The introduction and spread of rye (Secale cereale) in the Iberian Peninsula.

Some of the earliest Western European macroremains of rye (Secale cereale) have been recently recovered in Northwest Iberia. However, the chronological and cultural contexts of these remains have not been yet exhaustively analysed. To address this gap of research, previous and unpublished assemblages have been reviewed and analysed through an analytical set of methods: biometry, radiocarbon dates and integrating the remains of rye in the broad archaeobotanical record of the region. Results show the earliest macroremains of rye in the Iberian Peninsula date to a period between the 3rd century and the first half of the 1st century BCE. Rye was usually found in assemblages dominated by spelt and other cereals, in whose fields it was likely acting as a weed. There is no record of rye for about the two following centuries, after which it is probably reintroduced, now as a crop. It is found in several sites from the 3rd-4th centuries CE onwards, suggesting it is a staple crop as in other regions in Europe. Significant differences in grain size are only recorded in a 10th-11th century settlement, suggesting few changes in grain morphometry before Medieval times.

Crops on the Rocks: Production, Processing, and Storage at the Early Medieval Site of Senhora Do Barrocal (Municipality of Sátão, Central Portugal).

Small rural places are largely absent from early medieval written sources, but they were profuse and relevant in regional settlements and economies. Only through archaeological and archaeobotanical investigation is it possible to unveil their structure and productive strategies; however, this kind of investigation is still uncommon in Iberia. Here, the assemblage of fruits/seeds, wood charcoal, and food remains from Senhora do Barrocal (SB) (Sátão, Portugal) will be presented and discussed in order to understand the crop production, processing, and storage. The site was destroyed by a fire somewhere between the 10th and the 11th centuries AD, which allowed the preservation of abundant plant remains in a storage area. Charcoal analyses suggest that the building was made with oak and chestnut timber. The massive fruits/seeds assemblage was dominated by cereals, mostly oat and rye, but also barley, millet, and naked wheat, some fully dehusked, others still hulled. Furthermore, evidence of food products has also been found, suggesting that the area was used for the storage of multiple foods and crops at different processing stages. SB is a good example of how communities adopted a diverse set of crops and multifaceted storage strategies to prevent food shortages and to endure in a harsh environment.

Pervasive hybridization with local wild relatives in Western European grapevine varieties.

Grapevine (Vitis vinifera L.) diversity richness results from a complex domestication history over multiple historical periods. Here, we used whole-genome resequencing to elucidate different aspects of its recent evolutionary history. Our results support a model in which a central domestication event in grapevine was followed by postdomestication hybridization with local wild genotypes, leading to the presence of an introgression signature in modern wine varieties across Western Europe. The strongest signal was associated with a subset of Iberian grapevine varieties showing large introgression tracts. We targeted this study group for further analysis, demonstrating how regions under selection in wild populations from the Iberian Peninsula were preferentially passed on to the cultivated varieties by gene flow. Examination of underlying genes suggests that environmental adaptation played a fundamental role in both the evolution of wild genotypes and the outcome of hybridization with cultivated varieties, supporting a case of adaptive introgression in grapevine.