archaeobotany (Other Keyword)
1-25 (130 Records)
The bottle gourd (Lagenaria siceraria) has been cultivated for at least 10,000 years and was the only plant species cultivated in both the Old and New Worlds before Columbus; in this sense, it can be considered the world’s first global crop. Its durable fruit shells are used for containers, apparel and musical instruments throughout the tropics, subtropics and some temperate zones worldwide. Despite the importance of bottle gourd, its distribution across many cultures, and a long-standing...
12,500 Years of Altitude (2018)
The earliest occupations in the Salt Puna —a high elevation desert in the Andes Mountains — date to the Pleistocene-Holocene boundary and are relevant to the discussion of the timing of the first exploration and colonization of South American elevations above 3500m, as well as the relationship between mountain environments and other ecological areas. The wooden shafts used in the extractive technologies of the earliest hunter-gatherers originated outside the Puna, in the eastern lowlands....
A-Maize-ing: Phytolith evidence for an early introduction of maize in the Upper Great Lakes diet (2017)
There is no recorded maize (Zea mays ssp. mays) at Laurel or North Bay Initial/Middle Woodland sites in the northern Lake Michigan-Huron or Superior basins of the western Great Lakes, despite the presence of maize microbotanicals in Michigan, New York, and Quebec as early as 400 BC. To evaluate the potential for an early maize presence in this region, samples of carbonized food residues adhering to sixteen ceramic vessels from the Laurel/North Bay Winter site (20DE17) were processed and...
Agrarian Landscapes of coastal Croatia: a view from Nadin-Gradina (2017)
Generalized models of Mediterranean agroecosystems often elide the specific historical and political contexts in which food production necessarily takes place. This paper presents new historical-ecological research currently underway at the multi-period settlement site of Nadin-Gradina near the Adriatic coast of southern Croatia, a typically "Mediterranean" landscape that has hosted a dynamic social-political history of repeated invasion, migration, and colonization by a variety of human actors....
Agricultural Diversity in Kaminaljuyu, Guatemala: New Ideas on Environmental Resources (2024)
This is an abstract from the "Beyond Maize and Cacao: Reflections on Visual and Textual Representation and Archaeological Evidence of Other Plants in Precolumbian Mesoamerica" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Investigations carried out in recent years in various sectors of the Kaminaljuyu site have revealed relevant aspects of the use of local plants, their control, and distribution. Analysis of residues in ceramics allows us to know some data....
Agricultural Practices in the Upper Casamance Region, Senegal, 7th-19th Centuries AD: Archaeobotanical Results from Payoungou and Korop (2018)
As a result of more than 60 years of archaeobotanical research, West Africa is recognized as an important independent centre of crop domestication, and archaeobotany has shed light on the connection between the crops and foodways of West Africa and those of the American south. But much remains unknown of the history of timing and processes of West African crop domestication, and food production and processing within this ethnically and environmentally diverse region. Formerly part of the greater...
The agroecology of inequality: Novel bioarchaeological approaches to early urbanization in western Asia and Europe (2016)
In this talk we use case studies to compare the agroecology of relatively egalitarian Neolithic communities (low ginis) with that of early urban societies featuring high levels of inequality (high ginis). We use a combination of novel archaeobotanical and -zoological approaches to investigate arable land management. Neolithic sequences in western Asia, the Aegean and central Europe present contrasting settings in which early farmers developed labour-intensive cropping strategies that buffered...
Algonquian Coastal Gardens and Landscape: Interpretations from Archaeobotany (2015)
This paper explores how coastal Algonquian and shell midden sites in Tidewater Virginia relate to the greater Virginia Algonquian landscape. Through archaeological plant remains (including macrobotanical, starch grains, and phytoliths), ethnographic records, and historical documents, I am exploring landscape and garden designs along the shores of the coastal plain. The project’s archaeological sites span a combined 1,600 years (early Middle Woodland period to the early Colonial era), and the...
All Potted Up: Exploring Seasonality at Small Late Pueblo II and Early Pueblo III Sites at Petrified Forest National Park (2015)
Researchers have conducted archaeological investigations within the vicinity of what is now Petrified Forest National Park (PEFO) for over 100 years. Although the majority of archaeological sites identified at Petrified Forest National Park consist of small habitation sites that date to the late Pueblo II (1030-1125 AD) and early Pueblo III (1125-1225 AD) periods, archaeologists have gathered little information regarding the habitation practices of people during this transitional time period....
Analysis of Plant Remains from the Bronze Age Site of Pecica Şanţul Mare (2015)
The site of Pecica Şanţul Mare, Romania is among the most important settlements of the European Bronze Age to understand the origins and control of metalwork networks that redistributed the metal resources of the western Carpathian Mountains throughout prehistoric Europe. The study of the ways vegetal resources were used by the inhabitants of Pecica will provide crucial information about the level of social, political, and economic complexity achieved during the Bronze Age. In particular...
Ancient Maya Plant Use In the Mopan River Valley, Belize (2016)
The Mopan River valley was home to a number of pre-Hispanic Maya polities, including both political centers and rural communities. The forests and plant products grown in the region played crucial roles in the lifeways of these Maya, providing food, fuel, construction materials, and medicine. This paper presents preliminary results from the analysis of macrobotanical remains recovered through flotation by the Mopan Valley Archaeological Project and Mopan Valley Preclassic Project. These plant...
Anthropogenically driven decline and extinction of Sapotaceae on Nuku Hiva (Marquesas Islands, East Polynesia) (2015)
The native forests of the central and eastern Pacific Islands were extensively modified by Polynesian settlers, but our understanding of these processes are generalised. In the first large study of anthropogenic forest change in the Marquesas Islands, the identification of two members of the Sapotaceae family in archaeological charcoal assemblages was notable. Plants from this taxonomic group are poorly represented in Eastern Polynesia today, and the findings of Planchonella and another species...
Appendix C: Vegetation Survey, Localities (2010)
Descriptions of the places in which the plants were seen.
Appendix C: Vegetation Survey, Plant list (2010)
Database of plants of the Gordion region and locations in which they were seen (1988–2009).
Appendix D: Seed Measures, Barley measurements (2010)
Barley measurements from Gordion region.
Appendix D: Seed Measures, Einkorn measurements (2010)
Einkorn measurements from Gordion, Turkey.
Appendix D: Seed Measures, Emmer measurements (2010)
Emmer measurements at Gordion, Turkey.
Appendix D: Seed Measures, Flax measurements (2010)
Flax measurements from Gordion, Turkey.
Appendix D: Seed Measures, Lentil measurements 1 (2010)
Lentil measurements from Gordion, Turkey.
Appendix D: Seed Measures, Lentil measurements 2 (2010)
Lentil Measurements from Gordion, Turkey.
Appendix D: Seed Measures, Naked wheat measurements (2010)
Naked wheat measurements from Gordion, Turkey.
Appendix D: Seed Measures, Other Poaceae measurements (2010)
Other Poaceae measurements from Gordion, Turkey.
Appendix E: Charcoal Samples, Data from hand-picked charcoal samples, Burned Buildings (2010)
The tables in Appendix E include the inventory of hand-picked charcoal samples analyzed and their contents. Samples are numbered 1 to 209 in Column A or Row A in rough order by period and locus number. Following those samples are the ones from the floor deposits of the three burned buildings: 210 to 232 (Hellenistic “Abandoned Village,” YHSS 320, 330, 350), 233 to 260 (Early Phrygian Terrace Building 2A, YHSS 610, 620), 261 to 282 (Early Iron Age “BRH”= Burnt Reed House, YHSS 725), 283 to 403...
Appendix E: Charcoal Samples, Data from hand-picked charcoal samples, Debris Samples (2010)
The tables in Appendix E include the inventory of hand-picked charcoal samples analyzed and their contents. Samples are numbered 1 to 209 in Column A or Row A in rough order by period and locus number. Following those samples are the ones from the floor deposits of the three burned buildings: 210 to 232 (Hellenistic “Abandoned Village,” YHSS 320, 330, 350), 233 to 260 (Early Phrygian Terrace Building 2A, YHSS 610, 620), 261 to 282 (Early Iron Age “BRH”= Burnt Reed House, YHSS 725), 283 to 403...
Appendix E: Charcoal Samples, Inventory of hand-picked charcoal samples (2010)
The tables in Appendix E include the inventory of hand-picked charcoal samples analyzed and their contents. Samples are numbered 1 to 209 in Column A or Row A in rough order by period and locus number. Following those samples are the ones from the floor deposits of the three burned buildings: 210 to 232 (Hellenistic “Abandoned Village,” YHSS 320, 330, 350), 233 to 260 (Early Phrygian Terrace Building 2A, YHSS 610, 620), 261 to 282 (Early Iron Age “BRH”= Burnt Reed House, YHSS 725), 283 to 403...