Modelling Anthropic Activity Markers: A Multidisciplinary Approach to the Study of Plant-Related Domestic Activities

Summary

The concept of Anthropic Activity Markers as ethnography-derived models to interpret archaeological activities has seen a remarkable development in recent years. In this talk we present the results of MoMArq (Modelización de Marcadores de Actividades Antrópicas: de lo etnográfico a o arqueológico), a multidisciplinary project that combined cross-cultural studies with analyses of phytoliths, starch, multi-element geochemistry and spot-tests to analyse domestic plant-related activities in the past. The main focus of the project is on arid and semi-arid areas. Starting from the Standard Cross-Cultural Sample (SCCS), we build and coded a small database that includes, alongside environmental data, ethnoarchaeological information (e.g. features that can be identified in archaeological record). We then used these data to create models of distribution of the above-mentioned proxies. Ethnography-inspired models were validated through ethnoarchaeological studies and applied to a domestic space in classical Greek Olynthos. This approach allows for a better identification of how people used domestic spaces in the past for plant-related activities, specifically food processing and consumption.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Anthropic activity markers: archaeology and ethnoarchaeology   •
• Society for American Archaeology 82nd Annual Meeting, Vancouver, BC (2017)

Keywords

Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 15071