Denmark in which A. sativa grains have been found for 
the period 2000-1000 B.C., and there is an unbroken 
series of finds for that species from 1000 B.C. to the 
present. A. strigosa also occurred in Europe during the 
Bronze Age, as grains of that species from one site in 
Switzerland and one in adjacent France have been iden- 
tified by Mal’tsev (Jessen and Helbaek, 1944). 
Oats appear to have reached Britain somewhat later, 
with the earliest samples of A. strigosa or A. brevis and 
A. sativa dated about 150 B.C. (Jessen and Helbaek, 
1944). Early remains of oats from England are always 
found mixed with larger samples of wheat and barley, 
suggesting the oats were weeds. Samples from Scotland, 
however, are almost exclusively oats. Oat culture in 
Britain seems to have increased following the Anglo- 
Saxon invasions and 4. fatwa appears in grain samples 
from this period. 
Written Records 
The written history of oats begins with the Greeks and 
Romans. According to Stanton (1936), Theophrastus, 
Cato, Cicero, Ovid and Varro knew oats only as a weed 
which was sometimes used for medicinal purposes. Thus 
oats were not cultivated in the ancient world of those 
writers, and De Candolle (1888) reported that oat cul- 
ture was not introduced to Greece and Italy until the 
latter half of the Roman Empire. However, Columella 
and Pliny (Werth, 1944) indicate that the German bar- 
barians ate oatmeal, and De Candolle interpreted the re- 
marks of Pliny to indicate the Romans were not ac- 
quainted with its use. Also Galen wrote (according to 
De Candolle) that oats abounded in parts of Asia Minor 
where they were fed to horses, but were also eaten by 
men in times of distress. Other records for the early cul- 
ture of oatsin the Near East are wanting. Moldenke and 
[ 296 ] 
