Late Holocene hemp (Cannabis sativa) retting in NE Hungary and the Holocene spread of hemp cultivation in eastern-central Europe

Vegetation History and Archaeobotany https://doi.org/10.1007/s00334-025-01046-7 ORIGINAL ARTICLE Late Holocene hemp (Cannabis sativa) retting in NE Hungary and the Holocene spread of hemp cultivation in eastern-central Europe Abigail A. Ofosu-Brakoh1 · Ákos Bede-Fazekas1,2 · János Korponai1,3 · Ferenc Szmorad5 · Robert Begy6 · Andreea R. Zsigmond4 · István Pál1 · Imre Horváth8 · Enikő K. Magyari1,7 Received: 15 July 2024 / Accepted: 24 February 2025 © The Author(s) 2025 Abstract Pollen analytical studies of three sediment cores from the mesotrophic lake of Egerbakta (47.935°N, 20.291°E, 280 m a.s.l.), located in the Bükk Mountains in NE Hungary revealed large amounts of Cannabis sativa pollen (> 90%), a clear sign of hemp retting. The increase in Cannabis pollen occurred around the formation and settlement of Egerbakta village (ca. 1260 ce) and continued until the mid-20th century. To ascertain the first appearance and the start of cultivation of the crop in Hungary and Eastern-Central Europe, we collected several well-dated pollen records from the NEOTOMA palaeoecological database, and plotted Cannabis-type pollen relative frequencies on maps. The results of the analyses showed the earliest evidence of hemp retting at 100 bce in Eastern Hungary (Kokad Mire). Furthermore, we revealed that hemp was locally present and likely cultivated for the first time in the Middle Copper Age Hunyadihalom Culture, around 3450 bce in eastern Hungary, while in western Hungary at 3150 bce. We argue that its cultivation is connectable with the regular intrusion of the pastoral groups from the Pontic steppe zone to the Great Hungarian Plain at this time who brought in the tradition of hemp cultivation. These findings fit well and postdate by ~1,000 year earlier evidence for hemp cultivation in Bulgaria by the Eneolithic Gumelniţa/Varna culture (bce). Evidence of intensified hemp cultivation in western Hungary was traced to the Iron Age Hallstatt period (ca. 1200–450 bce), and it is likely connectable to their interaction with Scythians/Celts. Keywords Hemp Retting · Cannabis-type pollen · Hemp cultivation · Eastern Steppean cultural complex · Hallstatt · Avars Communicated by F. Bittmann. Enikő K. Magyari 1 Institute of Geography and Earth Sciences, Department of Environmental and Landscape Geography, ELTE Eötvös Loránd University, Pázmány P. stny 1/C, Budapest 1117, Hungary 2 HUN-REN Centre for Ecological Research, Institute of Ecology and Botany, Alkotmány ut 2-4, Vácrátót 2163, Hungary 3 Faculty of Water Sciences, Department of Water Supply and Sewerage, University of Public Service, Bajcsy-Zsilinszky utca 12–14, Baja 6500, Hungary 4 Department of Environmental Science, Sapientia Hungarian University of Transylvania, Calea Turzii 4, Cluj-Napoca 400193, Romania 5 Department of Plant Systematics, Ecology and Theoretical Biology, ELTE Eötvös Loránd University, Pázmány P. stny 1/C, Budapest 1117, Hungary 6 Interdisciplinary Research Institute on Bio-Nano-Science, Babeş-Bolyai University, Strada Treboniu Laurian 42, Cluj-Napoca 400271, Romania 7 HUN-REN-MTM-ELTE Research Group for Paleontology, Ludovika tér 2, Budapest 1083, Hungary 8 Archbishop’s Archives of Eger, Széchenyi István u. 5, Eger 3300, Hungary 13 Vegetation History and Archaeobotany Introduction Cannabis sativa L. (cannabis or common hemp) is an herbaceous plant, the wild type of which flourishes in steppes, on open, treeless habitats, also including alluvial ravines and fresh alluvial surfaces (Vavilov 1926; Riehl and Pustovoytov 2006; McPartland and Hegman 2018). It has been cultivated for several millennia in Eurasia (Long et al. 2017; McPartland and Hegman 2018). Being wind-pollinated, it is a rich pollen producer and preserves well in lake and mire sediments. Since its pollen is morphologically similar to Humulus lupulus (common hop), palynologists identify them as Cannabis/Humulus, Cannabis-type, Humulus-type or Cannabaceae. Its relative frequency increase in pollen diagrams in synchrony with pollen from other crop plants (e.g. Avena (oats), Hordeum (barley), Secale (rye), Triticum (wheat), Cerealia-type) and weeds (e.g. Centaurea cyanus, Scleranthus annuus, Plantago lanceolata) which can be used to detect its cultivation (McPartland et al. 2018). Based on archaeological finds, the first known occurrences of hemp are known from the Early Holocene sites Torihama Shell Midden in western Japan and Matsugasaki (Matsui and Kanehara 2006). Archaeobotanical studies at the Oki-no-shima site (Kobayashi et al. 2008; Noshiro and Sasaki 2014) revealed hemp seeds, which were associated with the Initial Jomon culture between 6,000 and 5,220 cal bp (Kudo et al. 2009). While the fibres of the plant were woven into textiles, as was the case with many other places where the plant was introduced, in Japan, Cannabis also held a religious significance and was revered by Japanese Shinto priests for their “cleansing” abilities (Moore 1913). Zhou et al. (2011) recovered seeds at a site associated with the Yǎngsháo culture, dated between 7,000 and 5,000 cal bp in China. Several studies also postulate that the distribution centre of hemp is in Asia (de Candolle 1883; Clarke 2010), particularly in ancient Central Asia (Gearey et al. 2005) or in the Tibetan Plateau (Clarke and Merlin 2013; McPartland et al. 2019). In addition, recent mapping of an extensive number (479) of absolutely dated pollen records from Europe found that hemp was present in steppe and dry tundra landscapes throughout Europe during the Early Holocene, Late Glacial, and last glacial period, and also during previous glaciations (McPartland et al. 2018). However, it was likely limited to two refugia in Europe during the current interglacial: the Pontic steppe and the Mediterranean coast, given the Mid-Holocene steppe bottleneck in other parts of Europe (McPartland and Hegman 2018). GIS mapping linked the first cultivation in Europe with the Copper Age Varna/Gumelniţa culture and the Bronze Age Yamnaya and Terramara cultures, for which archaeological (Rosetti 1959), palaeoethnobotanical (Pashkevich 1991) and pollen evidence (Bozilova and Beug 1994; McPartland and 13 Hegman 2018; >2% Cannabis pollen in Lake Varna (core ARS1) was found in the Yamnaya and Varna cultures in Romania, Ukraine and Bulgaria. McPartland and Hegman (2018) also argued that hemp cultivation was introduced to the Celtic and Proto-Slavic cultures by the Iron Age steppe culture, the Scythians, who then spread hemp cultivation in Europe during the Late Iron Age (LIA)/Roman Period. Repeated domestication of hemp can also not be excluded as a hypothesis. The genetic study of Zhang et al. (2018) is instructive in this respect. The genetic results revealed that C. sativa diverged into three separate genetic lineages at 2.24 Mya in synchrony with the onset of Pleistocene glaciations. Cultivated populations of Cannabis are, however, not limited to one of the three groups, suggesting that hemp (...truncated)