron microscope
(SEM) photographs were also used for more precise identification
of smaller seeds. The identification of the macro plant remains was
based on the morphological characteristics of plant material, using
reference collections of the author and of the Palaeoethnobotany
Laboratory in St. Louis. A few seeds were unidentifiable because
they were poorly preserved or because they exhibited unfamiliar
morphological characteristics. Scientific plant names for cultivated
plants follow Zohary and Hopf (2000), and other plant names fol-
low Canak et al. (1978). The term Triticum aestivum/durum is
used to describe tetraploid or hexaploid naked wheat which is not
distinguishable on the basis of grains.
Results
The results obtained by the analysis of plant macro re-
mains from different archaeological featuresHouses 49,
50, and 52are shown in Table 2 and in pie charts in
Figs. 46.
The sample from Quadrant H/8-d from House 49
(Fig. 4a) consisted primarily of grains of Triticum aes-
tivum/durum (wheat) (88%). This sample contained the
456
Table 2 Counts (extrapolated numbers for the whole samples) of identified charred seeds from burnt deposits from Houses 49, 50 and 52
from the fortress of Ras
House number/finds House 49 Rotary querns House 50 Two coins House 52 Cooking oven;
(12281234); pit (wooden cache of coins (12281234);
barrel); few pottery sherds many pottery sherds (pot
with porridge not included)
Building horizon/dating BH IV: Fourth decade 13th c BH IV: First decades 13th c BH IV: First decades 13th c
Provenance/quadrant Floor Floor Floor Floor Floor Pit Floor Underneath
H/ 8-d H/ 9-b H/ 9-by t3 H/ 11-a H/ 11a-b H/ 11-b G/ 17-c plaster floor
G17-b/ H/17-a
Weight (g) of sample 43.7 104.91 106.38 82.58 70.12 93.43 297.23 14.42
Species (count)
1. Cereals (grains)
Triticum aestivum/durum L 2430 6344 6185 4759 2877 2273 11146
Hordeum vulgare L 4 88 260 172 12
Secale cereale L 10 4 690 232 5533 8
Avena sativa L 92 40 32 239 88 232
Avena sp 12
Panicum miliaceum L 26 62550
Setaria cf. glauca 7
Setaria sp 4 3
Cerealia 10 4 4 28 6 8 36
total cereal grains 2542 6388 6229 5830 3463 8218 11218 62560
2. Legumes (wild)
Fabaceae 12 4 28
Vicia sp 6
total small seeded legumes 12 4 6 28
3. Weeds and ruderal plants
Agrostemma githago L 172 304 170 4 8 476
Anthemis cf. arvensis 2
Apiaceae 28
Asteraceae 4
Bifora radians M.Bieb 2 4 4
Brassicaceae 2
Bromus sp 21 6
Bromus secalinus L 8 20
Centaurea cyanus L 4 24
Chenopodium sp 1
Cirsium sp 2 12
Daucus carota L 54 4
Galeopsis sp 2 2 8 4
Galim spurium L 4
Lapsana communis L 2
Neslia paniculata (L.) Desv 2
Polygonum sp. (3sided) 2
total weeds and ruderal 250 325 180 6 24 576
plant seeds
4. Fruits
Rubus fruticosus L 4 4
total fruit seeds 4 4
5. Varia indeterminata
unidentified Type A 4 4
Indeterminata 28 6 6 28
total of all seeds 2820 6725 6419 5836 3475 8246 11858 62564

largest proportion of weeds (9%), of which Agrostemma
githago (corn cockle) constituted 6%. The number of
Avena sativa, Secale cereale, Hordeum vulgare grains is
small enough to be considered an unintended mixture in
the main cereal. After corn cockle, the most numerous
were Daucus carota seeds. In this sample, a small number
of short brome seeds of Bromus secalinus were also
identified, as well as seeds of Anthemis cf. arvensis,
Centaurea cyanus, Galeopsis sp., Lapsana communis,
Neslia paniculata, and Polygonum sp. The seeds of Po-
lygonum sp. are three-sided and probably belong to Po-
lygonum convolvulus L. (syn. Bilderdykia convolvulus
(L.) Dum.), a common weed in crops. From this sample,
small unknown seeds (Type A) approximately 3 mm
wide  2 mm long and triangular in cross-section were
identified.
The sample from Quadrant H/9-b from House 49
(Fig. 4b) was similar to the sample from Quadrant H/8-d,
described above, consisting primarily of wheat grains
(94%). This sample, however, contained a smaller per-

Fig. 4 Proportions of the taxa (%) found in three samples (ac) in House 49 based on the total number of seeds per sample
Fig. 5 Proportions of the taxa (%) found in three samples (ac) in House 50 based on the total number seeds per sample (legend see Fig. 4)
Fig. 6 Proportions of the taxa (%) found in two samples (ab) in
House 52 based on the total number of seeds per each sample
(legend see Fig. 4)
centage of weeds (5%). Corn cockle was again the
dominant weed (4.5%). Twelve rather small seeds of le-
gumes were identified (Fabacaeae) from this sample, but
more precise identification was not possible. Again, the
number of them is small enough that they may be con-
sidered weedy intrusions in the cereal crop.
The third sample from Quadrant H/9 by t3 (Fig. 4c)
was from the same quadrant as the sample described
above. This sample was the purest of all three. It con-
tained 97% wheat grains and less than 3% weeds, with
457
2.6% corn cockle being the major contaminant. In this
sample, there were two seeds of Galeopsis and a few
Bromus sp. seeds attributed to the short-seeded type, but
because of the incomplete preservation, positive identi-
fication was not possible. A new weed species, Cirsium
sp., was not identified in two previous samples from the
same house. The seeds of various species in the genus
Cirsium are very similar, so precise determination to
species level was not possible.
All three samples from House 49, where the rotary
querns were found, (Fig. 4ac) consisted primarily of
Triticum aestivum/durum grains which constituted 88
97% per sample. In all samples, Agrostemma githago at
2.66% was the dominant weed. However, the samples
differed in the percentage of total weed seeds present (3
9%) and in the weed spectrum present per sample. These
differences may indicate that the stored wheat from three
samples was not harvested from the same field or during
the same year.
The sample from Quadrant H/11-a (Fig. 5a) from the
floor of the House 50 consisted of cereals and no posi-
tively identified weed seeds. The main cereal was wheat
(82%), followed by rye (12%), oats (4%), barley (2%),
and millet (0.4%).
In the second sample from Quadrant H/11 ab (Fig. 5b)
from the floor of House 50, wheat was the main cereal
(82%), followed by barley (8%), rye (7%), and oats (3%).
458

The wheat grains from this sample were the largest in size
compared with those from other samples. The majority of
the wheat grains were retained within the sieve with the
mesh size 2.8 mm that was used in the laboratory for
sorting. This sample had a very few weed seeds: four
Agrostemma githago seeds and two Bifora radians seeds.
Six small round legume seeds were identified as Vicia sp.
and were probably weeds in the main crop.
The third sample from Quadrant H/11-b (Fig. 5c) was
from a storage pit in House 50. It contained the largest
proportion of rye grains (67%), followed by wheat (28%),
oats (3%), and barley (2%). Among all the samples ana-
lyzed from Ras, this is the only sample in which rye
grains were dominant.
Fig. 7 Drawing of a pot (4) that contained charred porridge from
The three samples from House 50 (Fig. 5ac) were House 52 (after Popovic 1999)
different. Two samples were collected from a floor
(Fig. 5a, b), and the third from a storage pit where the
remains of the wooden barrel were found (Fig. 5c). In the
two samples from the floor, the dominant grains were
Triticum aestivum/durum, representing 82% of both
samples, but seeds of other cerealsrye, barley and
oatswere present in different proportions. In the sample
from the pit, the main cereal was rye (Secale cereale),
constituting 67% of the sample. Bread wheat constituted
28% of this sample. In all three samples, less than 1% of
weed seeds was identified, and only a few seeds of
Agrostemma githago were present per sample, in contrast
to the large number of these seeds present in the samples
from House 49. Fig. 8 Charred porridge from the pot in House 52: a fragment; b
The sample from Quadrant G17-c (Fig. 6a) from magnified detail of transverse cereal cells (10)
House 52 contained almost entirely wheat grains (95%).
There were very few grains of other cereals present.
Among the weeds seeds (5%), the seeds of A. githago
dominated (4%). From this sample, four unknown Type
A seeds were identified, the same as those identified
from Quadrant H/11-b, House 50. Otherwise, the weed
spectrum of the wheat sample from this House was sim-
ilar to that identified from samples from House 49.
The sample from Quadrant G/17-b H/17-a of House 52
(Fig. 6b) consisted of a lump of carbonized Panicum
miliaceum (hulled millet grains). Only few seeds of Se-
taria sp. were identified, which are common weeds in a
millet crop.
The third sample from Quadrant G/17 in House 52 Fig. 9 Charred round bread from House 36 (10): a fragment; b
magnified detail of wheat pericarp (63)
consisted of a type of charred substance recovered from a
pot (Figs. 7, 8), found next to the cooking oven within
House 50. The substance resembled some sort of por- 42 from the central sector. These two houses occupy the
ridge, in which the cell structure of the pericarp of cereal same general space, with 42 built after 36 was destroyed
grains could be seen, which showed that it had been made in a fire. The diameter of the piece of bread was ap-
of cereals. proximately 30 cm (Popovic 1999). The analyzed frag-
From House 52 (Figs. 6a, b, 7, 8), where a cooking oven ment was only a few centimetres large and 2 cm thick. In
was excavated, the three samples differed from each other a cross section of the bread, it was noticeable that it was
again. One sample consisted almost completely (95%) of made of dough that had been folded several times
Triticum aestivum (bread-type wheat) grains. The second (Fig. 9a). On the basis of microscopic analysis, it seems
sample consisted entirely of Panicum miliaceum (millet) that the bread was made from coarsely ground whole flour
grains. The third sample represented the contents of a including the pericarps of the cereal grains (Fig. 9b). It is
vessel that contained the remains of a cereal porridge. possible that the cereals were ground in the rotary querns
The larger fragment of bread was excavated between discovered near the sample from House 36.
the destruction layers of House 36 and underneath House

Fig. 10 Fragment of charred Prunus persica (peach) stone (scale
bar = 1 mm)
Another rare find from the cultural layer of BH III, a
horizon at Gradina, are fragments of charred Prunus
persica (peach) stone dated to the last decades of the 12th
century (Fig. 10). Charred fragments of peach stone were
also retrieved from the cultural layer in Podgradje below
the fortress, but their precise dating was not possible.
Discussion
Cereal cultivation
Triticum aestivum/durum (wheat) was identified in seven
out of eight samples, in all three houses (Table 2). The
wheat grains resembled bread wheat grains of the T.
aestivum-type (so hexaploid naked wheat), but in the
absence of chaff and rachis fragments, the grains were
classified as T. aestivum/durum. Proportionally, T. aes-
tivum/durum was the main cereal in six of the samples.
The highest percentage (97%) of wheat grains was from
the sample recovered from House 49.
Besides wheat, grains of barley, rye, millet (Fig. 11),
and oats were present in various quantities in different
samples (Figs. 46). The differences in the quantities of
various cereals in each sample might indicate that some
cereals were sown together, such as wheat and rye from
samples in House 50 (Fig. 5c). Sowing of two crops to-
gether as a mixed crop or maslin is traditionally explained
as a risk-reducing strategy (Jones and Halstead 1995).
However, secondary mixing of cereal grains during the
burning of the house cannot be excluded, but it is unlikely
Fig. 11 Charred cereal grains: a Triticum aestivum/durum from House 49 H/8-d; b Secale cereale from House 50 H/11a-b; c Hordeum
vulgare from House 50 H/11a-b; d Panicum miliaceum from House 52 G/17-b (scale bar = 1 mm)
459
that the rye grains stored in a wooden barrel within a pit in
the southern part of the house became mixed with the
wheat grains on the floor above in the northern part of the
house, although it is possible that some of the wheat
grains from the floor were spilled into the pit.
Later historical sources dating to the 1416th centuries
indicate that in medieval Serbia, winter and spring wheat,
oats, barley, and millet were grown (Blagojevic 1973).
Historical documents from Dubrovnik archives from the
15th century also indicate that different cereals were
grown together; in fact, there is a special local term that
indicates growing an intentional mixture of cereals called
sumjeica (Blagojevic 1973). There is also a folk term
for the rye-wheat maslin called suraica, also known as
napolica that was historically documented in the 19th
century in Voyvodina (Hegedi and Cobanovic 1991).
A lump of charred millet was found in one sample
from House 52. Millet is a spring-sown crop that needs
the light and warmer temperatures of summer. The sow-
ing of a spring crop might indicate the practice of crop
rotation, if millet was sown in spring in the same fields
where the winter crops, for example wheat, had been
sown in the previous year. The charred lump contained
millet grains with glumes that would have needed further
dehusking if intended for human consumption. Medieval
documents from monasteries indicate that millet was
grown intensively, and Blagojevic (1973) believes that
millet was equally important as oats and that only wheat
was a more important cereal grown on the monastic lands.
Oats were found in small percentages (34%) in
samples where wheat or rye were the principal cereals.
Oats and rye are traditionally more commonly grown in
the northeast parts of Europe than in southern Europe.
According to Lefort (2002), in southern Europe, oats were
primarily grown in medieval times as animal feed and in
the Byzantine Empire as horse feed. At Ras, bones of
horses and parts of horse equipment were rare (Blaic
1999; Popovic 1999); therefore, it is difficult to estimate
the importance of oats as horse feed.
Cereal processing and storage
The analyzed samples of cereals did not contain chaff or
internodes, so they had already been threshed and win-
nowed before being stored in the fortress. As expected at
460
a consumer site like Ras, very few agricultural tools were
discovered, only two metal covers for hoes (Popovic
1999); agricultural tools were probably stored somewhere
outside the fortress, perhaps closer to the fields where the
cereals were grown. It is not exactly known who grew the
cereals, but most probably there were farms nearby (see
also below, weeds).
Some of the samples from House 50 contained a very
low percentage of weed seeds (less than 1%); it is possible
that these cereals were already cleaned for human con-
sumption by handpicking out the undesirable weed seeds.
In the Medieval documents from Serbian monasteries,
there are special terms used for dehusking plevljenje
and for cleaning by handpicking
itotrebljenje (Blago-
jevic 1973).
Several rotary querns were discovered at the fortress of
Ras, some of them dating to building horizons BH III-b
and BH IV, which makes them contemporary with the
finds of cereals. According to the information of the in-
vestigators (Popovic 1999), cereals were found dispersed
on the floor of House 49, indicating that the wheat may
have been stored in some sort of bags in the northern part
of the house, while the grinding of the cereals probably
took place in the southern part of the house where two
rotary querns were found in situ. The discovery of rotary
querns indicates that at least some of the cereals were
hand ground at the fortress, probably on a daily basis.
Rotary querns were also found in the houses in phase BH
II, at which time the fortress was a Byzantine stronghold.
Because the stone rotary querns would be very heavy to
transport, they could have been left in the fortress and
could have been used consequently by its various occu-
pants. Considering the defensive purpose of the fortress, it
is not surprising that its inhabitants had cereal supplies
and the grinding equipment available there in case of a
siege. Watermills were used in Byzantium since the 10th
century, and they became common by the 12th century
(Lefort 2002); however, rotary querns remained in use
there along with traditional agriculture (Bryer 2002).
Concentrations of cereals discovered both on the floor,
for example the wheat from House 49, and in pits, for
example the rye from House 50, indicate that cereals were
stored above ground, probably in some sort of bags, but
also underground in special pits. In the northern part of
the fortress, along the northern wall, a large underground
space (room) was discovered. The investigators believe
that this served as a large cereal storage place rather than
a water cistern (Popovic 1999). Although there was a
layer of ash, the investigators did not find any cereal
concentrations in this room. Unfortunately, not a single
sample was collected, so it is impossible to confirm the
actual function of this feature.
Weeds and ruderal plants
Agrostemma githago (corn cockle) was the dominant
weed (Fig. 12) and was identified in six samples at Ras
(Table 2). The seeds cannot be removed by sieving be-
Fig. 12 Charred seeds of Agrostemma githago (scale bar = 1 mm)
cause they are large and heavy and mimic in size the
grains of the main crop. On the other hand, the smaller
seeds of weeds were not numerous (Table 2), suggesting,
together with the lack of cereal chaff, that the crops had
been winnowed and sieved before being stored. Thus, the
weed spectrum of stored cereals is an artifact of crop
processing, reflecting only a limited number of the weeds
that were originally present (Jones 1987).
Corn cockle is a typical weed of cereals, and there is
an old folk saying, nema ita bez kukolja, meaning that
there is no wheat without cockle. The seeds were most
abundant (2.66.1%) in samples from House 49. Having a
rather high percentage of corn cockle seeds present in
wheat can have negative effects if it is not eliminated by
handpicking before human consumption. Flour that con-
tains more than 0.5% of cockle seeds can be dangerous
for human health because it contains toxic glycosides
(Mowszowicz 1955, cited in Szydlowski and Wasylikowa
1973), and if present in smaller quantities, it causes
headaches (Slavko Borojevic personal communication,
1997). A. githago is the most common weed in other
Slavonic medieval sites where rye and wheat were the
principal crops, such as Starigard/Oldenburg and Gross
Lbbenau (Kroll and Willerding 2004; Medovic 2004).
Together with other typical cereal weeds, Bromus
(brome grass) grains were identified in the samples from
Houses 49 and 52. The seeds belong to the short type of
Bromus sp., B. secalinus. These seeds, like corn cockle
seeds, are rather long and difficult to eliminate from the
main crop, but, unlike corn cockle, they are not poison-
ous. Among other typical cereal weeds, the grains of
Centaurea cyanus and Neslia paniculata were also iden-
tified (Fig. 13a). Together with A. githago, these belong
to the cereal weed class Secalinetea, which is typical of
winter crops and was common during the Middle Ages
(Ellenberg 1996).
The majority of the identified weed species grows well
in warm, calcareous and sandy soils (aric 1989; Hanf
1990), such as are present in the vicinity of Ras; therefore,
we may assume that the cereals were locally grown. The
presence of typical cereal weeds in large quantities indi-
cates that the fields were cultivated for at least several
years. The weed spectrum at least partly resembles those
typical of the three field rotation system in the Middle
Ages in other parts of Europe (Karg 1995).

Fig. 13 SEM photographs: a Neslia paniculata; b Daucus carota; c an unidentified seed labelled Type A whole seed; d cross-section
of Type A (scale bar = 500 mm)
Some of the seeds in the cereal samples that were
classified among the weed taxa were not typical weeds
infesting cereal fields, for example Daucus carota
(Fig. 13b), which may have grown as a ruderal plant on
the edge of fields, and thus got harvested together with the
wheat. Similarly, Rubus fruticosus (blackberry) is not a
weed of cereals, but grows on the edges of fields and
woods, and perhaps a few fruits accidentally ended up
among the cereal grains. Eight unidentified seeds tem-
porarily labelled Type A (Figs. 13cd) could perhaps be
classified as weeds because they are small and were found
among cereals.
A few small Fabaceae seeds and several rather small
round seeds (diameter 35 mm) were found and identified
as Vicia sp. (vetches). It is interesting to note that at Ras,
not a single concentration of legume crops such as lentils,
peas, or broad beans was recovered, although they were
found at a late Roman site, Svetinja, north of Ras
(Borojevic 1988), and at many Medieval sites in central
Europe, including several Slavonic strongholds (Kroll and
Willerding 2004; Medovic 2004; Wasylikowa et al.
1991). Historical resources also indicate that legumes
were grown in Byzantium (Lefort 2002). It is possible that
at Ras, by chance legumes were not stored in large
quantities before the final destruction of the fortress, or
that they were all consumed.
Fruits
In the wheat sample from House 52, four Rubus fruticosus
(blackberry) seeds were retrieved. Blackberries can be
found growing in the region of Ras, and the wild fruits are
gathered today. However, an unintentional admixing
cannot be excluded.
Of special interest is the discovery of charred Prunus
persica (peach) stone fragments recovered from cultural
layers of the fourth building horizon (BH IV) at the for-
tress and from below the fortress. Peaches originate from
Asia and are not native in the natural vegetation of the
461
Balkans or the Mediterranean (Zohary and Hopf 2000).
Peaches are soft and difficult to transport and cannot be
dried like apricots or raisins, so we can suppose that the
peach trees were brought to Serbia and were grown lo-
cally. The Romans could have introduced peaches into the
area during their occupation of the fortress of Ras and the
settlement below. However, the area was abandoned be-
tween the 6th and 9th centuries, and the peach trees could
not have survived unattended for several centuries. Peach
stones were recovered from the samples dated to the 8th
10th centuries from the early Slavonic stronghold of
Mikulcice in Moravia (Opravil 1998) and from several
medieval sites in eastern central Europe (Wasylikowa et
al. 1991). Byzantine sources mention that peaches were
grown in Macedonia in the 14th century (Lefort 2002).
Blagojevic (1973), using historical documents, does not
mention peaches in his book about agriculture in me-
dieval Serbia. The actual finds of peach stones from
Moravia, dating to the 8th10th centuries, and from the
fortress of Ras, dating to the end of the 12th century, point
to a discrepancy between archaeological evidence and
historical records.
There were probably more fruits consumed at Ras in
the past than were actually found, but fruit remains are
usually underrepresented when not dealing with water-
logged material (Willerding 1991).
What was the food like at Ras in the 13th century?
Based on the analysis of only a few plant samples, our
knowledge about the diet of the inhabitants of Ras is
limited, but it may indicate what the main staples were.
Wheat was the most ubiquitous and the dominant cereal at
Ras, whereas rye was dominant only in one sample.
Wheat was also the major cereal identified in archaeob-
otanical samples from the medieval fortress at Silistra in
Bulgaria (Popova 1990). In contrast, rye was the domi-
nant cereal in many other Slavonic sites from eastern
central Europe. In Slovakia, for example, rye and barley
462
were dominant after the 8th century (Wasylikowa et al.
1991). Rye was also the main cereal in the archaeob-
otanical samples from the early medieval site of Lubomia,
Poland (Szydlowski and Wasylikowa 1973) and in the
Slav strongholds Starigard/Oldenburg and Gross Lbbe-
nau in Germany, dated to the 9th and 10th centuries (Kroll
and Willerding 2004; Medovic 2004). These sites all lie
north of Serbia, indicating that the food of southern Slavs,
including Serbs, differed from that of northern Slavs
primarily in the main cereal consumed, wheat being more
common in the south and rye in the north (Dembinska
1999). In later medieval documents, wheat is also men-
tioned as the most commonly grown cereal in the south-
ern regions (Blagojevic 1973). However, in northern
Greece, at the multi-layer site of Agios Mamas, a total of
424 rye grains were recovered from a 10 l sediment
sample within Byzantine debris (12th14th centuries) left
as the intrusion into the Bronze Age layers from a
Byzantine church and small graveyard (Kroll 1999).
Rye was also found at the fortress at Ras and other
Slav strongholds. It is possible that wheat predominates at
sites where inhabitants were of higher rank, and that rye
was used for provisioning the ordinary people. The for-
tress of Ras was temporarily used as the rulers refuge,
and rye may have been intended for his subordinates. At
Ras, another explanation could be that rye was sown to-
gether with wheat as a risk-reducing strategy, in case the
wheat yields were low.
The contents of a pot from House 52 at Ras represents
the remains of some sort of cereal porridge. Additionally,
in the same house, a lump of millet was found that could
also have been prepared as porridge. As mentioned pre-
viously, an oven was discovered in House 52, and it could
have been used for various food preparations, including
the cooking of porridge in pots. Porridge was commonly
eaten in Byzantium (Hill and Bryer 1995) and was eaten
by the Slavs (Lunt 1997) and other peoples. Lefort (2002)
believes that millet was not a highly valued food in
Byzantium, citing Anna Comnena (12th century) who
mentions millet only twice and regards it as the food of
barbarians (Comnena 1928). Millet is typically a crop of
regions with warm summers, but it was readily consumed
and grown by the Slavs in northern regions as well.
During the Middle Ages, several millet varieties were
identified from the excavations of medieval Wroclow
dating to the 1012th centuries (Kosina 1995), as well as
in the medieval fortress at Silistra in Bulgaria (Popova
1990). Millet is the second most important crop after rye
at the Slav stronghold at Gross Lbbenau in Germany
(Medovic 2004).
A piece of round bread, found in House 36 and prob-
ably made of wheat, indicates that bread was probably
made and baked at the fortress. A type of bread made of
coarsely ground wheat (psomos pithyrodes) was common
during the Byzantine period (Kislinger 1999), and it is
possible that a similar tradition of making bread contin-
ued at Ras. Bread, the so called kleb, is also the most
commonly mentioned food (17 times) in the Russian
Primary Chronicle, indicating the importance of bread
among the Rus (Lunt 1997). The round, rather flat,
leavened bread has a local term, pogaca, and is com-
monly consumed in the wider region today. Leavened
bread, in contrast to unleavened bread, was considered the
real bread and was consumed readily among the Eastern
Orthodox in the 11th century (Montanari 1999).
Another food difference between the northern and the
southern Slavs was the preference of the northern Slavs
for game meat (Lunt 1997; Dembinska 1999). At Ras,
only a small percentage of wild animal bones was iden-
tified. Bones of domestic animals dominated the samples
and represent 96.7% of the total bones identified in BH III
and BH IV (Blaic 1999). Although bones of boar, deer,
and hare were identified at the fortress of Ras, it seems
that the inhabitants preferred the meat of domestic ani-
mals. Among domestic animals, the bones of sheep and
goat represent over 60% of the samples, followed by
cattle and pig bones. It is not surprising that in the
mountainous region of Ras, sheep and goat husbandry
provided an important source of animal protein. Also,
these rather small animals could have been easily kept in
the fortress in case of a siege.
Archaeologically, foreign influences at Ras are shown
by the evidence of imported items from various parts of
Europe, including pottery from workshops in Byzantium,
southern Italy, and Thessalonica (Popovic 1999). To-
gether with imported pottery, the knowledge of other
types of food and serving practices may have been passed
along. During the early Middle Ages, the courts often
moved from place to place, including the courtiers and the
cooks. According to Popovic (1999), the fortress of Ras
served as a temporary refuge and one of the rulers resi-
dences. The national identity was not yet precisely de-
fined and thus the so-called ethnic foods were not yet
common. Nutrition was not based only on the locally
available plant and animal sources, but also included
various cultural influences of different regions. It is pos-
sible that the wives of the Serbian rulers who were of
Byzantine and Venetian origin also influenced the nutri-
tion and the culinary practices of the courts. For example,
Stefan Radoslav of the Nemanjic dynasty, who ruled the
region at the beginning of the 13th century, was a son of
the Serbian king Stefan and a Byzantine princess, and he
was later married to the daughter of Theodore I Angelus
Comnenus, the despot from Nicea (Ostrogorski 1957).
Perhaps the find of peaches at Ras offers evidence of
southern cultural influences, including food. During the
12th century and on several occasions in the previous
centuries, Ras served as a Byzantine stronghold, and it is
possible that Byzantine soldiers had already brought with
them different culinary preferences from the southern
regions where they originated.
Conclusions
The analysis of plant macro remains has shown that ce-
reals were stored above ground and in the pits at the
fortress of Ras during the 12th and 13th centuries. Triti-

cum aestivum/durum (wheat) was the major staple crop
stored there, supporting the written and meagre ar-
chaeobotanical evidence for the preference for wheat
among southern Slavs. However, more archaeobotanical
research is needed in several sites in the region of the
southern Slavs to confirm this. Besides wheat, Secale
cereale (rye), Hordeum vulgare (barley), Avena sativa
(oats), and Panicum miliaceum (millet) were also found.
Three samples from House 50 provide the best example
for crop diversification and/or different storage within an
individual house. Wheat and rye were probably sown
together in a maslin, unless post-depositional processes
contributed to the mixing. Millet adds to the evidence for
growing a wide range of different grain crops. The find of
millet grains underlines the discrepancy between the di-
versity between the archaeobotanical record and the nar-
row range of grain crops mentioned in Byzantine records
(cf. Lefort 2002).
Agrostemma githago (corn cockle) was the dominant
large-seeded weed. It was present in a significant per-
centage in several cereal supplies, indicating that these
large seeds could not be removed by sieving and had to be
handpicked out before human consumption in order to
avoid negative health effects. The presence of large
quantities of annual cereal weeds shows that the cereals
were cultivated on long-lasting open fields. The majority
of weed seeds belong to the Secalinitea group, typical of
winter-sown wheat and rye crops.
Exceptional finds include a piece of charred round
bread and cereal porridge from a pot, demonstrating that
bread was baked and porridge was cooked in the ovens at
the fortress. Hand rotary querns found in the fortress in-
dicate that cereals were probably milled on a daily basis.
The find of Prunus persica (peach) stone fragments
reveals that peaches were eaten at the fortress already in
the 12th century, two centuries earlier than indicated in
the written sources (cf. Lefort 2002). The presence of
peach demonstrates that the food at Ras included not only
readily available local products but that, together with
pottery imports, some foreign culinary and gardening
practices were already being introduced into early me-
dieval Serbia.
Previous information about the agriculture and food in
medieval Serbia was based solely on written documents
that were either of later date than the analyzed samples or
were not relevant to the region. This study provides the
first direct evidence about food and agricultural activities
of the inhabitants of medieval Serbia and points to dis-
crepancies between written documents and archaeological
finds, in this case plant remains, as in other parts of Eu-
rope (see, for example, Irniger and Khn 1997, 1999;
Irniger 1999).
Acknowledgements I would like to thank M. Popovic for en-
trusting me with the plant samples from Ras for this analysis. I am
grateful to him and the Archaeological Institute in Belgrade for
granting permission to reproduce and adapt illustrations for Figs. 2,
3, 7 in this article from the publication The Fortress of Ras by
Popovic (1999). I am also thankful to H. Kroll who helped me with
the identification of ambiguous seed specimens. SEM photographs
463
were done by M. Vieth from the Department of Biology at
Washington University in St. Louis. All other photos of plant re-
mains were made by the author. Special thanks to S. Jacomet, H.
Kroll, an anonymous reviewer for their comments on the manu-
script, and J. Greig for copy editing.
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