Rubbish or kindling? Plant remains from two Neolithic sites in the Chełmno Land, Poland, with special focus on the Arrhenatherum elatius ssp. bulbosum find

This article presents the results of carpological and anthracological analyses of charred plant remains collected as soil and charred wood samples from two Funnel Beaker culture sites located in Kałdus and Browina, in the Kuyavian–Pomeranian Voivodeship, Poland. Most samples contained occasional plant remains, including, among others, barley (Hordeum vulgare) grain, emmer wheat (Triticum dicoccum) grain, hulled wheat (T. monococcum/dicoccum/spelta) chaff, seeds and fruits of wild taxa, and charred wood of oak (Quercus sp.) and Scots pine (Pinus sylvestris). Based on these findings, along with the first Neolithic discovery of tuber oat-grass (Arrhenatherum elatius ssp. bulbosum), we interpret these as a pragmatic use of plant fragments for kindling rather than understanding it as rubbish. We suggest that Arrhenatherum elatius ssp. bulbosum, along with inedible parts of plants, seeds and fruits of wild plants, and wood fragments, were used in the storage pits to start small fires for drying, lining fires, and/or fumigating the interior of the pit.