Environmental Archaeology Experiment - (October 2006 to July 2007)

Events and Displays - Archived Community Event

Working with a group of students of horticulture, Unlocking the Past has planted species of wheat grain used in prehistoric and Roman times, as Winter crops, to be harvested early in the Summer of 2007.

The students have:

• Sown 2 kilos of spelt and rye wheat in a plot of land with dimensions of 1:32 acre – 20 yards by 5 yards

The students will

• Maintain three areas, one planted in drills, the second sown broadcast
• And the third with two rows of rye wheat
• Harvest the crop using replica prehistoric sickles
• Thresh and sieve the grain to separate chaff
• Grind some of the harvested wheats using saddle and rotary querns
• Bake unleavened loaves of bread from the ground spelt and rye flour
• Record the results of wheat yield and compare the two planting methods
• Retain some of the harvest to use as seed to allow the exercise to be repeated next year.

Unlocking the Past is indebted to Broomfield's Fruit Farm at Holt Heath for the lease of a plot of their land to carry out the experiment, and to Sharpham Park Farm, Somerset, for the free supply of the Spelt Seed.

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