Tracing the Onset of Agriculture Through Phytolith Analysis at the Abora I Neolithic Settlement, Eastern Latvia

Phytolith analysis was applied for the first time in Latvian archaeology to investigate plant use at the Abora I settlement, one of the key Late Neolithic sites in the Lubāns Wetland, eastern Latvia. Phytoliths were extracted from sediments, pottery sherds, grinding stones, and human teeth in order to assess evidence for cereal-type grasses and plant processing. A diverse range of phytolith morphotypes was identified, including rondel and bilobate forms commonly associated with grasses of the Triticeae. These morphotypes were most frequently recorded in association with grinding stones and food-related pottery. While previous isotopic and archaeological studies at Abora I indicate a subsistence strategy largely based on fishing, hunting, and gathering, the phytolith evidence points to localised small-scale processing of cereal-type grasses. Taken together, these results indicate that plant exploitation formed part of a mixed, multi-resource economy during the Late Neolithic at Abora I, although differentiation between wild and domesticated grasses remains limited due to taxonomic constraints of phytolith analysis.