Infested stored crops in the Iron Age i granary at Tel Hadar

Large quantities of charred seeds of field crops were found in a granary at early Iron Age (end of the eleventh century BCE) Tel Hadar, located at the eastern shore of the Sea of Galilee, Israel. They include mainly local naked wheat (Triticum parvicoccum), as well as bitter vetch (Vicia ervilia) and chickpea (Cicer arietinum) seeds. While the wheat was heavily infested by two major storage pest beetles-granary weevil (Sitophilus granarius) and a newcomer, the lesser grain borer (Rhyzopertha dominica)- The two pulses were much less infested. The presence of a large number of adults and larvae of R. dominica suggests that the granary was burned in mid or late summer. Seeds of the weed Lolium temulentum and several other weeds were also found.