Ervilia Tetovac-Made in Early Iron Age Leskovac . Part One . Two Charred Pulse Crop Storages of the Forti fi ed Hill Fort Settlement Hissar in Leskovac , South Serbia

A lucky fi nd of 2,572 charred pea (Pisum sativum L.) seeds in a single archaeobotanical sample from the hill fort settlement Hissar near Leskovac represents a unique example in Bronze / Iron Age research in South East Europe. Another mass storage of bitter vetch (Vicia ervilia (L.) Willd.) from the same site and period (Brnjica cultural group, beginning of the Iron Age in the Morava valley) confi rms a long tradition of the city of Leskovac region as a pulse crop production centre in modern Serbia. Both pulse storages were almost pure with small amount of admixture from other crops, mainly cereals, other pulses, such as lentil (Lens culinaris Medik.) and broad bean (Vicia faba L.), and oil/fi bre plants. Both pulses were cultivated as main crops and were stored separately.


Introduction
The fortifi ed hill fort settlement Hissar in Leskovac, with the name derived from Turkish hissar, denoting fortress, is a multilevel settlement of the Brnjica cultural group, 1,350-1,000 B.C., Iron Age I in the Morava valley (Stojić et al. 2007).
The Hissar hill (341 m alt.) is in a strategic position over the confl uence of Jablanica and Veternica rivers in river South Morava and over the greatest part of the valley of Leskovac.The valley is 50 km long and 45 km wide.The archaeological excavations at Hissar began in 1999.In the campaign of the year 2005, two rich pulse-crop samples were gathered from the deposits of the Brnjica II a-level from 12th cent.B.C. Out of 7 litres of earth substrate, a total number of 2,572 charred seeds of pea (Pisum sativum L.) and 3,031 charred seeds of bitter vetch (Vicia ervilia (L.) Willd.) were yielded through fl otation, respectively.In the previous archaeobotanical report (Medović 2005), only one uncertain record of pea from the deposits of Brnjica cultural group was made, whereas 37 charred items of bitter vetch in every fourth sample were found.Beside these two species, the inventory of the pulse crops from Hissar supplements fi ndings of broad bean (Vicia faba L.) and lentil (Lens culinaris Medik.).

Materials and Methods
The round seeds of many pulse crops cause considerable diffi culties for a precise archaeobotanical determination.This is the reason why normally the so-called unidentifi ed pulses-group is proportionally more numerous than Cerealia identerminata-group.Chances of carbonization of pulses and cereals in archaeological context are not equal.There are differences in chemical composition, such as high protein content in pulses vs. high starch content in cereals, as well as in processing and usage of this two crop groups.Generally, pulses have less chances of getting carbonized than cereals and are therefore underrepresented in archaeobotanical records.Mass storages of charred pulse crops, like these two lucky fi nds from Hissar, offer a great opportunity of getting a closer look at their cultivation, crop processing and storage methods in prehistory.

Pea
Pea is one of the fi rst crops cultivated by humans.It is nearly impossible to determine a charred pea seed if a characteristic coffee bean shaped hilum is missing (Fig. 1).The seed-shape (spherical with some fl attenings, depending on their position and space within a pod) as well as its size are not enough to say whether we are dealing with pea or not.Pea seeds can be as small as some Vicia seeds and without preserved hilum they cannot be distinguished from them.In the Hissar sample, only few pea seeds maintained almost intact seed coat (testa) with hilum.Luckily, among all the pea seeds, only 32 seeds of lentil, bitter vetch and broad bean were mixed -species whose determination is undoubtful (Table 1).Lentil and bitter vetch seeds differ from pea in shape and from broad bean in size.According to the exclusion principle we can almost be sure that the rest belongs to pea.
Beside pulses, the sample consisted of few charred residues of four cereals: hulled lax eared six-row barley (Hordeum vulgare L. subsp.vulgare), bread wheat (Triticum aestivum L.), emmer (T.dicoccon Schrank) and einkorn wheat (T.monococcum L.).320 small seeds of common millet (Panicum miliaceum L.) are not enough to change weight percentages in the sample considerably.20 seeds of fl ax / linseed (Linum usitatissimum L.) and a single one-seeded nutlet of dragons head (cf.Lallemantia iberica Fisch.et C.A. Mey.) represent the taxonomic group of oil and fi bre plants.Recently, archaeobotanical fi nds of dragons head are accumulating: in Serbia, it was recorded at the Bronze and Iron Age settlement of Feudvar (Becker & Kroll 2008) and in the middle Bronze Age level of Židovar (Kišgeci & Medović 2006).Both sites are located in the fertile plain of the Vojvodina region, while this is the fi rst record of this oil plant in hilly and woody central Serbia.However, most data of charred fruits of Lallemantia come from diverse Bronze Age sites in  northern Greece (Jones & Valamoti 2005, Becker & Kroll 2008).This plant, "exotic" for the Balkans, was probably introduced from Anatolia to Greece in the early Bronze Age and then cultivated locally (Jones & Valamoti 2005).A fi nd of saffl ower (cf.Carthamus tinctorius L.) indicates the possible use of its fl owers to dye food yellow and textile red to brown or even black.Other fi nds in the sample represent common weeds in millets and wheat.Although 24 taxa were found in this sample including three other pulse crops, pea is the dominant one, with a weight share of almost 98%.This indicates that pea was cultivated as one of the main crops and was stored separately from the other pulse crops.
The thousand grain weight of these pea seeds is 24.4 g.Two thousand archaeobotanical samples from Feudvar yielded 3,695 Pisum records (Kroll 1998), on average 1.85 seeds per sample.The thousand grain weight of pea seeds in Feudvar was calculated in only one sample, 19.25 g (H.Kroll, pers.comm.) and it was 5 g lighter than the one from Hissar!At the archaeological sites of Židovar (Serbia) or Kastanas and Agios Mamas (north Greece), there were not enough peas in material to calculate thousand grain weight.This problem indicates how rare and therefore valuable the fi nd of this pea storage at Hissar truly is.
The moisture requirement for fi eld pea is similar to that for cereal grains (Oelke et al. 1991).Plentiful rains and/or early irrigation and no rain during pod fi lling and ripening is ideal.Pea is intolerant of drought which has a particularly adverse effect on production if it occurs at fl owering.It requires freedraining soils since it is intolerant of water-logging.It can be grown on a wide range of soil types, ranging from light sandy loams to heavy clays, but in any of these soil types there must be good drainage as fi eld pea does not tolerate soggy or water-soaked conditions.The soil pH optimum is 5.5 to 6.5.

Bitter Vetch
A bitter vetch seed can be described as wellrounded tetrahedron (Fig. 2).This feature alone makes them unique among other pulses.The hilum of bitter vetch is typical, but normally it's Figures 3 and 4. A charred seed of bitter vetch (Vicia ervilia (L.) Willd.) from Hissar, Leskovac, 12th cent.B.C.A drawing by A. Medović and a photograph Slikea 3 i 4. Ugljenisano seme urova (Vicia ervilia (L.) Willd.)sa Hisara kod Leskovca, 12. vek p.n.e.Crtež A. Medovića i fotografi ja missing in charred archaeobotanical samples: its hilum is shorter than of hilum from common vetch (Vicia sativa L.) and smaller and narrower than that of pea.
Bitter vetch has been one of the essential pulse crops of the southern Balkans and adjacent areas since Neolithic (Kroll 1991).It is cultivated for its edible seeds, which are fed to livestock or eaten in soups.For human consumption the bitterness of the seeds needs to be removed through leaching by several changes of boiling water or by roasting.The species of the genus Vicia are traditionally used for feeding ruminants, particularly sheep, but they are practically unused for monogastric animals due to the toxicity of their seeds and its negative effect on growth.Bitter vetch must not exceed 25% in the rations for sheep and cattle.It is very resistant to cold, because of its sparse habit and branching and slow growth (López Bellido 1994), as well as to drought, even in spring.A harvest is obtained even during excessively dry years.High grain yields (up to 3 t ha -1) may be obtained in favourable conditions.It is adapted to the regions with wide annual precipitation sums, ranging from 360 mm to 1160 mm, prefers an annual mean temperature of 14°C and is suited to neutral or lightly acid soils, tolerating limy types of soil that are not too clayey.
A rich bitter vetch sample form Hissar differs from the rich Pisum sample only in the occurrence of charred items of spelt wheat (Triticum spelta L.), which is the fi rst record of this wheat at Hissar, and in lack of pea seeds (Table 2).Reaching only 91% bitter vetch weight share is not as high as in the case of pea, the main reason for this being the increased weight share of barley.Nevertheless, the share of other legumes (such as lentil and broad bean) is insignifi cant in the sample.Just like pea from the same site, the bitter vetch from Hissar was cultivated as one of the main crops and stored separately from the other pulse crops.The thousand grain weight of its seeds is 11.74 g.In contrast to pea, it is possible to compare these values with other sites in the region.At Agios Mamas, the 1000 ervilia seeds weigh normally under 10 g (Becker & Kroll 2008), while at Feudvar they weigh as lens seeds, only 6.02 g (H.Kroll, pers. comm.).The weight of bitter vetch from Hissar fi ts into the range values from Kastanas, with 10-13 g (Kroll 1983).

Storage Pests
In the rich ervilia sample from Hissar, at least fi ve seeds had large boreholes in the place of radicle.This fi ts the description made by H. Kroll (1983) on the charred bitter vetches seeds found at the tell of Kastanas in northern Greece.Rich bitter vetch fi nds from Kastanas were defi led by seed beetles (Brachinae).The infestation was not considerable, only 1-2%.Seed beetles infestation of pulses was also recorded on several archaeological sites in Europe, Middle East and Egypt (Panagiotakopulu 2001).In the rich Pisum sample from Hissar one larva of a holometabolous insect was found.Many seeds were defi led (G.Duc, pers.comm.), possibly by pea beetle (Bruchus pisorum L.).Both bitter vetch and pea storages from Hissar were infested by pests.The history of crops is closely related to history of pests of stored products.With a fair record of pests on archaeological sites, one could be able to reconstruct original routes of their expansion through crop trade in the past.

Soil, Climate and Biodiversity
Geographically speaking, almost two thirds of the area surrounding Hissar are hills and valleys.The rest is fl at, which, in a broader sense, constitutes the so-called Leskovac valley.The majority of soils, represented by various types of brown soils, are of medium-heavy mechanic content and medium porous.As per chemical content, the land is typically acid, while the content of humus is low, with a moderate share of physiologically active phosphorus and potassium.The climate is complex, where the main, typically continental conditions are mingling with the Mediterranean infl uences coming from the south, up the valley of the river Vardar and deeper into the hills and mountains of the south-central Balkans, where Leskovac is situated.A relatively low level of the total annual precipitation sum of between 600 mm and 800 mm represents the most important condition for agriculture.
This region is also extremely rich in plant biodiversity, making a continuum stretching from Asia Minor, over southern Bulgaria to the northern Albania and southern Montenegrin coast, with numerous crop wild relatives such as wild cereals and legumes.Considering the latter, it is only in the south, ranging from Niš, over Leskovac to Vranje, where wild pea (Pisum sativum subsp.elatius (Steven ex M. Bieb.)Asch.& Graebn.)can be found in abundance in the whole Serbia, as well as wild lentil (Lens nigricans (M.Bieb.)Godr.) and numerous wild vetch species (Bojan Zlatković, pers. comm.).
It may be assumed that this specifi c constellation of the favourable soil and climatic conditions on one side and the extreme wealth of wild and agricultural legume fl ora was the main reason why pulses have always been an important component in human diets and animal feeding as both voluminous and concentrated feed.Once, it was pea, lentil, bitter vetch, broad bean, grass pea (Lathyrus sativus L.) and chickpea (Cicer arietinum L.), while today it is common bean (Phaseolus vulgaris L.), gradually replacing the former ones during the last few centuries.At any rate, pulses were and still are there, in Leskovac and its heartland of the Serbian south, equally important as cereals, vegetables, meat and other basic nutrients.
Leskovac and its region is one of the last ancient European grain legume refugia in Serbia, where crops such as bitter vetch have been cultivated for forage and grain until relatively recently (Đorđević 1942) and where others such as broad bean still persist (Mihailović et al. 2010) and vetches are the most popular annual forage crop.Can an echo of the excavated and ringing countless bitter vetch and pea seeds from the past break the walls of oblivion and reintroduce these crops in the Serbian and Balkan agriculture, to the benefi t of Europe and its diverse agro-ecosystems?

Conclusions
Although pea is one of the fi rst crops cultivated by man, a lucky fi nd of 2,572 pea seeds in only one sample from Hissar represents a unique example in the archaeobotany of South East Europe.This amount of pea seeds could only be reached if hundreds of samples at one site are analysed.The reason for this should be seen not only in the fact that pulses generally have less chances of getting carbonized than cereals, and therefore are underrepresented in archaeobotanical record, but also in the diffi cult determination of Pisum seeds.Pea from Hissar was a distinct crop, stored separately from other crops.The status of pea in Hissar's Early Iron Age economy is disputable.According to its record's frequency, it seems that pea was cultivated on small patch-like fi elds.High 1000-grain weight of pea, with some restraints, seems to confi rm the intense crop-care on small scaled areas.
On the other hand, the records of bitter vetch at archaeological sites in South East Europe are abundant.One of the reasons may be the fact that its well-rounded tetrahedron seeds are unique and therefore can be recognized easily.Ervilia, lentil and broad bean are most frequent pulse crops at Hissar.As well as pea, bitter vetch was cultivated and stored separately.
The constellation of agro-ecological factors, such as slightly acid soil and steppe-like climate with a low level of the precipitation with drought periods, favours bitter vetch production in the Leskovac valley over pea.Nevertheless, it is suitable for a large-scale cultivation of all pulse crops.Thus this region has become an epitome for the pulse production in modern Serbia, such as in a famous proverb used to describe an extremely tasty, truly delicious and masterfully prepared pulse dish of common bean: Oh, yeah!This one's been a genuine 'Bean Tetovac -made in Leskovac!' Grašak i urov Tetovac -made in ranogvozdenodobni Leskovac.Deo prvi.