Archaeology: Week 6- Paleoethnobotany
What human-plant relationships and interactions? : Consumption as food & medicine
"You are what you eat", Ancient people also needed a balanced diet, including protein, carbohydrates, fats, vitamins, and minerals
Ethnoarchaeology of Tapa: fabric from the inner bark: Tapa
Also known as bark cloth / bark paper, Uses inner bark of Moraceae trees, esp. paper mulberry, Widely seen in the tropics until 16th century, Still a fabric of cultural significance to Austronesian peoples, as well as communities in Mesoamerica
Edgar Anderson and St. Louis
Botanist, "Curator of Useful Plants", Studied plant-people relationships, Tackled lack of research into crops & weeds, Taught many in St. Louis about plants
weedy plants: Status as "weed" depends on human intentions
Can be noxious/undesirable, actively encouraged, or tolerated/ignored
Macrobotanical remains
Can be observed with the naked eye, Preserved charred, waterlogged, or desiccated at archaeological sites, Taxonomic identification usually conducted under a microscope
What human-plant relationships and interactions? : Materials for crafts and structures
Different plant parts and taxa have different suitable properties; Tools, fabrics, containers, architectural structures, etc.
How do we RECOVER plant remains from an archaeological site?: Macrobotanical remains
Flotation (charred remains), Dry screening (desiccated remains), Wet sieving (waterlogged remains)
Resources, processing, and management
Gathering, processing, cooking, storage, management, cultivation
How would we study the use of Tapa in the past?
Historical and museum records, Ethnoarchaeology of present populations using Tapa, Fabric preserved in archaeological sites, Stone and wooden beaters, or mallets , Microbotanical residue (starch grains)
weedy plants: ecofacts
Like crops, they are closely associated with humans, adapted to human-created niches
Plant foods in Neolithic China: Jiahu Site(Case Study)
Neolithic settlement, Central Plain, China (dated to 7,000 BP), Known as earliest site of rice cultivation in China§Waterlogged site, Plant remains, charred and uncharred, Foxtail millet, rice, pears, apricots, acorns, chestnuts, beans, edible roots and tubers
Microbotanical remains
Only observable under a microscope, Found on surfaces of artifacts and in the sediment at archaeological sites, Taxonomic identification requires a high power microscope
what are weedy plants?
Pioneers, who grow rapidly, Capable of reproducing without human assistance, Status as "weed" depends on human intentions, Ecofacts
Reflections of the environment
Reconstruction of paleoclimate, landscape, seasonality, ecosystem niches
How do we RECOVER plant remains from an archaeological site?: Microbotanical remains
Sample residue on artifacts (starch grains), Take sediment cores (pollen, phytoliths)
Analyzing a Flotation sample
Taxonomic identification, Sorting, Counting and weighing
co-existence, co-dependence
The wild, the weedy, and the domesticated
Involvement in human societal structures
Trading, economy, mobility, knowledge transfer, Traditional Ecological Knowledge (TEK) and biodiversity
weedy plants: pioneers, who rapidly
Well adapted to growing in disturbed landscapes, e.g. human spaces
weedy plants: Capable of reproducing without human assistance
Yet, some cultivated crops can hybridize with "wild" and "weedy" relatives
flotation
an archaeological technique employed to recover very tiny objects by immersion of soil samples in water to separate heavy from light particles
microbotanical remains: pollen
carriers of male sex cells
Macrobotanical remains: seed
embryo
Macrobotanical remains: wood
fibrous structural tissue
microbotanical remains: starch grains
form of carbohydrate, often found in storage organs, e.g. tubers, fruits, seeds
Macrobotanical remains: nutshell
hard shell of a nut (fruit)
microbotanical remains: phytoliths
silica structures found in some plant tissues
Paleoethnobotany
the study of ancient humans' uses for plants
Macrobotanical remains: parenchyma
tissue of storage organs, e.g. tubers