Sowing the Seed?: Human Impact and Plant Subsistence in Dutch Wetlands During the Late Mesolithic and Early and Middle Neolithic (5500-3400 cal BC) (Archaeological Studies Leiden University Press)

Until now, a coherent overview of the archaeobotanical research on the transition from hunting and gathering to agriculture in the Netherlands was lacking. Drawing on new data on pollen, seeds, and fruit, Welmoed Out provides an in-depth account of the natural and human-sown vegetation in the Dutch wetlands during the Late Mesolithic and Early and Middle Neolithic periods. Not only does Sowing the Seed? offer new insights into the neolithisation process in the Dutch wetlands by means of the reconstruction of natural vegetation, human impact, plant use, and cultivation practices, it also examines the culture of the humans who inhabited the land during this time.