Mark Nesbitt

Some recent Discoveries of Millet ( Panicum Miliaceum L. and Setaria italica (L.) P. Beauv.) at Excavations in Turkey and Iran

Although a relatively unimportant crop in the Near East, millet has an especially interesting history that may throw some light on the cultural relationships of the Middle–Late Bronze Ages and the Iron Age. Thus the prompt, separate, publication of a large deposit of foxtail millet ( Setaria italica (L.) P. Beauv.), recently identified from an Iron Age level at Tille Hoyuk, seems justified. This is the first find of the cereal in such large quantities—definitely as a crop—from the Near East or Greece. The rest of the plant remains from this level will be published in conjunction with the rich samples that are expected to be found in the massive Late Bronze Age burnt level at Tille. The opportunity is also taken in this paper to present other previously unpublished millet samples, from second millennium B.C. levels at Haftavan Tepe, northwestern Iran, and from Hellenistic, Roman and Medieval levels at Asvan Kale, eastern Turkey. A full discussion of these criteria will be included in the first authors forthcoming publication of the Asvan plant remains. Knorzer (1971) has published a useful key to millet seeds. Three genera of millets (all belonging to the tribe Paniceae of the grass family) have grains of the relatively wide, large embryoed type discussed here.

From collecting to cultivation: transitions to a production economy in the Near East

The selected articles in the current issue throw new light on our understanding of how Homo sapiens became caught in the agriculture trap in the Near East. They are the outcome of the session entitled ‘Origins of agriculture in the Near East’ held at the 15th IWGP conference in Wilhelmshaven 2010. The subject is constantly being revised as new information and more refined analyses become available, so these papers provide a state of the art in 2010/2011. Each major discovery adds complexity to what has become a multi-faceted puzzle with data being drawn from disciplines as wide apart as archaeology and genetics, plant biology and palaeo-climatology. In this issue papers concentrate on results obtained from charred plant remains and their interpretation. During the last half of the 20th century ground-breaking scholars like Hans Helbaek, Daniel Zohary, Maria Hopf, Willem van Zeist and Gordon Hillman made major contributions (Zohary and Hopf 1973; Helbaek 1959; Hillman 1984; Van Zeist and Bakker-Heeres 1982). Daniel Zohary combined genetics and information from living progenitors with Maria Hopf’s archaeobotanical knowledge to help explain the domestication of plants in the Near East. Willem van Zeist pioneered the identification and sampling of charred seeds from early Neolithic sites while Gordon Hillman developed interpretive tools for the subject. Their findings opened up avenues for hypothesizing as to how, when and why, in south west Asia, humans started systematically cultivating a selection of grain crops. In the 1980s and 1990s the puzzle appeared quite simple because it was composed of few elements and so scholars hypothesized using straightforward deterministic scenarios and models citing climate change, or population growth, or over-exploitation as possible factors which encouraged humans to adopt cultivation. Today the central elements of these hypotheses are still valid, but with hindsight simple hypotheses are no longer plausible given the archaeological and environmental diversity within the Fertile Crescent. This complex diversity is exemplified by the vast geographical area where transition sites are located, which spans different climate and vegetation zones. Thus, sites in the north of the Fertile Crescent are 1,000 km from those in the south and likewise in the east–west direction. Archaeological diversity is exemplified by the extended chronological range of transition sites. We can trace the use of wild cereals back to about 23,000 years ago when habitations consisted of simple brush huts to villages with sophisticated architecture associated with the earliest domesticated cereals 12,500 years later. The transition to a production based economy was acted out on a vast stage of multi-dimensional cultural developments. Archaeological and archaeobotanical discoveries represent only narrow windows providing unconnected fleeting glimpses of human subsistence economies. Gaps in the archaeological record may result from lack of survey work but also because early Neolithic sites are often buried beneath large Bronze Age mounds, for example at Tell el Kerkh, Motza, Tell Qaramel and Cheik Hassan. Others may be covered by post occupation alluvial sediments. G. Willcox (&) Archeorient, UMR 5133, CNRS Jales, 07460 St-Paul-le-Jeune, France e-mail: gwillcox@wanadoo.fr

Identification of Dactylopius cochineal species with high-performance liquid chromatography and multivariate data analysis

Identification of American cochineal species (Dactylopius genus) can provide important information for the study of historical works of art, entomology, cosmetics, pharmaceuticals and foods. In this study, validated species of Dactylopius, including the domesticated cochineal D. coccus, were analysed by high-performance liquid chromatography with a diode array detector (HPLC-DAD) and submitted to multivariate data analysis, in order to discriminate the species and hence construct a reference library for a wide range of applications. Principal components analysis (PCA) and partial least squares discriminant analysis (PLSDA) models successfully provided accurate species classifications. This library was then applied to the identification of 72 historical insect specimens of unidentified species, mostly dating from the 19th century, and belonging to the Economic Botany Collection, Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, England. With this approach it was possible to identify anomalies in how insects were labelled historically, as several of them were revealed not to be cochineal. Nevertheless, more than 85% of the collection was determined to be species of Dactylopius and the majority of the specimens were identified as D. coccus. These results have shown that HPLC-DAD, in combination with suitable chemometric methods, is a powerful approach for discriminating related cochineal species.

Organisation and Management of Seed Reference Collections

Abstract Reference collections of accurately identified, recent seeds are an essential resource for seed identification in archaeobotany, agronomy, palaeoecology and studies of wildlife diet. Recommendations are given for sourcing of seed materials and storage systems. The usefulness of computer databases for cataloguing of seed collections is emphasised, and 18 core data fields (based on the HISPID data standard for herbarium collections) are proposed.

An Unusual Xylotheque with Plant Illustrations from Early Meiji Japan

An Unusual Xylotheque with Plant Illustrations from Early Meiji Japan. Two unusual wood collections, reported previously in the collections of the Botanical Museum at Berlin-Dahlem and the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, take the form of framed plant illustrations painted on boards made from the wood of the species illustrated. We present new finds of very similar wood collections in the Economic Botany Collection of the Harvard University Herbaria, a private collection in the U.K. (Loudon collection), and at the Koishikawa Botanical Garden of the University of Tokyo. A stamp on the reverse of the boards links all five collections to Chikusai Kato, an artist working at Tokyo University (now the University of Tokyo) in early Meiji Japan, under the direction of the preeminent nineteenth century Japanese botanist Keisuke Ito. New evidence from contemporary historical accounts indicates that more than 100 boards were ordered in June 1878 by Hiroyuki Katō, the first president of Tokyo University, most likely to support the early teaching of Western-influenced botanical science in Japan. However, while the boards had clear value for teaching, especially about useful plants, their unusual fusion of Western and Japanese influences also made them desirable craft objects that were collected and given as gifts during the early Meiji era.明治初期に日本で作られた特異な植物図版について　これまでベルリン・ダーレムの植物博物館とイギリス王立キュー植物園に知られていた植物図版は、枠付きの木製の板の上に描かれており、その板はその植物の材を用いられていることで大変特徴的である。最近、同様な植物図版がハーバート大学植物標本館、ロンドン個人コレクション(Loudon氏蔵)と東京大学附属小石川植物園にも見出された。裏面の篆刻印から、これらの植物図版は東京大学創立初期の1878年に当時の著名な植物学者伊藤圭介教授の指導の下に、そこで働いていた植物画家加藤竹斎によって描かれ、制作されたことが分かる。当時の資料などから新たに分かったことは、当初作成された100枚余の植物図版は初代東京大学総長(当時は総理といった)によって、近代的植物科学の教育手段として購入されたと推定される。しかしながら、これら図版は有用植物の教育手段として優れているが、同時に西洋と日本の画法の融合したユニークな図版であることから工芸品としてもみなされ、明治初期には収集されたり、また、贈答品としても用いられていたことが分かった。

Gordon C. Hillman (1943–2018)

Pioneering archeobotanist

Potpourri as a Sustainable Plant Product: Identity, Origin, and Conservation Status 1

Potpourri as a Sustainable Plant Product: Identity, Origin, and Conservation Status. While displays of decorative dried plant material are popular in homes in Europe and North America, knowledge regarding potpourri ingredients is limited. This study examined the identity, diversity, origin, economic sources, and sustainability of such ingredients used in the United Kingdom (UK). Research at the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, commencing in 1990 and involving 1,000 samples of individual potpourri ingredients from 12 UK manufacturers and traders, revealed 546 different ingredients, representing up to 455 species, 289 genera, and over 100 families. Despite the wide taxonomic spread, several distinct plant part–family groups contributed the most potpourri ingredients: i.e., fruits from Arecaceae, Fabaceae, Malvaceae, Pinaceae, Poaceae, and Rutaceae; seeds from Fabaceae; leaves from Arecaceae, Fabaceae, and Poaceae; inflorescences from Asteraceae; as well as stems from cane, pith, timber, and pole wood. The vast majority of ingredients imported from Asia, especially India, were byproducts from crops and wild harvested species used by the Indian herbal healthcare industry. Global conservation assessments are lacking for 80% of wild collected Indian potpourri species, and those that have assessments are mainly abundant and widespread in ruderal or wetland habitats and of Least Concern (IUCN 2013), except Pterocarpus marsupium and P. indicus (Fabaceae), which are vulnerable globally, and Calamus andamanicus (Arecaceae) and Oroxylum indicum (Bignoniaceae), which are vulnerable nationally within India. A further eight, primarily medicinally traded species, are regarded as threatened within individual Indian states. Additional unique potpourri ingredients were sourced from Thailand, but only about one-tenth of study samples were from Africa, Middle East, Europe, America, and Australia. Temporal studies of potpourri ingredients could reflect changes in the use and abundance of species in other trades such as medicines, food, and materials.

Publisher's Postdating Dishonesty IX: Books Dated 2005 but It Is Still Autumn 2004!

Biogeography can be both an eclectic and a unifying discipline-eclectic by virtue of the diversity of technical and conceptual approaches from which it borrows; and unifying by virtue of drawing together inputs from diverse fields (ranging from molecular biology to ecology to historical geology) in its attempts to understand the spatial and temporal dynamics of organismal distributions. Here I offer several personal thoughts on the history and possible future of biogeography, with special reference to the role of molecular phylogeographic analyses in forging helpful connections between microevolutionary and macroevolutionary perspectives on biogeographic phenomena.

Plate 435. Lygeum spartum

The taxonomy, distribution and uses of the Mediterranean grass, Lygeum spartum (Gramineae), are discussed; an illustration is provided, together with a full description of the species