Agriculture and Environment at Servia
Barleys
Servia is the first site where all of the common types of barley are known to
have been grown,
and for which a reasonably clear distinction has been made between the two- and
six-row hulled and naked barleys. Comparison with other sites is accordingly
difficult.
Two-row hulled barley (Hordeum d. distichon), like two-seeded einkorn,
is restricted to the Early Neolithic and earliest Middle Neolithic. The naked
form, H. d. nudum was cultivated fairly extensively at all times,
appearing to become somewhat more common during Neolithic times, but having
become less popular by the early Bronze Age.
Six-row hulled barley (H. v. vulgare), which is the most frequently-
encountered barley of prehistoric times in most of Europe, is not very common at
Servia. None the less, it was almost certainly grown at all times (despite what
the evidence appears to show). By Bronze Age times, it seems to have become
considerably more popular in Macedonia and elsewhere.
Six-row naked barley (H. v. coeleste or H. vulgare var. nudum)
was the commonest variety of barley in most of the period covered at Servia; but
it was absent from the Early Neolithic - unlike at Nea Nikomedeia - and earliest
Middle Neolithic, but increased in popularity through the Middle Neolithic, then
declined in the Late Neolithic. By early Bronze Age times, it had become
relatively unpopular.