Paleoethnobotany
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Archaeobotanical evidence reveals the origins of bread 14,400 years ago in northeastern Jordan Open
Significance Despite being one of the most important foodstuffs consumed in the modern world, the origins of bread are still largely unknown. Here we report the earliest empirical evidence for the preparation of bread-like products by Natu…
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Validating earliest rice farming in the Indonesian Archipelago Open
Preserved ancient botanical evidence in the form of rice phytoliths has confirmed that people farmed domesticated rice ( Oryza sativa ) in the interior of Sulawesi Island, Indonesia, by at least 3,500 years ago. This discovery helps to res…
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Roman and medieval crops in the Iberian Peninsula: A first overview of seeds and fruits from archaeological sites Open
This paper presents an overview of the current state of research on Roman, Late Antique and medieval agriculture in the Iberian Peninsula through the study of archaeobotanical samples (seeds and fruits) collected on a large number of rural…
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A methodological approach to the study of archaeological cereal meals: a case study at Çatalhöyük East (Turkey) Open
This paper presents an integrated methodology for the analysis of archaeological remains of cereal meals, based on scanning electronic microscopic analyses of microstructures of charred food fragments from Neolithic Çatalhöyük (Turkey). Th…
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Cereal processing at Early Neolithic Göbekli Tepe, southeastern Turkey Open
We analyze the processing of cereals and its role at Early Neolithic Göbekli Tepe, southeastern Anatolia (10th / 9th millennium BC), a site that has aroused much debate in archaeological discourse.
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Prehistoric and Early Historic Food Plants in the Netherlands Open
(pp. 167 & 170) This paper presents a study of charred seed finds from the Netherlands, covering a period from about 2350 B.C. to 900 A.D. Remains of crop plants recovered from coastal settlement sites (ca. 500 B.C.-1000 A.D.) are also inc…
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From influence to impact: The multifunctional land use in Mediterranean prehistory emerging from palynology of archaeological sites (8.0-2.8 ka BP) Open
Archaeobotany is used to discover details on local land uses in prehistoric settlements developed during the middle and beginning of late Holocene. Six archaeological sites from four countries (Spain, Italy, Greece, and Turkey) have pollen…
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Dung burning in the archaeobotanical record of West Asia: where are we now? Open
In the early 1980s Naomi Miller changed the field of palaeoethnobotany; her research into whether the ancient seed eaters of southwest Asia were human or herbivore opened an ongoing debate over the impact that burning of animal dung had on…
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Predictive Method for Correct Identification of Archaeological Charred Grape Seeds: Support for Advances in Knowledge of Grape Domestication Process Open
The identification of archaeological charred grape seeds is a difficult task due to the alteration of the morphological seeds shape. In archaeobotanical studies, for the correct discrimination between Vitis vinifera subsp. sylvestris and V…
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Foraging and farming: archaeobotanical and zooarchaeological evidence for Neolithic exchange on the Tibetan Plateau Open
Archaeological research has documented the migration of Neolithic farmers onto the Tibetan Plateau by 4000 BC. How these incoming groups interacted, if at all, with local indigenous foragers, however, remains unclear. New archaeobotanical …
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State of the (t)art. Analytical approaches in the investigation of components and production traits of archaeological bread-like objects, applied to two finds from the Neolithic lakeshore settlement Parkhaus Opéra (Zürich, Switzerland) Open
The site of Parkhaus Opéra is located on the north-eastern shore of Lake Zürich (Switzerland) and was documented during a rescue excavation in 2010 and 2011 by the Office for Urbanism, City of Zürich. Two charred bread-like objects were fo…
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The pre-Columbian introduction and dispersal of Algarrobo (Prosopis, Section Algarobia) in the Atacama Desert of northern Chile Open
Archaeological and palaeoecological studies throughout the Americas have documented widespread landscape and environmental transformation during the pre-Columbian era. The highly dynamic Formative (or Neolithic) period in northern Chile (c…
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The Archaeology of Neolithic Cooking Traditions: Archaeobotanical Approaches to Baking, Boiling and Fermenting Open
The Neolithic was not only a shift in how food was obtained, through farming, but it also set up long-lasting traditions in how foods were prepared and cooked. Archaeologists have increasingly recognized regionally distinctive emphases on …
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Macrobotanical evidence (wood charcoal and seeds) from the Middle Palaeolithic site of El Salt, Eastern Iberia: Palaeoenvironmental data and plant resources catchment areas Open
Despite the current growing number of studies that focus on macrobotanical remains from Middle Palaeolithic contexts, plant use among hunter-gatherer societies remains unknown in many regions of Europe. Large-scale flotation of archaeologi…
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Ancient DNA from 8400 Year-Old Çatalhöyük Wheat: Implications for the Origin of Neolithic Agriculture Open
Human history was transformed with the advent of agriculture in the Fertile Crescent with wheat as one of the founding crops. Although the Fertile Crescent is renowned as the center of wheat domestication, archaeological studies have shown…
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From Traditional Farming in Morocco to Early Urban Agroecology in Northern Mesopotamia: Combining Present-day Arable Weed Surveys and Crop Isotope Analysis to Reconstruct Past Agrosystems in (Semi-)arid Regions Open
We integrate functional weed ecology with crop stable carbon and nitrogen isotope analysis to assess their combined potential for inferring arable land management practices in (semi-)arid regions from archaeobotanical assemblages. Weed and…
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Distribution of phytoliths in plants: a review Open
Phytoliths are ergastic siliceous substances present abundantly within intercellular spaces as well as inside the cells of numerous plants. Being made up of silica, they are nondegradable and hence found preserved as microfossils in variou…
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Assessing the occurrence and status of wheat in late Neolithic central China: the importance of direct AMS radiocarbon dates from Xiazhai Open
The introduction of wheat into central China is thought to have been one of the significant contributions of interactions between China and Central Asia which began in the 3rd millennium bc. However, only a limited number of Neolithic whea…
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Millets and Herders: The Origins of Plant Cultivation in Semiarid North Gujarat (India) Open
Botanical evidence suggests that North Gujarat (India) was a primary center of plant domestication during the mid-Holocene. However, lack of systematic archaeobotanical research and significant taphonomic processes have so far hampered the…
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Farming legumes in the pre-pottery Neolithic: New discoveries from the site of Ahihud (Israel) Open
New discoveries of legumes in the lower Galilee at the prehistoric site of Ahihud in Israel shed light on early farming systems in the southern Levant. Radiocarbon dating of twelve legumes from pits and floors indicate that the farming of …
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Macro-Process of Past Plant Subsistence from the Upper Paleolithic to Middle Neolithic in China: A Quantitative Analysis of Multi-Archaeobotanical Data Open
Detailed studies of the long-term development of plant use strategies indicate that plant subsistence patterns have noticeably changed since the Upper Paleolithic, when humans underwent a transitional process from foraging to agriculture. …
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Prehistoric cereal foods of southeastern Europe: An archaeobotanical exploration Open
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Neolithic to Bronze Age (4850–3450 cal. BP) fire management of the Alpine Lower Engadine landscape (Switzerland) to establish pastures and cereal fields Open
Agro-pastoral activities in the past act as environmental legacy and have shaped the current cultural landscape in the European Alps. This study reports about prehistoric fire incidents and their impact on the flora and vegetation near the…
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The Fields that Outlived the Celts: The Use-histories of Later Prehistoric Field Systems (Celtic Fields or<i>Raatakkers</i>) in the Netherlands Open
The Celtic field research programme of Groningen University involves research excavations of Dutch Celtic fields or raatakkers: embanked field plots thought to date to the Iron Age (c. 800 cal bc –12 bc ). In this paper, detailed attention…
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Mashes to Mashes, Crust to Crust. Presenting a novel microstructural marker for malting in the archaeological record Open
The detection of direct archaeological remains of alcoholic beverages and their production is still a challenge to archaeological science, as most of the markers known up to now are either not durable or diagnostic enough to be used as sec…
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Cooking in caves: Palaeolithic carbonised plant food remains from Franchthi and Shanidar Open
Research on Palaeolithic hunter-gatherer diet has focused on the consumption of animals. Evidence for the use of plant foods is comparatively limited but is rapidly expanding. The authors present an analysis of carbonised macro-remains of …
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<i>Chenopodium</i>Seeds in Open-Air Archaeological Sites – How to Not Throw the Baby Out with the Bathwater Open
Differentiating between charred and uncharred plant remains may appear straightforward but \nfor some taxa (here fat-hen, Chenopodium album type) can be very problematic. Recognition of \nthe preservation state is obviously crucial for arc…
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Archaeological and historical insights into the ecological impacts of pre-colonial and colonial introductions into the Philippine Archipelago Open
The tropical forests of the Philippine Archipelago are some of the most threatened in the 21st century. Among the most prominent threats are the introduction of new plant and animal species, as well as new forms of land management (e.g. pl…
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The burning issue of dung in archaeobotanical samples: a case-study integrating macro-botanical remains, dung spherulites, and phytoliths to assess sample origin and fuel use at Tell Zeidan, Syria Open
Since Naomi Miller's first discussion of dung fuel within macro-botanical samples from Malyan, Iran, considerations of dung fuel across Southwest Asia have become commonplace, yet archaeobotanists remain divided on: (1) the extent to which…
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Early Neolithic (ca. 5850-4500 cal BC) agricultural diffusion in the Western Mediterranean: An update of archaeobotanical data in SW France Open
Farming economy was first introduced to the coastal areas of Southern France by Impressa groups (ca. 5850-5650 cal BC), originating from Italy, and subsequently spread to the hinterland by Cardial/Epicardial communities (ca. 5400-4500 cal …