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...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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...
In this study we present evidence of braided plant fibres and basketry imprints on clay recovered from Coves de Santa Maira, a Palaeolithic-Mesolithic cave site located in the Mediterranean region of Spain. The anatomical features of these organic fibre remains were identified in the archaeological material and compared with modern Stipa tenacissima (esparto grass). Based on...
The present study aims to reconstruct vegetation development, climate changes and human impact using an ombrotrophic peat core from the Coltrondo bog in the eastern Italian Alps. Evidence from pollen, micro-charcoal, major and trace elements, and lead isotopes from this 7,900 years old peat deposit has been combined, and several climatic oscillations and phases of human impact...
In a paper from 1942 Johannes Iversen described a warm phase prior to the Allerød warming from lake Bølling in western Denmark and thereby extended the common classification of Lateglacial biostratigraphy. Iversen’s assumptions concerning the Bølling-Oscillation were based on sedimentological features and high Betula (birch) pollen values in two pollen samples prior to the onset...
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 wheat grains have been found in central China and even fewer have been directly radiocarbon dated, making the date when wheat was adopted in the...
Fine-resolution sampling of pollen, non-pollen palynomorphs and microcharcoal as well as sedimentological data in a 6-m sediment core were used to reconstruct both natural conditions and human impacts in the late fifth and early fourth millennia cal bc in the environs of the Nebelivka megasite in Kirovograd Oblast, Central Ukraine. This 238-ha site, dating to the Middle (or BII...
The transition to urbanism has long focused on annual staple crops (cereals and legumes), perhaps at the expense of understanding other changes within agricultural practices that occurred between the end of the initial domestication period and urbanisation. This paper examines the domestication and role of fruit tree crops within urbanisation in both Western Asia and China, using...