The so-called Triticoid-type grains are known from several prehistoric sites in southwest Asia and their identification has long been unclear. They resemble the grains of wheats and researchers suggested they may represent an extinct Triticeae species, possibly closely related to wild crop progenitors. In this study we identify the Triticoid-type grains as Heteranthelium piliferum (Banks & Sol.) Hochst

The aim of this paper is to present recent advances in the microbotanical analyses of an organic residue on a potsherd from a late Holocene hunter-gatherer site in Argentine Patagonia, which is the first evidence of this kind for the processing of starchy food. Standard methods were carried out for starch grain recovery and morphometric analysis, care being taken in the prevention of cross-contamination

Analysis of plant remains of 73 taxa obtained from the graveyard of the Haihun Marquis (circa 59 bc) at Nanchang, China, is presented. Chronology was confirmed by direct AMS radiocarbon dating of both a seed and wood, while plant seeds were collected by wet sieving. Detailed composition of the samples suggests that the fundamental landscape of the graveyard was composed of Platycladus orientalis, a

Pistacia spp. remains are common finds among archaeobotanical assemblages in prehistoric sites in Southwest Asia, both in the form of endocarps and charcoal remains. However, in the absence of a systematic study of the fruit morphology, the archaeobotanical remains of Pistacia cannot be identified to the species level and this deprives us of important information on their past geographical distribution

European land-use indicators in North America typically include pollen from Poaceae (grasses), Ambrosia (ragweed), Rumex (dock), and/or Plantago (plantain). A potential complement to this list is Fabaceae (legumes), members of which were introduced by colonists to eastern North America. Historical records show that Trifolium (clover) was widespread from the earliest days of colonization, and several

Paleoethnobotanical assemblages from the Northwestern region of North America often yield geophyte subterranean organs, but these carbonized remains are difficult to identify to species or genus level. We examine 11 species (8 genera) of the most ethnographically prevalent Northwest geophyte foods for macro- and micro-morphologic geophyte features, with a focus on bulbs from the Asparagales and Liliales

A system of farming with an alternation of land use between being cultivated or left fallow as grassland (Feldgraswirtschaft) developed in southwestern Germany since the Bronze Age. It involved fallow periods, where the arable land is left without crops in order to let it recover its fertility for several years while becoming grassland. This led to regeneration of the topsoil humus, which could later

Burnt offering sites reflect the physical and spiritual aspects of human life in the inner Alps during the Bronze and Iron Ages. Burnt offerings were made in ceremonies with various parts including fire rites, from which the carbonised macro-remains testify to a significant use of plants. The individual finds and records provide information about diet, firewood supply, economic and social behaviour

New plant macrofossil studies in northwestern France enable a better insight into agriculture through the Bronze and Iron Age. Most of the previous analyses, carried out in Calvados (Normandy) on Late Iron Age dwellings, suggested distinctive characteristics such as the increase of Avena (oat) and the abundance of pulses in storage pits. The collection of a new database with 25 sites was done in response

The amount and strength of archaeobotanical and archaeological data available for the territory of the Plain of Troyes, in Champagne (north-eastern France), make it possible to write a local history of domestic plants. The story begins with the arrival of the early Neolithic farmers (5200 bc), introducing agriculture with the first staple crops, the hulled wheats emmer and einkorn, pea, lentil, and

Past vegetation, fire, and climate dynamics, as well as human impact, have been reconstructed for the first time in the highlands of the Gilan province in the Alborz mountains (above the Hyrcanian forest) for the last 4,300 cal yrs bp. Multi-proxy analysis, including pollen, spores, non-pollen palynomorphs, charcoal, and geochemical analysis, has been applied to investigate the environmental changes

This study presents the results of a palynological investigation on a sediment core from the seasonal and saline Lake Maharlou in the Zagros Mountains in southwest Iran. We emphasised studying the role of man in modifying the vegetation of the area and the dominant agricultural practices during the Imperial Persia period (2,500–1,299 cal bp; 550 bc-ad 651), particularly the Achaemenid Empire (2,500–2

A key question in archaeobotany concerns the role of herbivore dung in contributing plant remains to archaeobotanical assemblages. This issue has been discussed for at least 40 years and has motivated several archaeobotanical studies on identifying dung-derived deposition of plant remains. Meanwhile, microarchaeological methods have developed and continue to be developed for detecting dung in archaeological

Understanding the significance of pollen diversity is key to reconstructing plant diversity over long timescales. Here we present quantitative pollen-plant diversity comparisons for a mountainous area of the Western Mediterranean region. Samples were collected between 430–1,865 m elevation and pollen-plant diversity assessed through richness and turnover (beta-diversity) metrics. We found statistically

Little is known about the prehistoric domestication and cultivation of crops in the Eastern Himalayas (eastern Nepal, Bhutan, Sikkim, Arunachal Pradesh), due to a lack of archaeological and archaeobotanical research in the area. This paper reconstructs the lexical terminology for grains in the East Bodish language sub-family in Eastern Bhutan. Historical linguistic methods suggest that the immediate

Cores and trenches drilled or dug in religious and secular buildings in the hilltop town of Bergamo (northern Italy) were investigated by means of micro/macrobotanical and pedochemical analysis to unravel the cultural vegetation history of the area during ca. seven centuries across the Bronze—Iron Ages. We explore the predictive power of biological proxies, nutrients, and coupled 14C datings to reveal

Studies of the origins of agriculture in the Near East have revealed that the eight plant species known as “Founder Crops”, i.e. emmer, einkorn, barley, lentils, peas, chickpeas, bitter vetch and flax, derived from annual self-pollinating wild predecessors, were all domesticated in roughly the same period. Recent research however has prompted new debate on whether there are really only eight “Founder

This paper outlines a model for the domestication of Panicum miliaceum (broomcorn millet) in Northern China. Data from 43 archaeological sites indicate a continuous increase in average grain size between 6000 and 3300 bc. After this date there is a divergence, with grain size continuing to increase in some populations, while others show no further size increase. The initial increase in grain size is

Multi-proxy analysis of the coprolites which were found during excavations at two Late Neolithic (fourth millennium bc) pile-dwelling sites (Črnelnik and Stare gmajne) in Slovenia yielded some new insights into human–dog relations and behaviour. The digested content is presented in a multidisciplinary approach, in which palynological, palaeoparasitological, archaeobotanical and archaeozoological features

The Near East and the Caucasus are commonly regarded as the original domestication centres of Vitis vinifera (grapevine), and the region continues to be home to a high diversity of wild and cultivated grapevines, particularly within Georgia. The earliest chemical evidence for wine making was recorded in Georgian Neolithic sites (6000–5800 bc) and grape pips, possibly of the domesticated morphotype

This study applied size and shape analyses through traditional and geometric morphometrics to quantify the differences between three taxa: Lathyrus sativus (grass pea), Lens culinaris (lentil) and Vicia faba (broad bean). This analysis represents a pilot study in view of a wider future application of this technique to identify the role of legumes throughout the Western Mediterranean in the Bronze and

The mountain foothills of inner Asia have served as a corridor of communication and exchange for at least five millennia, using historically documented trade routes such as the Silk Road and the Tea-Horse Road. Recent research has illustrated the important role that this mountain corridor played in the dispersal of crops and farming technology between northeast and southwest Asia 5,000 to 1,000 years

Besides natural climate variations, human activities can also cause significant changes in regional vegetation composition, especially during the late Holocene period. Southwest China has experienced a long history of human activities in terms of deforestation and agricultural development. Here we present a continuous fossil pollen record covering the past 2,100 years from Beihai Wetland in western

Previous reviews of Middle Neolithic agricultural practice (4400–3500 cal bc) in southern France have highlighted a change in crop assemblages after 4000 cal bc, with a reduction of naked wheat and an increase of emmer and partly of einkorn. The recent investigation of three wells from the site of Les Bagnoles (4250–3800 cal bc) in the periphery of the southern Rhône valley yielded an unprecedented

Understanding about regional versus local changes in vegetation is critical in answering archaeological questions, in particular at a time when humans are assumed to have caused higher disturbances at local scales rather than regional scales; this is the case during the Neolithic. The aim of this paper is to assess the impact of Neolithic land use on regional and local vegetation dynamics, plant composition

The online Archaeobotanical Literature Database (ArchbotLit) is an important tool for getting targeted access to archaeobotanical publications. It offers the opportunity for archaeobotanists, archaeologists, freelancers, students and an interested public to easily obtain information about cultivated plants and their development. In addition it increases the visibility of archaeobotanical studies beyond

We used pollen, plant macrofossil, and charcoal records to investigate local long-term timberline shifts and changes in vegetation composition in relation to fire activity at the modern upper forest limit (ca. 2,000 m a.s.l.) in the Mont Bégo area, Maritime Alps of France and Italy. The area is an important place for Alpine archaeology because it has thousands rock-art carvings whose age cannot be

A high-resolution multi-proxy study of lake sediments from Loughbrick Bay in Lough Arrow, County Sligo, Ireland provides a detailed record of Neolithic vegetation history and land-use change. The high concentration of megalithic monuments around Lough Arrow suggests that the region was a centre of settlement and ritual activity during the Irish Neolithic. The pollen record indicates that human activities

Numerous fragments of Cornus sanguinea (dogwood) fruit stones were found in the cultural layer of the Late Neolithic pile dwelling site Strojanova voda at Ljubljansko barje, Slovenia, which indicate the Late Neolithic use of dogwood fruits. While these fruits are considered to be inedible, the research question about their use arose. Ethnobotanical and archaeobotanical sources were examined and experimental

AMS-dated archaeobotanical assemblages from hearth deposits of Middle Yayoi (fourth century bce–first century ce) cultural layers of the Maenakanishi site (36°09′N, 139°24′E) in northern Saitama Prefecture demonstrate that besides rice, foxtail and broomcorn millet were the most important staple crops during the second and first centuries bce. The reliance on less demanding dry-field crops at Maenakanishi

Integration of a diverse set of data from pollen, wood, macrofossils and dendrochronological studies from the Sierra de Ayllón, a mountainous region in central Spain, enables one of the most complete palaeoecological vegetation reconstructions for almost the whole Holocene on the Iberian Peninsula. Previously, the absence of pollen data for the early Holocene in the eastern part of the Sistema Central

This paper reviews the results of the many years of investigations on the ecological aspects of settlement development in the oldest districts of the city of Gdańsk, the impacts of the changing climate and growing human pressure on the local environment, as well as the question of plant use by the inhabitants during the Middle Ages. Before the settlement was established, the landscape was dominated

The Spanish conquest of the Cuchumatanes Highlands (1524–1541 ce) led to dramatic land use changes adhering to colonial practices and values, which included the rearing of livestock, agriculture, timber extraction, mining, and the relocation of indigenous populations to new settlements. These changes are often recorded in historical accounts and official records; however, these are sparse, incomplete

Palaeoecological analyses including pollen and charcoal analyses on a sediment core (NP3) collected from Nong Pling freshwater spring area in Thong Pha Phum, western Thailand are used to reconstruct past environmental change. The results demonstrate that there were changes in plant composition over the past 700 years resulting from interactions between hydrological conditions in relation to rainfall

Excavation work carried out at Istres and Saint-Rémy-de-Provence (Provence, Southern France), in the framework of preventive archaeology, uncovered evidence of ancient gardens (13/14th–17th centuries), equipped with lined wells. Significant numbers of waterlogged remains of fruit species as well as legumes and condiments provided information on the availability of “healthy” foods to complement and

The archaeological sites of Shunshanji and Hanjing are recorded as the earliest Neolithic sites in the middle Huai river valley, China, which were occupied between 8,500 and 7,500 cal bp, and provide crucial evidence of rice growing. However, the water availability and management of arable land systems for rice cultivation and the main stages of rice processing at the two sites have not been studied

We investigated lake sediments from Großer Ursee, Landkreis Ravensburg, Allgäu, Baden-Württemberg, to explore whether human activity was delayed and less intense at higher sites compared to those in the adjacent lower area around Bodensee (Lake Constance). A 11.1 m high resolution pollen profile from the centre of the lake was analysed, which covers the late Würm and complete Holocene sequence, providing

In a continuous, perfectly stratified sedimentary sequence which was discovered under a large sandstone overhang in northern Bohemia, Czech Republic, we analysed multiple biological remains, archaeological features and artefacts. This multi-proxy record has allowed us to examine the interactions between woodland and humans in a permanently wooded environment throughout almost the entire Holocene. We

Throughout Earth’s most extreme environments, such as the Kalahari Desert or the Arctic, hunter–gatherers found ingenious ways to obtain proteins and sugars provided by plants for dietary requirements. In the hyperarid Atacama Desert, wild plant resources are scarce and unevenly distributed due to limited water availability. This study brings together all available archaeobotanical evidence gathered

Relative pollen productivity (RPP) is critical for quantitative vegetation reconstruction of past vegetation cover. The Extended R-value (ERV) model is commonly used for estimating RPP. In this study, we used modern pollen assemblages from 30 randomly selected surface sample sites, and these and vegetation data were applied to an ERV model to estimate pollen productivity of Pinus, Quercus, Corylus

Woody plant resources are important to human societies today and were also in the past. Here we assess the woody plant resources available to peoples in Northeastern Argentina in the pre-Hispanic period and assess how they were used. The Upper Paraná Delta (Entre Ríos province, Argentina) was occupied by indigenous societies during the last 2000 years, and evidence of those peoples has been found at

Newly acquired palaeobotanical data, including pollen, charred and uncharred wood, provided an exhaustive overview of the temporal changes in woodlands, which changes are due to the cumulative effect of natural processes and the long-term impact of pre-agrarian societies. We used the unique advantage of the peat bog archaeological site at Szczepanki located on an island in the former Lake Staświn (Masurian

Abstract Fuelling ancient Maya cities and industries has been identified for some time now as a critical concern for the pre-Columbian Maya, especially since there is evidence of dramatic deforestation throughout the Maya Lowlands during the Preclassic and Classic periods. This article aims to trace the domestic fuel economy at the lowland site of Naachtun, Guatemala, over 8 centuries (150–950 ce)

Abstract Many recent studies recognize the crucial role that ancient agropastoralists (pastoralists who also engaged in farming) in Xinjiang played in facilitating dispersal of prehistoric crops across Eurasia. However, most of these studies predominantly relied on only fragments of the much larger amount of data found in local Chinese journals. This article reviews archaeobotanical and stable isotope

Annual pollen accumulation rates of the main tree and shrub taxa of European Russia (Picea, Pinus, Betula, Alnus, Quercus, Tilia, Fraxinus, Ulmus and Corylus), as well as several herbaceous taxa (Poaceae, Cyperaceae, Chenopodiaceae and Artemisia), were obtained using Tauber pollen traps which were placed along a northwest to southeast transect in European Russia. The work was carried out within the

Waldgirmes in Hesse (Germany) is one of the oldest Roman towns east of the Rhine River. It was founded in 3 bc and abandoned after ad 9, probably in ad 16, when the departing soldiers set fire to the town. In one of the two excavated wells, partially laminated, organic-rich sediments have been preserved which were deposited during the colonisation of the town. The pollen, plant macro-remains and micromorphological

The rising demand for charcoal from industrialization during the eighteenth century led to the establishment of a large number of charcoal production sites (CPSs) within the woodland ecosystems of Europe. The CPSs still present today can be investigated to assess the past woodland composition in terms of taxa present and timber size, at a high spatial resolution. The present study was done in the northern

This paper is a review of the seeds/fruits obtained from about one hundred Roman period archaeological sites (ca. 3rd century bc to 6th century ad) located in Northern Italy. The types of deposit involved are various, and come from residential, productive and other structures (A sites), and cemeteries and cult areas (B sites). The aim of this study is to highlight the seeds/fruits of food plants that

In the Mediterranean area, the occurrence of citrus plants in ancient times is clearly attested in Sardinia and along the southern Tyrrhenian coasts through the presence of pollen grains and organic residues dating back to the sixth century bc. The presence of Citrus pollen was also detected in soil sediments from Pompeii (ad 79), in marine sediments from the ancient harbour of Naples (first century

Dendrochronological studies demonstrate a highly dynamic settlement system in prehistoric wetland sites in the northern Alpine forelands. In this article, we apply an agent-based simulation model of the human–environment system to better understand possible causes of these dynamics. Therefore, we formulate a generic quantitative model of land use and calorie supply in Neolithic wetland sites ca. 4300–3700

A sediment sequence from a small forest lake in southwestern Sweden was investigated to explore the effects of forestry and land-use on catchment erosion and delivery of organic and minerogenic matter to the lake. Catchment-scale vegetation changes during the last 1,100 years were reconstructed quantitatively at 50-year resolution using pollen analysis and the Landscape reconstruction algorithm (LRA)

This paper presents a comprehensive review of the history of the olive in Puglia, southern Italy, from prehistory to the Middle Ages, including evidence from various sources. The primary source of information is from archaeological sites, where the remains have been found of olive pollen, stones and wood charcoal, olive presses and pottery kilns for making amphorae for transporting olives or their

In Amazonia, a growing body of studies has shown that rainforests were affected by human occupation in many areas during pre-Columbian times, inducing changes in their floristic compositions. The northern part of Amazonia, and in particular the Guiana Shield, is much less studied, although past human occupations have also been documented in this region. Therefore, the actual impact of pre-Columbian

The ancient Silk Road was a link of economic-cultural exchanges and religious communication between China and the West. Turpan in Xinjiang is an important site on this road and was once one of the areas where Buddhism flourished in the Western Regions. However, the relationship between environment, agricultural activity and Buddhism has received little attention. Here we analyzed the adobe samples

Past plant food consumption has been studied diachronically and spatially for many Dutch settlements. However, research into the plant food consumption of Early Modern Dutch inhabitants of urban settlements is somewhat underrepresented in the scientific archaeobotanical literature. To fill this knowledge gap, archaeobotanical data from cesspits dating to the period ad 1500–1850 contained in the Dutch

Located in the Romanian Banat region, the Late Bronze Age (LBA) fortification Corneşti-Iarcuri is the largest known prehistoric settlement in Europe. Archaeobotanical and geoarchaeological investigations have targeted the reconstruction of vegetation, land use practices and subsistence strategies at the site, together with related human impact and environmental changes in the wider study area. Since

Isotopic measurements of plant remains from archaeological sites are now routinely used to reconstruct agricultural practices in the Old World. These studies use charred botanical remains as the analytical substrate because (1) these are the materials that are commonly preserved in the archaeological record and (2) the integrity of the isotopic compositions of archaeological plant remains that are

The results of high-resolution records of pollen, plant macroremains and charred plant particles, diatoms, Cladocera and geochemistry from a 14C-dated core, and geomorphological studies enabled the reconstruction of landscape development at a site in western Poland which was occupied by Mesolithic hunter-gatherer groups. Special attention was paid to the evidence of human activities recorded in the

Fossil spores of coprophilous fungi preserved in lake and bog sediments are well-established palaeoecological tracers for the local history of pastoralism and other animal husbandry. However, applications in Africa are limited by the lack of information on the exact relationship between human activity and fungi growing on large-herbivore dung. Here we use 25 small crater-lake basins in western Uganda

Pollen analysis has long been used as a tool to make an assessment of regional vegetation. On-site pollen samples are taken for the same purpose at some excavations, because they are often the only available contexts with good preservation conditions. This paper shows that the analysis of on- and off-site pollen samples from the same region (West Frisia, the Netherlands) and time period (Dutch Bronze