The green wealth - agricultural resources and consumption in Iron Age Uppåkra.

Agricultural grain production - the green wealth - was the basis for the economic and material prosperity associated with the Iron Age settlement of Uppåkra. Questions about the provisioning of large-scale food consumption at densely populated settlements have not previously been addressed in archaeological research in Scandinavia. The project will investigate how the large-scale consumption at the settlement affected the village's handling of vegetable resources and whether it created the need for a larger resource area, revealed by agricultural raw materials being sourced from further afield. With extensive plant remains preserved at Uppåkra and settlements in the surrounding area, the current study has an opportunity to link this important power center with its agricultural production and resource management. By analyzing isotope values of carbon (δ13C), nitrogen (δ15N) and strontium (87Sr/86Sr) in fossil grains and seeds handled at settlements in the study area, a local variation of cultivation conditions and the province can be investigated. The methods thus aim to understand the extent of agrarian production and to identify the extent of localities that may have been involved in supplying the central site. But also whether nutritional conditions may have varied over time as a result of increased cultivation pressure on surrounding farmland. The study is expected to initiate a discussion on how household food resources at prehistoric settlements were organized to meet the consumption and demand for vegetable raw materials.