THE NATURAL ENVIRONMENT and humans’ daily needs drove the inhabitants of the Carpathian-Danubian regions to practice certain economic activities during the early Middle Ages. The demonstrated demographic growth in the regions to the north of the Lower Danube in the eighth– ninth centuries shows that economic efforts were providing the population with the products necessary for living. The investigation of archaeological remains discovered in settlements from the eighth– ninth centuries contributes to our reconstruction of economic occupations and the level of their development. The diversity of landforms and natural resources facilitated the development of a human habitat and the practice of various economic activities characteristic of both sedentary and nomadic populations. Thus, the regions west of the Western Carpathians with flat ground were propitious for nomad populations practicing, in particular, cattle breeding, and the rest of the Carpathian-Danubian territories were inhabited by a sedentary population, mainly practicing agriculture.

Agriculture

In terms of their geographical distribution, most settlements from the studied period are located on lands favourable for agriculture, which, with its two branches— soil cultivation and cattle breeding— represents the main occupations of communities in the Carpathian-Danubian-Pontic space in the eighth– ninth centuries.

Soil Cultivation

Soil cultivation, as the most important branch of agriculture, was widely practiced by human communities north of the Lower Danube since the Neolithic Age. The economic importance of agriculture in these regions was reflected in a number of studies, benefiting from comparative analysis in the context of Central and Southeastern Europe in late antiquity and the early Middle Ages. Soil cultivation depends on a number of factors relating to the geographical, pedological, and technological order. Archaeological evidence regarding plant cultivation by the inhabitants of the Carpatho-Danubian-Pontic space in the eighth and the ninth centuries consists of farm utensils, constructions for the storage and processing of cereals, traces of grains, and the remains of straw, discovered in the charred form or as imprints on pieces of clay. Using animals as labour, both for everyday household needs and for farming, may be demonstrated by the remains of domestic animals such as horses and cattle and by the presence of pieces of harness.