Modern plant use and garbage disposal practices in an Iranian village were observed in order to provide a framework for the interpretation of plant remains from ancient Malyan, a third millennium B.C. urban center in southern Iran. The ethnoarchaeological model suggested that many carbonized seeds originate in dung cake fuel. By applying this proposition to the archaeobotanical material from Ma...

An important concern of paleoethnobotanists is accounting for the presence and charring of seeds recovered archeologically. The possibility that seeds can be brought to a site incorporated in animal dung and charred when that dung is burned as fuel is considered. Researchers have shown that animal dung can contain seeds. Ethnoarcheological data from the rural village of Malyan, Iran demonstrate...

When attempting to deal with questions involving the emergence and evolution of ancient complex societies, one of the major problems faced by researchers is how to monitor abstract processes from the material remains recovered in excavation. Clay sealings and tablets, which provide multiple independent lines of information: iconographic and/or epigraphic; functional (type of sealing i.e. door l...

Plant remains from archaeological sites reflect many aspects of the relationship between people, plants, and the environment in which they lived. Plant macroremains—seeds and wood that are visible without a microscope—can address a wide range of questions. The most basic include what crops were grown? What was used for fuel? Do any of the plants come from distant lands? Examples from fourth and...

Plant remains from archaeological sites can provide information about the ancient environment. However, these remains should be considered archaeological artifacts, "filtered" through human culture. Adequate interpretation is only possible, and is indeed enriched, by taking the cultural practices of human populations into account. This approach is applied to archaeobotanical materials from Maly...

plant remains from archaeological sites reflect many aspects of the relationship between people, plants, and the environmentin which they lived. plant macroremains—seeds and wood that are visible without a microscope—can address a widerange of questions. the most basic include what crops were grown? what was used for fuel? do any of the plants comefrom distant lands? examples from fourth and th...

Plant remains from archaeological sites reflect many aspects of the relationship between people, plants, and the environmentin which they lived. Plant macroremains—seeds and wood that are visible without a microscope—can address a widerange of questions. The most basic include what crops were grown? What was used for fuel? Do any of the plants comefrom distant lands? Examples from fourth and th...