Macrobotanical Remains Research Articles

Multi-scalar foraging decisions in the Santa Barbara Channel, southern California

Abstracts Hunter-gatherer decisions about where to live were influenced by many behaviors, some easier to see in the archaeological record (i.e. hunting or trapping vertebrates, gathering shellfish, quarrying and flint knapping) and some more difficult (i.e. gathering and processing plants, environmental variability, spiritual meaning, social relationships). Spatial modeling provides a tool to examine some of those decisions based on how they influenced the location of sites. This study uses the tenets of central place foraging theory to build a multi-scalar settlement model for the Santa Barbara Channel of southern California, where rising sea levels during the Late Pleistocene and Early Holocene erased a large portion of the existing archaeological record and studies of macrobotanical remains are limited. The model is evaluated through comparison with the archaeological record, and reveals a complex set of priorities in decisions about landscape use. People appear to have evaluated different resource categories—freshwater, protein, carbohydrates, and lithic raw materials—at different spatial scales depending in part on their importance to subsistence but also on the variable productivity and distribution of the resources themselves. Spatial modeling has considerable potential for both analyzing the existing record and generating hypotheses for future research.

Agriculturalists and pastoralists: Bronze Age economy of the Murghab alluvial fan, southern Central Asia

Archaeological investigations of pastoral economies often emphasize exchange relations with agricultural populations, though for Bronze Age Eurasia the notion of a ubiquitous ‘pastoral realm’ has masked various forms of mixed subsistence economies. In Central Asia, there are few attempts to specifically identify the domestic crops utilized by mobile pastoralists or what they may suggest about the role of agriculture in mobile pastoral production or subsistence strategies. This study reports the macrobotanical remains from two Late/Final Bronze Age (ca. 1950–1300 bc) mobile pastoralist habitation sites in the Murghab alluvial fan region of southern Turkmenistan. We compare our results with published macrobotanical data from contemporary agricultural settlements in the Murghab region, as well as with other sites in broader prehistoric Eurasia. We find that mobile pastoralists in the Murghab utilized some of the same domestic crops as their sedentary neighbors. While the data presented here do not preclude the possibility that mobile pastoralists may have practiced some low-investment cultivation (particularly of millet), we hypothesize an economic model that places mobile pastoralists in direct contact with nearby sedentary farming communities through exchange for pre-processed grains. These results highlight one of the possible strategies of mobile pastoral subsistence in Central Asia, and are a further step toward identifying the various degrees of agricultural involvement in the conceptually outdated pastoral realm of Eurasia.

Multi-Proxy Analysis of Plant use at Formative Period Los Naranjos, Honduras

Paleoethnobotanical analyses of samples excavated at Los Naranjos, Honduras, provide an unprecedented record of the diversity of plants used at an early center with monumental architecture and sculpture dating between 1000 and 500 B.C. and contribute to understandings of early village life in Mesoamerica. Los Naranjos is the major site adjacent to Lake Yojoa, where analysis of an important pollen core suggests very early clearing of the landscape and shifts in the relative prevalence of certain plants over time, including increases in maize. Our results from starch grain, phytolith, and macrobotanical analysis complicate interpretation of previous pollen core dates, suggesting that maize was not as central as expected to the early inhabitants of the settlement. Moreover, with identification of macrobotanical remains recovered from flotation of sediments and extraction of microbotanical remains from adhering sediments and the surfaces of obsidian tools, we can compare the potential of each analysis in interpretations of plant use. No single method would have allowed recovery and identification of all the plants documented across sample types. The presence of botanical residues on the obsidian tools provides direct evidence of processing. Even in the small sample analyzed, we can recognize tools used exclusively for culinary processing, tools used only for non-culinary tasks, and multi-purpose tools.

Fire-reliant subsistence economies and anthropogenic coniferous ecosystems in the Pre-Columbian northern American Southwest

Archaeologists working in the vast coniferous uplands of the American Southwest have commonly assumed that the subsistence economies of the prehistoric peoples who dwelt there focused on corn (Zea mays) agriculture, the erratic yields of which were supplemented with the unintensive collection of wild plants. In this paper, we develop an alternative to this orthodox view, in which we posit that human-controlled burning of understory biomass was a vegetation-community and successional-stage management strategy intended to propagate wild plants in bulk quantities. By comparing the relative frequencies and ubiquities of macrobotanical remains recovered from a variety of storage and consumption contexts with pollen frequencies from production and processing contexts, we show that the systematic encouragement of ruderals in pyrogenic resource patches (“niches”) was a sustainable practice that overcame natural limitations to biomass productivity and corn cultivation in pinyon-juniper (Pinus edulis and Juniperus sp.) woodlands. Importantly, these analyses indicate that low-intensity burning was a key aspect of fire-reliant subsistence economies that generated anthropogenic ecosystems whose composition and productivity were markedly different from today’s.

Beyond Raised Fields: Exploring Farming Practices and Processes of Agricultural Change in the Ancient Lake Titicaca Basin of the Andes

ABSTRACTIn the Lake Titicaca Basin of the Andes, narratives of agricultural change have focused exclusively on a single innovation: raised fields. In this article, I examine macrobotanical remains and other archaeological datasets to elucidate a wider range of past farming practices that contributed to processes of agricultural change on the Taraco Peninsula, Bolivia, during the Formative Period (1500 B.C.E.–C.E. 500). This analysis reveals strong continuities in crop selection through time, with farmers gradually diversifying a basic set of cultigens—quinoa and tubers—but never abandoning them. Patterns in wild plant species indicate continuity in agropastoral land use up to the Late Formative Period (second century C.E.) when the unintended consequences of long‐term tilling and camelid grazing transformed the botanical landscape into one that required a new set of practices to remove weeds and replenish nutrients to the soils. Examining how these practices and the farmers enacting them articulated with broader processes of demographic, environmental, and sociopolitical change reveals dynamic, multivariate courses of agricultural change even before the inclusion of raised fields.

Dating Historical Contexts: Issues, Plant Material, and Methods to Date the Late Roman Site of Faragola, Apulia (SE Italy)

Charred plant materials found in archaeological contexts are usually considered the most reliable remains for radiocarbon dating. Usually, seeds and fruits are preferred to wood fragments because their short lifecycle reduces the range of uncertainty of the14C measurement. A selection of short-lived samples, mainly from barley and wheat, from the Late Roman site of Faragola (SE Italy) were14C dated; however, the14C dates obtained were not always consistent with the chronology provided by other archaeological evidence. A careful analysis of all the macrobotanical remains found in each of the dated contexts provides insight into the origin of the plant material, helping to distinguish betweenin situand non-in situmaterial. The14C dates are reconsidered in the context of findings and the kind of material selected for dating. Using the archaeological context, a Bayesian model was employed to reduce the range of the calibrated date and thereby refine the chronology of the site on an absolute basis.

Dating Historical Contexts: Issues, Plant Material, and Methods to Date the Late Roman Site of Faragola, Apulia (SE Italy)

Charred plant materials found in archaeological contexts are usually considered the most reliable remains for radiocarbon dating. Usually, seeds and fruits are preferred to wood fragments because their short lifecycle reduces the range of uncertainty of the14C measurement. A selection of short-lived samples, mainly from barley and wheat, from the Late Roman site of Faragola (SE Italy) were14C dated; however, the14C dates obtained were not always consistent with the chronology provided by other archaeological evidence. A careful analysis of all the macrobotanical remains found in each of the dated contexts provides insight into the origin of the plant material, helping to distinguish betweenin situand non-in situmaterial. The14C dates are reconsidered in the context of findings and the kind of material selected for dating. Using the archaeological context, a Bayesian model was employed to reduce the range of the calibrated date and thereby refine the chronology of the site on an absolute basis.

Holocene relative sea-level changes in western Brittany (France) between 7600 and 4000 cal. BP: Reconstitution from basal-peat deposits

With respect to others European oceanic facades, the Holocene relative sea-level (RSL) changes along the French Atlantic coasts have received relatively little attention. Even if it received some attention for geophysical modelling (Van de Plassche, 1991; Lambeck, 1997; Leorri et al., 2012), only two field-based studies really dealt with this subject in Western Brittany, agreeing on an oscillatory RSL pattern with a conspicuous pluri-metre negative variation occurring around 3000 BP (Morzadec-Kerfourn, 1974; Stephan, 2011). This paper is the first step on the way to update Western Brittany Holocene RSL data. It presents a new long-term Holocene RSL reconstruction based on basal peat deposits, compaction-free deposits that have been accumulated on top of the Pleistocene formations during the early-Holocene stages of the post-glacial transgression. Data used for the sea-level reconstruction are both new data and previously published datasets we have reassessed. New cores, extracted along the Finistere peninsula in the framework of a coastal risk assessment research program, allowed us to collect new stratigraphic data. Dates initially published on basal peat deposits in previous studies (Morzadec-Kerfourn, 1974) were re-assessed through the same process to allow their incorporation in a combined dataset. In the absence of microfossils in most of our deposits, an alternate approach was used to determine the salinity regime of the basal peat deposit environments through the use of stable carbon isotope ratios and the observation of macro-botanical remains: brackish peat deposits were used as sea-level index points, while freshwater ones provided only high-limiting constraints. Eight new radiocarbon datings were obtained. A total of six new sea-level index-points and six new limiting points allowed us to derivate the long-term (millennial) changes in RSL in Western Brittany. A comparison of these data with some foraminifera-based regional RSL data shows that both data sets closely match. Altogether, the combined data show the RSL bending ca. 7000 and 3000 cal. BP, indicating progressively decreasing rising rates. Further work is needed to fill the centennial to pluri-centennial gaps that remain to ascertain potential periods of stability or strong decrease in the rising rates of the RSL ca. 6200 ± 500 and 3000 ± 500 BP.

The economic and ritual utilization of plants at the Raqefet Cave Natufian site: The evidence from phytoliths

The Natufian culture marks a dramatic in the cultural evolution of our species, the shift from mobile to sedentary communities. Within this framework, analysis of their use of plants is pivotal for social and economic reconstruction. While most researchers believe the Natufians collected the grains of grasses, little direct evidence (e.g. macrobotanical remains) has been found. This current study uses phytoliths (opal silica bodies) to interpret Late Natufian plant use at Raqefet Cave (Mt. Carmel, Israel). We analyzed a wide range of sediment samples for microbotanical phytoliths remains. This analysis, of an assemblage of 35 samples, was aimed at exposing plant use at the site both in burial contexts and hewn bedrock features (e.g. mortars, cupmarks).The results indicate economic use of grass seeds, including both small-seeded varieties and large-seeded grasses such as barley and wheat. They also suggest an opportunistic approach to grass seed collection. Phytoliths found in the burials of Homo 19 and Homo 22 may be the remnants of a final meal. The phytolith assemblages from burial contexts also show abundant morphotypes from dicotyledons that are rare elsewhere in the cave. The evidence suggests that a multi-species layer of vegetation including flowering plants and Phragmites lined the graves, accompanying the dead. This adds new insights to the range of known Late Natufian mortuary practices.

Plant macro remains from Early Historic Vessel, Gilund, Rajasthan

The macrobotanical remains were recovered from the Early Historic vessel from Gilund, Rajasthan by employing dry and wet sieving techniques in the Palaeobotany laboratory. The retrieved archaeobotanical material was in carbonized and semi-carbonized state. It involves cultivated barley grains, a single cut grain of rice and a seeds of weed plant along with a bulk of wood charcoal pieces. These could survive in the carbonized state by being exposed to heat or fire. The impressions of grass leaves were found on well backed brickbats occurred in the vessel. Few molluscan shells were also retrieved during wet sieving.

Miliacin in palaeosols from an Early Iron Age in Ukraine reveal in situ cultivation of broomcorn millet

During the archaeobotanical investigation of Scythian–Sarmatian period (Early Iron Age), pits with crop processing waste, discovered in the floodplain of Donets River, eastern Ukraine, and charred remains of cereal grains, dominated by broomcorn millet, were recorded. The grains from the pits were radiocarbon dated to the fifth to first century BC. Those pits are distant from any known contemporaneous settlement. The apparent disconnection of these pits from any local settlement suggests that (1) millet was brought from other locations by mobile groups, or (2) millet was cultivated locally by populations whose settlements have left no discernible archaeological trace. The analysis of molecular biomarkers preserved in palaeosols that are stratigraphically connected to the pits revealed high levels of miliacin, a molecule that can be preserved in ancient soils and sediments, and that is consistent with broomcorn millet (Panicum miliaceum). High levels in miliacin in soils stratigraphically connected to the pits are interpreted as the result of a large biomass of P. miliaceum produced at time of soil formation. Our biogeochemical results applied to a palaeosol thus attest to the in situ cultivation of crops dominated by the broomcorn millet during the early Iron Age in the floodplain of Donets River. Biochemical examination of soils and palaeosols can thus provide useful information on past dynamics of land-use by ancient population, especially when settlements or macrobotanical remains are absent.

A day in the life of an Ubaid household: archaeobotanical investigations at Kenan Tepe, south-eastern Turkey

The Ubaid period in south-west Asia constitutes a key period of social and political change anticipating the emergence of complex societies in the following millennium. Well-preserved archaeobotanical assemblages have enormous potential to document these changes at both the site and individual household levels. The conflagration that consumed Structure 4 at the Ubaid settlement of Kenan Tepe in south-eastern Turkey provides a case study through the analysis of almost 70 000 charred macrobotanical remains. The results suggest that labour may have been pooled between households to process emmer wheat to spikelet stage after harvesting. Final processing was conducted on the roof of the house by members of the individual household as need arose. The pooling of resources may reflect the intensification of production and the emergence of elites during the Ubaid period in this region.

Starch analysis reveals prehistoric plant translocations and shell tool use, Marquesas Islands, Polynesia

Starch analysis is proving particularly useful in tropical regions like the central Pacific where crop inventories are often dominated by starchy fruits and tubers and recovery of macrobotanical remains is rare. Analysis of 23 shell tools from the Marquesas Islands provides direct evidence for translocation of five traditional crop plants. Four taxa derive from the western Pacific, including Artocarpus altilis (breadfruit), Piper methysticum (kava), Colocasia esculenta (taro), and one or more species of Dioscorea (yam). The fifth taxon, the South American Ipomoea batatas (sweet potato), dates from the 14th century AD onward and constitutes the earliest record of this cultigen in the archipelago. The occurrence of sweet potato starch suggests that this crop plant may have been more important than usually is assumed, while the limited recovery of breadfruit starch, the main Marquesan food plant at western contact, requires further investigation. The starch residues also inform on tool use, demonstrating that shell tools ethnographically associated with specific crops (e.g., “breadfruit peelers”) had more generalised functions. This study is a further demonstration of the potential of starch analysis to provide important information on the history of crop introductions, on-site activities, and artefact use.

The earliest appearance of domesticated plant species and their origins on the western fringes of the Eurasian Steppe

This paper presents the results of the first archaeobotanical investigation of NeolithicChalcolitich-period sites in eastern Ukraine and southwest Russia. The goal of this research is to understand the timeline of the earliest appearance and possible geographical origins of domesticated plants species in the region of study. The research conducted consists of the retrieval and study of macrobotanical remains and the analysis of plant impressions in pottery. Three possible corridors of influence upon agriculture in eastern Ukraine are postulated in this paper, originating from the Balkans, the Caucasus, and the Eurasian steppe.

A marked preference

<p>Questions of cultural difference in the prehispanic Andes have generally been addressed through studies of style (textile designs, ceramic form and decoration, burial patterns), space (settlement pattern), or material selection/sourcing (metal ores, lithic) analysis. Cultural preference, however, may be expressed by other means and cultural affiliation can be performed in a myriad of settings with varying accoutrement. One area of research that can be used to address cultural preferences and the performative power of the state is food practice. In this paper we analyze macrobotanical remains from two prominent Huari sites, Cerro Baúl and Conchopata. We demonstrate that these remains provide evidence for a cultural cooking practice and/or cuisine preference centered on chicha de molle production in elite Huari contexts during the Middle Horizon.</p><p>Las cuestiones sobre diferencias culturales en los Andes prehispanicos han sido, por lo general, abordadas a través de los estudios estilísticos (patrones textiles, forma y decoración cerámica, formas de entierro), espaciales (patrones de asentamiento), o de selección de materiales/proveniencia (minerales, líticos). Las preferencias culturales, sin embargo, se pueden expresar por otros medios y la filiación cultural puede realizarse en entornos múltiples con variados artefactos. Un área de investigación que puede utilizarse para discutir las preferencias culturales y la fuerza performativa del Estado es la práctica culinaria. En este artículo se discute evidencía de prácticas que no fueron registradas en restos iconograficos. A traves del analisis de los restos macrobotánicos de dos importantes sitios Huari: Conchopata y Cerro Baúl, se sostiene la presencia de una práctica culinaria, o preferencia gastronomica, centrada en la producción de chicha de molle en contextos de elite Huari durante el Horizonte Medio.</p>

Holocene climate variability and vegetation-fire feedbacks in the Patagonian Andes (35-55S)

The objective of this work is to carry out an integral study of macro and microbotanical remains with the aim of providing information to the palaeoenvironmental reconstruction and understanding the different practices employed in the acquisition of woody material used by hunter-gatherer societies from the northwestern region of the Santa Cruz Province, Argentine Patagonia, during the early and middle Holocene. For this purpose, we study macrobotanical remains (carbonized and non-carbonized wood) recovered from different combustion structures and from the sediment of the three stratigraphic levels dated by 14C and resulting in ages of 9640 ± 190 years BP; 8380 ± 120 years BP and 6150 ± 105 years BP, of the Cerro Casa de Piedra 7 site. Also, pollen and small plant fragments of human and camelid coprolites were studied. The analysis conducted show differences in the taxonomic resolution obtained by each one of the proxies. The marked representation of Nothofagus pumilio among charcoal and wood makes clear that the forest was an environment recurrently used by hunter-gatherers occupying CCP7. The study of pollen and plant fragments coming from coprolites, allowed the identification of grass species typical of the steppe environments and forest-steppe ecotonal areas. In this way, plant fragments provide higher level of taxonomic resolution and a greater diversity for paleoenvironmental reconstruction. The results obtained by means of the multi-proxy analysis allowed us not only to enlarge the reconstruction of the hunter-gatherers livable environment, but also to recognize the availability and use of the plant resources in the Early-Mid-Holocene in the region.

Pollen and Phytoliths from Fired Ancient Potsherds as Potential Indicators for Deciphering Past Vegetation and Climate in Turpan, Xinjiang, NW China

It is demonstrated that palynomorphs can occur in fired ancient potsherds when the firing temperature was under 350°C. Pollen and phytoliths recovered from incompletely fired and fully fired potsherds (ca. 2700 yrs BP) from the Yanghai Tombs, Turpan, Xinjiang, NW China can be used as potential indicators for reconstructing past vegetation and corresponding climate in the area. The results show a higher rate of recovery of pollen and phytoliths from incompletely fired potsherds than from fully fired ones. Charred phytoliths recovered from both fully fired and incompletely fired potsherds prove that degree and condition of firing result in a permanent change in phytolith color. The palynological data, together with previous data of macrobotanical remains from the Yanghai Tombs, suggest that temperate vegetation and arid climatic conditions dominated in the area ca. 2700 yrs BP.

Experimental investigation of pathogenic stress on phytolith formation in Cucurbita pepo var. texana (wild gourd)

Silica phytoliths that form in plant tissues are useful to archaeologists because of their diagnostic value and longevity in ancient deposits. Palaeoecology, site formation processes, plant domestication, and other topics are routinely addressed using phytolith assemblages, especially when macrobotanical remains are not well preserved. However, little research has been conducted to document the effects of ecological variables on phytolith formation. Here, we investigate the effects of mosaic virus and bacterial wilt disease on diagnostic scalloped phytoliths in the rind of a wild-type Cucurbita pepo var texana (gourd). We observe a minimal change in phytolith size distribution between control plants and individuals with mosaic virus. However, we observe a notable difference between plants with bacterial wilt disease and control plants, with diseased individuals carrying a greater proportion of large-diameter scalloped phytoliths. This and similar phenomena could potentially confound archaeological interpretations of phytolith assemblages, and we suggest that the effects of this and other ecological variables should be studied in a diverse range of taxa.

14C Dating of the Early Natufian at El-Wad Terrace, Mount Carmel, Israel: Methodology and Materials Characterization

The Natufian (15–11.5 kyr BP) sites in the southern Levant are characterized by a lack of macrobotanical remains, including charcoal, and poor preservation of bone collagen. As a result, only about 30 reliable radiocarbon dates are available for building a chronology of the Natufian period. Here, we present new 14C data from the Natufian site of el-Wad terrace that fall in the range of the Early Natufian period. Using Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) analysis, we investigated the environmental factors that influenced the preservation of material for 14C dating of the site, and we tested a modified pretreatment method for poorly preserved charcoal samples. The normal pretreatment protocol for 14C samples (W-ABA) removed more charcoal material than the modified method, which omits the first acid treatment (W-BA). This first acid step seems to enhance the extraction of humic substances during the subsequent base step. We found that the poor preservation of charcoal could be attributed to the presence of calcite, and therefore an alkaline pH of sediments. The most important factor determining bone collagen preservation may have been the hydrological setting, i.e. fluctuating water levels due to oversaturation of the dense sediments after rainfall.

Vinca-Belo Brdo, a late neolithic site in Serbia consideration of the macro-botanical remains as indicators of dietary habits

The analysis of macro-botanical remains from the late Neolithic site of Vinca-Belo Brdo has provided first information on the range of crops and wild plants present at the site, and revealed their potential role as foodstuffs. The abundance and distribution of certain plant taxa across different archaeological deposits suggests to what extent they were used within the settlement. The analyzed plant remains also offer insight into the types of food consumed by Vinca residents and serve as a basis for inferring the seasonality and method of food provision/production and activities related to plant use.