Reinder Neef

Digital atlas of economic plants in archaeology

The third part of the Digital Plant Atlas presents illustrations of subfossil remains of plants with economic value. These plant remains mainly derive from excavations in the Old World (Europe, Western Asia and North Africa) that the Deutsches Archaologisches Institut (DAI, Berlin) and the Groningen Institute of Archaeology (GIA) have conducted or participated in. Plant material is usually very perishable, but can nevertheless be preserved in archaeological sites if the biological decay of the material is blocked. Many plant remains are discovered during excavations in carbonized form, where despite having been in contact with fire, they have not been completely reduced to ash. Extremely dry climatic conditions, like those in Egypt, can also preserve plant material in a completely dessicated condition. Most of the economically valuable plants illustrated here have been carbonized or desiccated. So this atlas links up very well with the Digital Atlas of Economic Plants.Like the other atlasses, this atlas is a combination of a book and a website.The Book:Just as in part two of the series, this part will not only include illustrations of seeds and fruits, but also of other plant parts. The resulting variety in seed and fruit forms will be illustrated by examples from different excavations. To support their identification and determination, also pictures of recent plants and relevant plant parts have been included.The Website: To supplement the photographs, the website will also include morphometric measurements of the subfossil seeds and fruits. These measurements can be compared with own measurements of the plant taxa in question.Summary: Plant families: 56 Plant species (Taxa): 191 Photographs: 773 photographs of subfossil plant parts, 1137 photographs of recent plants and plant parts Languages: English and 15 indices (scientific plant name, pharmaceutical plant name, English, German, French, Dutch, Spanish, Arab, Arab in transliteration, Turkish, Chinese, Pinyin (Chinese in transliteration), Hindi, Sanskrit, and Malayalam) Purchase of the book grants access to the protected parts of the websites of the project.

Plant husbandry and vegetation of early medieval Douai, northern France

This paper describes the results of the archaeobotanical examination of early medieval occupation deposits (8th to 11th centuries A.D.) at Douai, northern France. Carbonized as well as waterlogged seeds and fruits were recovered in great numbers. In addition to the macrofossil analyses, a palynological examination of occupation deposits was carried out. Bread wheat (Triticum aestivum) was the most common cereal, followed by rye (Secale cereale). Common oat (Avena sativa) and hulled barley (Hordeum vulgare) must have played a fairly modest role. In addition to cereals, field pea (Pisum sativum) was an important crop plant. Four types of plum (Prunus domestica) fruitstones are distinguished. Sweet cherry (Prunus avium) as well as sour cherry (P. cerasus) were cultivated. Other cultivated fruit trees included peach (Prunus persica) and medlar (Mespilus germanica). Sloe (Prunus spinosa) fruits, including those of the var. macrocarpa, were gathered from the wild. The palynological data suggest that the Douai area had virtually been cleared of forest. A comparison between pollen and seed proportions points to serious discrepancies between the macrofossil and microfossil plant records. Weeds of arable land (Secalietea, Polygono-Chenopodietalia) and vegetations of ruderal habitats (Sisymbrietalia, Artemisietalia vulgaris) are well represented. Molinietalia vegetations in the valley of the Scarpe river were probably exploited as hay meadows; good pasture land was provided by the Arrhenateretalia grasslands.

Disentangling the effect of farming practice from aridity on crop stable isotope values: A present-day model from Morocco and its application to early farming sites in the eastern Mediterranean

Agriculture has played a pivotal role in shaping landscapes, soils and vegetation. Developing a better understanding of early farming practices can contribute to wider questions regarding the long-term impact of farming and its nature in comparison with present-day traditional agrosystems. In this study we determine stable carbon and nitrogen isotope values of barley grains from a series of present-day traditionally managed farming plots in Morocco, capturing a range of annual rainfall and farming practices. This allows a framework to be developed to refine current isotopic approaches used to infer manuring intensity and crop water status in (semi-)arid regions. This method has been applied to charred crop remains from two early farming sites in the eastern Mediterranean: Abu Hureyra and ‘Ain Ghazal. In this way, our study enhances knowledge of agricultural practice in the past, adding to understanding of how people have shaped and adapted to their environment over thousands of years.