Archaeobotanical Analysis

Archaeobotanical Perspectives on the Rural-Urban Connection

Archaeobotanical Methodology: Results of an Archaeobotany Questionnaire

In preparation for a 2010 Society for American Archaeology Forum organized by Christine Hastorf, “Quantification and Presentation: Effective Means of Presenting Plant Evidence in Archaeology,” I devised a questionnaire about archaeobotany methodology. In the autumn of 2009, I posted a link to the survey on “www.surveymonkey.com.” I alerted archaeobotanists through the Archaeobotany listserv (ww...

Early plant domestications in southern India: some preliminary archaeobotanical results

Analysis of flotation samples from twelve sites in Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh (south India) provides clear evidence for the predominant subsistence plants of the Neolithic period (2,800–1,200 cal b.c.). This evidence indicates that the likely staples were two pulses (Vigna radiata and Macrotyloma uniflorum) and two millet-grasses (Brachiaria ramosa and Setaria verticillata) which were indigen...

Contrasting Patterns in Crop Domestication and Domestication Rates: Recent Archaeobotanical Insights from the Old World

BACKGROUND Archaeobotany, the study of plant remains from sites of ancient human activity, provides data for studying the initial evolution of domesticated plants. An important background to this is defining the domestication syndrome, those traits by which domesticated plants differ from wild relatives. These traits include features that have been selected under the conditions of cultivation. ...

Archaeobotanical Study of Ancient Food and Cereal Remains at the Astana Cemeteries, Xinjiang, China

Starch grain, phytolith and cereal bran fragments were analyzed in order to identify the food remains including cakes, dumplings, as well as porridge unearthed at the Astana Cemeteries in Turpan of Xinjiang, China. The results suggest that the cakes were made from Triticum aestivum while the dumplings were made from Triticum aestivum, along with Setaria italica. The ingredients of the porridge ...