Better detection and taxonomic identification of cereal leaves is expected to result in a better understanding of the presence and function of crop products at archaeological sites. Therefore, this ...paper focuses on bilobate phytoliths from leaves of Pennisetum glaucum (L.) R. Br and Sorghum bicolor ssp. bicolor (L.) Moench, which are two important crop plants that regularly co-occur at archaeological sites in Africa and the Indian subcontinent. These two taxa are further compared with Panicum miliaceum L. and Setaria italica (L.) P. Beauvois, which is of relevance for agricultural sites in prehistoric South Asia, Eastern Asia, Africa, and part of Eurasia where the four crops certainly or presumably co-occur.
Leaves of Pennisetum glaucum and Sorghum bicolor were systematically sampled to explore the variation of short cells and to collect 27 morphometric variables of 3100 bilobate phytoliths with newly developed open-source software. This study provides new information on the occurrence of cross-like and notched (nodular) bilobate short cells in leaves of pearl millet and trilobates in sorghum, which is of relevance for taxonomic distinction. The morphometric variables of the bilobates phytoliths do not allow for taxonomic classification between P. glaucum and S. bicolor. Possibilities for taxonomic distinction between the leaves of these taxa should thus be searched in other directions than bilobate phytolith morphometry. The obtained morphometric data are nevertheless important since they allow for future comparison with other taxa. Indeed, morphometric analysis allows for distinction between Pennisetum glaucum/Sorghum bicolor, Panicum miliaceum and Setaria italica.
Furthermore, one P. glaucum population that was grown in a rather different climate than the others also shows different bilobate morphometry results. This difference between P. glaucum populations points to phytolith morphometry possibly being influenced by environmental settings. Moreover, it has implications for sampling strategies of similar research and the validity of morphometric identification criteria based on data from few reference populations or reference populations from a single region.
The excavations at Nya Lödöse (1473-1624) revealed evidence of medicinal practice from the period in three forms: healed injuries and indications of disease found as pathologies on human bones, ...internal use of herbal medicine found in the stomach region of burials, and evidence of cultivation and preparation of medicinal plants in gardens inside and outside the town. Indications are that medical treatments were part of everyday life of the town and that a domestic tradition of medicine, closely linked to the scholarly practices of the time, was practiced. The skeletal remains from the town cemetery bear witness to the caring of injured and ill persons, probably within the family or household. There are also indications of more advanced treatments, possibly executed by professionals such as surgeons.
El análisis antracológico realizado en el sito de El Caño (provincia de Coclé, Panamá) nos permite hacer una primera aproximación a las posibilidades que este tipo de análisis arqueobotánico ...proporciona para el estudio de las sociedades de jefatura, y específicamente de sus contextos funerarios. La identificación de los recursos leñosos utilizados, y el establecimiento de hipótesis acerca de su posible función en relación con el ritual mortuorio, es fundamental para poder profundizar en la comprensión del ritual y de la gestión de los recursos realizada por las jefaturas en el istmo de Panamá.
This article presents a synthesis of the hypotheses and evidence for plant domestication and the origins of agriculture in the northern Horn of Africa. To date, available archaeological data point to ...an introduction of agricultural practices to Ethiopia during the late Holocene, c. 1600 BC, influenced by adjacent areas including eastern Sudan, Egypt and southern Arabia. The archaeobotanical record shows that farming in the northern highlands was based on the cultivation of barley, linseed and lentils, combined with the exploitation of local wild grasses from the Panicoideae and Chloridoideae sub-families. This indicates that local populations also played a role in the development of productive activities in the region, a process that might have been in place before the arrival of the southwest Asian agricultural package. After the first millennium BC, amidst an increase in sedentary settlements in the region, new domesticated crops appeared in the archaeological record. These include exogenous crops such as emmer wheat, but also indigenous plants such as t'ef and noog, which were locally domesticated likely throughout the Pre-Aksumite period. With the rise of the Aksumite Kingdom, c. 50 BC - AD 700, the agricultural package again expanded to include of a wide range of pulses, geophytes and other economic crops. Macrobotanical remains of sorghum and finger millet also appear for the first time during this period, although this contrasts with the microbotanical record of the region, which points to an earlier presence. In the southern highlands and southwest Ethiopia, evidence of Plectranthus edulis (Vatke) Agnew (Ethiopian potato or Oromo potato) has been identified by the late first millennium BC, pointing towards an earlier domestication than previously considered. Similarly, enset and coffee remains have been documented during the early first millennium AD. Altogether, new studies are needed to confirm some of these hypotheses, as archaeobotanical studies in the northern Horn are still limited. The combination of macrobotanical and microbotanical data, along with ethnoarchaeological and experimental research programs and linguistic studies, will be of critical importance for refining our current understanding of the processes associated with plant domestication and the introduction of crop production in the region.
The paper reports on the urban archaeobotany of Modena, a town that lies on the southern Po Plain of the Emilia Romagna region, Northern Italy. Founded in 183 BC, it was an important Roman colony ...known as Mutina. The integrated study of micro- and macro-remains, the interdisciplinary archaeological and botanical approach, and the comparison of on-site/off-site records allow the reconstruction of an urban environment of the past. Pollen and macroremains from four archaeological sites located in and around the ancient walls, along with pollen from an off-site trench, were studied with an integrated approach, aimed at reconstructing the main floristic, vegetational and palaeoecological features of the town and its surroundings between the 6th century BC and the 10th century AD. During the Roman age, the natural plant landscape was characterised by wetlands, thinly scattered mixed oak woods, cereal fields, gardens and other human environments; during the Late Roman and Early Medieval age, the woodlands increased. Some currently rare, or locally extinct, species lived in the area. The fragmentation of the landscape has been evident since the Roman times because pieces of the natural environments have survived near lands strongly modified by inhabitants.
•The development of urban landscapes is investigated by integrated archaeobotany.•On-site/off-site records allow the reconstruction of an urban environment of the past.•A Roman town of the Po Plain showed high plant biodiversity.•Habitat fragmentation was already present in the Roman times.•Semi-natural environments at the edges of the town were evident at Early Medieval age.
This work presents the results of archaeobotanical examinations of fragments of monumental
terracruda
sculptures from the Buddhist sites of Tepe Narenj and Qol-e-tut (Kabul, Afghanistan—5th to ...eleventh centuries CE). The results indicate that different plants and parts of plants were intentionally added to the clay mixtures. In particular, we identified an extensive presence of bast fibres, which were not evidenced by macroscopic examinations and previous analyses. Among the fibres, we highlight the presence of ramie/nettle, whose use has been identified for the first time in this type of artworks. The determination of these herbaceous additives offer a new perspective for studying the manufacturing technique, as well as an anchor point to follow this tradition along the Silk Roads. It also provides relevant information that should be taken into account in the design of conservative interventions adapted to the specific nature of this heritage.
We present the plant macroremains from the site of Vadnagar, an important centre of Buddhist learning in western India spanned between first century BCE and fourth century CE. The cultural relics and ...AMS dates of the recovered carbonized seeds from the cultural horizon also confirm the archaeological context. The study indicate that the likely staples were cereals (Oryza sativa, Hordeum vulgare, Triticum aestivum), leguminous crops (Vigna unguiculata, Vigna radiata, Vigna mungo, and Macrotyloma uniflorum), and oil and fibre-yielding (Linum usitatissimum and Gossypium sp.) crops. In addition, there is an evidence that fruits such as Tamarindus indica and Ziziphus sp. may have been consumed by the settlers. Few weeds and wild taxa (Paspalum scrobiculatum, Vicia sp., and Ipomoea sp.), which turned up as an admixture with the above economically important seeds/grains have also been encountered. Abundance of Oryza sativa (rice) grains and spikelet bases indicate crop-processing at the site and played significant role in the subsistence economy. Moreover, the overall assemblage of summer and winter crops suggests the prevalence of multi-cropping system attributed to conducive environmental conditions during ~100BCE–400CE.
In the 1960s and 1970s, two copper-smelting sites (Sites 2 and 30) and a cultic place (the 'Hathor Shrine', Site 200) were excavated by Beno Rothenberg's 'Arabah Expedition' in the Timna Valley. They ...yielded rich archaeobotanical assemblages, most of which were never published. These data provide a rare opportunity to reconstruct plant food aspects of the daily lives of copper smelters. In this study, we were able to locate and identify some 10,000 plant remains, dated to the final phase of the Late Bronze Age and the early Iron Age (the 13th-9th centuries BCE). Most of the finds are fruits (grape, date, fig and olive). We suggest that this evidence represents dried or pickled fruits, consumed by the smelters throughout the day due to their calorie-rich value and ease of use. Plant-based food preparation was probably carried out elsewhere, in ephemeral tent encampments. In addition, the shrine's plant assemblage, which includes the same species found in the smelting camps, suggests that the metalworkers used their food as an offering to the goddess Hathor (and possibly also to other deities).
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