archaeobotany (Other Keyword)
101-125 (130 Records)
Often plants recovered from archaeological sites are not seen as keys to interpreting the agency associated with social contexts and cultural identities. Yet, the physical remains of plants left behind by individuals and communities, like other aspects of material culture, are the result of the choices made, completed actions, knowledge availability, and goals/strategies. This paper highlights and recenters traditional ecological knowledge of the Mashantucket Pequot Tribe from 1000 to 1800 A.D....
Preliminary Report on the Archaeobotany of the John Hollister Site (2018)
This paper reports on and begins the process of addressing research questions related to the archaeobotanical remains from the 17th-century John Hollister Site in Glastonbury, Connecticut. The site boasts an extraordinary level of botanical preservation and promises to be a significant contribution to the understanding of the period’s regional foodways. Initial results suggest a mixture of indigenous plants and taxa that likely entered the region with early European settlement. This mirrors the...
Presentation of the past; interaction and storytelling; how we grow through dialog (2017)
While archaeobotanist’s work hard at interpreting botanical data, one way to improve our interpretations is to interact about our material, tacking between raw and adjusted data to better understand those transformations with others, bringing us closer to the past. Like a gear change, presenting material and hearing responses make a big difference in our explanations and perspectives. I stress this here because of Steve’s crucial initiation of the Society for Ethnobiology some years ago, which...
Prestige Foods and the Adoption of Pottery by Subarctic Foragers (2017)
In the last two millennia before European contact, pottery technology was adopted by foragers across much of the southern Canadian Boreal Forest in response to the spread of Woodland (~100 BC – AD 1700) cultural influence. However, the function and importance of pottery in these northern societies remains unclear due to a combination of poor organic preservation, thin and disturbed stratigraphy, and limited archaeological exploration. In this study, we summarize the results of food residue...
The Promontory Caves Plant Macrofossil Record (2017)
The dry deposits in Promontory Caves #1 and #2, northern Utah, contain abundant well-preserved plant materials related to the late prehistoric occupations there. Much of the plant macrofossil record in both caves, especially Cave #1, represents the manufacture of textiles, in particular the production of bulrush matting. Plant remains attributable to dietary use constitute a small part of the overall assemblage, consistent with the negligible evidence of plant food processing such as milling...
Provisioning and Agricultural Economy at Roman Gordion: Integrating Archaeobotany and Zooarchaeology (2017)
Naomi Miller conducted extensive archaeobotanical research at the urban center of Gordion, in central Turkey, where she worked closely with zooarchaeologist Melinda Zeder to publish an integrated study of diachronic change in agricultural economies and land use. One period, however, was not included in this study: Roman Gordion, when the once-large city became a small military encampment. Drawing on the foundational effort of Miller and Zeder, we couple archaeobotanical data with new...
Putting Archaeobotany Under the Microscope: A Case Study for Increased Use of Starch-Grain and Residue Analyses on the North Coast of Peru (2015)
Due to the arid environment and subsequent excellent preservation on the north coast of Peru, evidence obtained from macrobotanical remains here has been the primary sources of information on plant use. However, despite the richness of the macrobotanical record, the combination of arid conditions and the nature of many plants, such as potatoes and beans – which are consumed in their entirety – macrobotanical remains can only tell us so much. In this paper, we discuss some methodological issues...
Putting Archaeobotany Under the Microscope: A Case Study for Increased Use of Starch-Grain and Residue Analyses on the North Coast of Peru
Due to the arid environment and subsequent excellent preservation on the north coast of Peru, evidence obtained from macrobotanical remains here has been the primary sources of information on plant use. However, despite the richness of the macrobotanical record, the combination of arid conditions and the nature of many plants, such as potatoes and beans – which are consumed in their entirety – macrobotanical remains can only tell us so much. In this paper, we discuss some methodological issues...
Putting Archaeobotany Under the Microscope: A Case Study for Increased Use of Starch-Grain Residue Analysis on the North Coast of Peru (2015)
Due to the arid environment and subsequent excellent preservation on the north coast of Peru, evidence obtained from macrobotanical remains here has been the primary sources of information on plant use. However, despite the richness of the macrobotanical record, the combination of arid conditions and the nature of many plants, such as potatoes and beans – which are consumed in their entirety – macrobotanical remains can only tell us so much. In this paper, we discuss some methodological issues...
Reconstructing Seasonal Subsistence Patterns: A Case Study in Michigan's Saginaw Valley (2017)
The Saginaw Valley provides one of the most robust records of Michigan’s prehistoric subsistence history. Of this 10,000-year history, the Middle Woodland to Late Woodland regional transformation has been a particular point of interest concerning local subsistence practices. Previous research has hypothesized a three-zone seasonal subsistence strategy as an essential element of the Saginaw Valley Late Woodland adaptive shift. In particular, this regime included a reliance on riverine and...
Roots, Resilience, and Resistance: Evaluating Evidence of African American Herbal Medicine (2022)
This is an abstract from the session entitled "New Avenues in the Study of Plant Remains from Historical Sites" , at the 2022 annual meeting of the Society for Historical Archaeology. This paper will explore pursuits of well-being, resistance, and resilience by looking at ethnohistorical and macrobotanical evidence for African American herbal medicine from the American South. Ethnographic and oral history records highlight the historical importance of herbal medicine to African American...
Scrapyards, Curious Constructions, and Local Engagement: A Southeast Arabian Perspective on Building a Flotation Machine (2017)
Since the late 1960s, flotation has been used to extract macrobotanical remains from soil. Machine-assisted flotation is a popular method; however, very few publications discuss the logistics of designing and constructing such a machine (notable exceptions include (Hunter and Gassner 1998; Nesbitt 1995; Pearsall 2015; Shelton and White 2010)). Flotation machines are often built in the country of research. The availability of local resources impacts the design, construction, and operation of a...
The Secret Life of Cacao in the Ecuadorian Upper Amazon (2017)
Genetic studies suggest that cacao (Theobroma cacao L.) domestication occurred in the Upper Amazon of southeastern Ecuador and northeastern Peru and was then transported by humans northwards to Central America and Mexico. As such, we should expect to find the earliest archaeological evidence of cacao use in the tropical forests of South America. This paper presents starch granule evidence for the early use of cacao from the Upper Amazon site of Santa Ana-La Florida during the Ecuadorian Early...
A Seedy Affair: An Archaeobotanical Study of the Johnston Site (36In2) (2015)
Archaeobotanical research can provide archaeologists with insights into what plant resources past peoples were consuming and utilizing as well as the spatial organization of resource use and other activities within a site. Investigations at the Johnston Site, a large ring village located in Western Pennsylvania date back to the 1950s, yet until recently, relatively little research has been completed with archaeobotanical samples. This Late Prehistoric site is categorized in literature as...
"Some interest has been expressed in regard to the diet of the children": The Documentary and Archaeological Implications of Food at the Dorchester Industrial School for Girls. (2018)
The "flora" portion of past diets tends to be an aspect of archaeological assemblages that becomes partially inferred, rather than completely recreated. When they exist, documentary records such as purchase lists and recipes can suggest dietary preferences. Archaeologically recovered macrobotanical assemblages display a concrete portion of consumption practices, but within the constraints of showing a small percentage of plant material that only survives in certain preservation...
Starch Grain Analysis of Bedrock Mortars in California: Implications to Our Understanding of California Prehistory (2017)
Starch grain analysis is a growing field in California archaeology, with the potential to significantly add to our understanding of prehistoric peoples. Using a non-destructive extraction method for field sampling bedrock mortars, I was able to extract microscopic plant residues from the mortar surface for analysis. The subsequent identifications were made using my ethnographically-informed comparative collection of modern native plants. The results of this research indicate that the function of...
Study of Archeobotanical Remains from El Campanario Site: A Preliminary Analysis of a Middle Horizon site in the North Coast of Peru, Huarmey Valley (2016)
During the Middle Horizon, the Andean area experienced significant cultural transformations in settlement patterns, architecture, ceramic style, and subsistence strategies, which are commonly associated with the Wari Empire. The region surrounding the Wari capital in Ayacucho was transformed to increase agricultural productivity in order to support the growing population. The increase of agricultural productivity can be also observed in the provinces in which the transformation of the land was...
Sustenance & Style: A Holistic Interpretation of Archaeobotanicals & Artifacts in 19th Century Philadelphia (2020)
This is a paper/report submission presented at the 2020 annual meeting of the Society for Historical Archaeology. Archaeobotanical assemblages can provide a rich and varied perspective on how past communities interacted with plants, their surrounding environment, and each other. As with other artifact types, however, the interpretation of archaeobotanicals is inherently limited due to the specific depositional behaviors and environments necessary for the survival of botanical material....
Swahili Agriculture and Power Dynamics in Regional Perspective (2017)
Urbanization along the Swahili coast coincided with an increasing importance of Islam, stone architecture, and materials traded through connections built inland as well as with Indian Ocean merchants. Archaeobotanical data from the town of Chwaka on Pemba Island, Tanzania (AD 1100-1500) suggest that foodways turned towards Asian crops, including rice and legumes, during the urbanization process. Beyond subsistence, crops held political power. Jeffrey Fleisher (2010) has suggested that feasting...
Tracing Pathways of Power, Identity, and Landscape at Río Amarillo, Copan Valley, Honduras (2017)
During the Late Classic period, the ancient community of Río Amarillo was actively engaged in the politics of the city of Copan, whether willingly or not. Some have suggested that the fertile bajos of the Río Amarillo East Pocket may have produced food for the city to its west, ameliorating shortages that could have arisen due to its rising population. Archaeological research conducted by the Proyecto Arqueológico Río Amarillo, Copan (PARAC) since 2011 has recovered information regarding both...
Using Computerized X-ray Tomography to track rates of Agricultural Domestication using Seed coat Thickness (2017)
Pulses were an important crop in human prehistory. Tracking traits of domestication in pulses has been limited in the past due to poor preservation of diagnostic features of domestication. Traditionally, morphometric techniques have focused on changes in seed size. The authors measured horsegram (Macrotyloma uniflorum) from South Asia, dating from the Neolithic (2000BC) to the Early Historic Period (400-700AD), which showed an increase through time with domestication. This is in juxtaposition to...
Using Practice Theory to Infer Household Behaviors at Islamic Ashkelon (2016)
The contents of archaeological features targeted for the recovery of botanical remains, such as hearths, ovens, pits, and floor surfaces, are more often than not the cumulative residue of multiple episodes of cooking, cleaning, or other activities that deposit and preserve plant parts. The actions responsible for this deposition can be illuminated when the patterns within the assemblage are interpreted within the framework of practice theory, which is well-suited for such applications due to its...
Views of Gordion and the Surrounding Region (2010)
Photographs accompanying Botanical Aspects of Environment and Economy at Gordion, Turkey. All photographs by Naomi F. Miller except where noted.
What can archaeobotanical remains from exceptionally well preserved contexts tell us about past arctic life-ways? (2015)
Anthropological studies of western Alaska consistently remark upon the substantial knowledge of the regional flora by local Eskimo groups. Despite the attritional impact of Western lifestyles on traditional ecological knowledge, the indigenous peoples of the region maintain a rich appreciation of the plant resources available in their local environment. Yet, archaeobotanical analyses from the region remain scarce and there rests a general opinion that plants did not play an important role in...
What Can Hogup Cave Starches Tell Us about Diet That We don’t already Know? Context, Preservation, and the Comparison of Archaeobotanical Analyses. (2015)
Starches preserved on prehistoric artifacts including ceramics, ground stone and other lithic tools have assisted archaeologists in better understanding the relationships between technologies and food products, food processing, activity areas and tool function. However, little research has been done to identify differential starch preservation across these artifact types. In order to test whether starch preservation is uniform across tool types, and to examine whether starch records are...