Margareta Tengberg

Crop husbandry at Miri Qalat, Makran, SW Pakistan (4000-2000 B.C.)

Large scale sampling for plant remains at Miri Qalat indicates that agriculture based on naked wheat and naked and hulled barley was practised between the 4th and the 2nd millennia B.C. Other cultivated plants identified areLens culinaris (lentil),Pisum sativum (pea),Linum usitatissimum (flax),Vilis vinifera (grape) andCoriandrum salivum (coriander). The only summer crop,Sesamum indicum (sesame), appears during the second half of the 3rd millennium. Gathered edible fruits includeCordia, Grewia andNannorrhops ritchieana.Phoenix dactylifera (dates) may also have been gathered rather than cultivated.

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Asia, and are a further step toward identifying the various degrees of agricultural involvement in the conceptually outdated pastoral realm of Eurasia.

Olive cultivation in the heart of the Persian Achaemenid Empire: new insights into agricultural practices and environmental changes reflected in a late Holocene pollen record from Lake Parishan, SW Iran

Ancient Persia witnessed one of its most prosperous cultural and socio-economic periods between 550 bc and ad 651, with the successive domination of the Achaemenid, Seleucid, Parthian and Sassanian Empires. During this period agricultural activities increased on the Iranian plateau, as demonstrated by a remarkable arboricultural expansion. However, available data are not very informative about the spatial organization of agricultural practices. The possible links between climate conditions and agricultural activities during this millennium of continuous imperial domination are also unclear, due to the lack of parallel human-independent palaeoclimatic proxies. This study presents a new late Holocene pollen-based vegetation record from Lake Parishan, SW Iran. This record provides invaluable information regarding anthropogenic activities before, during and after the empires and sheds light on (i) spatial patterning in agricultural activities and (ii) possible climate impacts on agro-sylvo-pastoral practices during this period. Results of this study indicate that arboriculture was the most prominent form of agricultural activity in SW Iran especially during the Achaemenid, Seleucid and Parthian periods. Contrary to the information provided by some Greco-Roman written sources, the record from Lake Parishan shows that olive cultivation was practiced during Achaemenid and Seleucid times, when olive cultivation was significant, at least in this basin located close to the capital area of the Achaemenid Empire. In addition, pollen from aquatic vegetation suggests that the period of the latter centuries of the first millennium bc was characterized by a higher lake level, which might have favoured cultural and socio-economic prosperity.

The Discovery of Wild Date Palms in Oman Reveals a Complex Domestication History Involving Centers in the Middle East and Africa

For many crops, wild relatives constitute an extraordinary resource for cultivar improvement [1, 2] and also help to better understand the history of their domestication [3]. However, the wild ancestor species of several perennial crops have not yet been identified. Perennial crops generally present a weak domestication syndrome allowing cultivated individuals to establish feral populations difficult to distinguish from truly wild populations, and there is frequently ongoing gene flow between wild relatives and the crop that might erode most genetic differences [4]. Here we report the discovery of populations of the wild ancestor species of the date palm (Phoenix dactylifera L.), one of the oldest and most important cultivated fruit plants in hot and arid regions of the Old World. We discovered these wild individuals in remote and isolated mountainous locations of Oman. They are genetically more diverse than and distinct from a representative sample of Middle Eastern cultivated date palms and exhibit rounded seed shapes resembling those of a close sister species and archeological samples, but not modern cultivars. Whole-genome sequencing of several wild and cultivated individuals revealed a complex domestication history involving the contribution of at least two wild sources to African cultivated date palms. The discovery of wild date palms offers a unique chance to further elucidate the history of this iconic crop that has constituted the cornerstone of traditional oasis polyculture systems for several thousand years [5].

The golden leaves of Ur

The famous headdress of Pu-abum at Ur is an object of great beauty. But the authors show that the gold leaves of the headdresses and diadems of her court circle can tell an even richer story. Identifying among them the leaves of the sissoo tree, they show that its symbolic usage celebrated a wide range of properties, from medicine to furniture. These were properties appreciated not only in Mesopotamia but in eastern Iran and the Indus Valley, home to the sissoo tree as well as to neighbouring civilisations.

Bio-archaeological studies at Konar Sandal, Halil Rud basin, southeastern Iran

Abstract Recent archaeological discoveries in the Halil Rud valley in the Kerman province of southeastern Iran have shown the existence of an important urban centre during the Early Bronze Age (third millennium BC), with a rich artistic and craft tradition as well as long-distance contacts with both Mesopotamia and the Indus valley. Bioarchaeological studies carried out at Konar Sandal, south of the modern city of Jiroft, allow for the first time a reconstruction of the past environment and subsistence economies in the valley during the Bronze and Iron Ages. While herding relied mainly on sheep and goat and, to a lesser extent, on bovines of which several species are recognised, agricultural activities involved the cultivation of cereals (barley and wheat) and fruits (date palm, grapevine). Significant changes in animal husbandry practices appear through time with an increase of suid remains as well as the appearance of the domestic horse and Bactrian camel in the Iron Age (late second to early first millennium BC). While the exploitation of plants and animals seems to have taken place to a large extent in the alluvial Halil Rud valley, the possibility of pastoral transhumance in surrounding mountain chains is also considered.

Sesamum indicum L. (sesame) in 2nd century bc Pompeii, southwest Italy, and a review of early sesame finds in Asia and Europe

Six mineralised seeds of Sesamum indicum L. (sesame) have been found in a cesspit dating from the Samnite occupation (Republican period, 2nd century bc) of Pompeii in southwest Italy. This oil plant is of tropical Asian origin, and its occurrences in prehistoric Italy and more generally in the Mediterranean region are very scarce and only from sea ports. It thus raises the question about its role in long distance trade between the Italian Peninsula and Asia, in relation to the Roman conquest of the east including the near east which started in the 2nd century bc. The present contribution reviews the archaeobotanical evidence of early sesame in Asia and Europe and explores the potential routes of its spread to the west. The possibility of an introduction and acclimatization of the plant in southern Europe is also discussed in the light of archaeobotanical finds and ancient texts.

Analysis of a protohistoric net from Shahi Tump, Baluchistan (Pakistan)

The fire that partly destroyed a 4th millennium BCE building at Shahi Tump in the Kech Valley of south-western Pakistan is responsible for the exceptional preservation by carbonisation of a net found on the burnt floor as a heap of entangled cords and knots. Macro- and microscopic observation has allowed a reconstruction of the techniques used to manufacture the net from a two-strand plied cord. The comparison of the phytoliths extracted from the archaeological net to those from a modern reference collection suggests the use of fibres that originate from the leaves of a local palm species: the desert palm or Nannorrhops ritchieana (Griff.) Aitch. Besides the technical and archaeobotanical aspects of the study, the paper discussed past and present uses of the desert palm in the arid regions of the Middle East as well as the possible utilisation (fishing, carrying etc.) of the protohistoric net.

Proceedings of the 17th conference of the International Work Group for Palaeoethnobotany, Paris 2016

The present volume of Vegetation History and Archaeobotany comprises a collection of papers presented at the 17th conference of the International Work Group for Palaeoethnobotany (IWGP) held at the National Museum of Natural History (Muséum national d’Histoire naturelle, MNHN) in Paris (France), between July 4 and 9, 2016. This was the second time the IWGP meeting took place in France, 18 years after the event was organised in Toulouse in summer 1998. Scholars, students and administrative personnel from the hosting team—Archaeozoology, Archaeobotany: Societies, Practices and Environments (UMR 7209, MNHN-CNRS) were in charge of the organisation of the conference, which received financial support from several French institutions and organisations: the MNHN, the Institute of Ecology and Environment (INEE) of the National Centre for Scientific Research (CNRS), the National Institute for Rescue Archaeology (INRAP), the Archaeology Department of the Ministry of Culture and Communication and the Association des Amis du Muséum. 251 participants from 33 different countries representing all continents (except Antarctica) gathered in central Paris for a week of intensive and enriching scientific exchange. While senior scholars were present to share their experience, many young researchers—doctoral students and postdocs—also participated in the conference and presented their results obtained from a multitude of new studies. 110 oral and 88 poster presentations were scheduled during 5 days and in order to guarantee a reasonable timetable, parallel sessions had to be organised during part of the meeting (one and a half days). This was a première in the history of the IWGP and even though some participants may regret the passing of an epoch when it was possible to fit in all presentations into one week, the success of the IWGP meetings and the expanding community of palaeoethnobotanists will probably also make the planning of at least some parallel sessions necessary during future conferences. As already noticed during the 16th IWGP conference, held in Thessaloniki (Greece) in 2013, the themes treated during the meetings are becoming more global than previously and this tendency was reinforced in Paris. Thus, from concerning primarily archaeobotanical work carried out in Europe and in south-west Asia, the last conferences have included an increasing number of studies relating to other parts of the world, in particular India, East Asia and South America. Australia, Africa and Oceania were also represented at the Paris conference by several communications. Lectures and posters were presented within more than a dozen of thematic sessions. Besides sessions dedicated to specific geographic and chronological domains, papers were organised according to methods used (isotope geochemistry, geometric morphometrics, aDNA) or themes such as ethnobotany, ritual, food, islands or trees. Traditionally the IWGP meetings bear mainly on the results from seed and fruit analysis and the organising team did indeed decline a certain number of proposals dealing exclusively with wood, charcoal and pollen studies or proposed to present a poster rather than a lecture. Still, and positively, many presentations adopted a multidisciplinary approach combining data from different disciplines of environmental archaeology, historical sources, ethnobiology, chemistry, etc. The domestication of food plants was, similarly to previous conferences, a theme that was treated by several participants presenting data on the domestication of maize, millets, rice, soy and adzuki beans as well as fruit trees. Communicated by F. Bittmann.