Medicinal Plant Remains from Archaeological Sites in Southern Manitoba and Adjacent Areas

2018 ◽  
pp. 425-472
Author(s):  
C. T. Shay
Keyword(s):  
Medicinal Plant ◽  
Archaeological Sites ◽  
Plant Remains

scholarly journals Age Discrepancies with the Radiocarbon Dating of Sagebrush (Artemisia Tridentata Nutt.)

Radiocarbon ◽  
2008 ◽  
Vol 50 (3) ◽  
pp. 347-357 ◽  
Author(s):  
Phil R Geib
Keyword(s):  
Radiocarbon Dating ◽  
Artemisia Tridentata ◽  
Ground Surface ◽  
Wood Charcoal ◽  
Western United States ◽  
Archaeological Sites ◽  
Fuel Wood ◽  
Tree Wood ◽  
Plant Remains ◽  
Age Discrepancy

When ancient hearths at open archaeological sites do not yield carbonized annual plant remains or other high-quality samples, wood charcoal is commonly used for radiocarbon dating. Sagebrush (Artemisia tridentata Nutt.), a shrub frequently used for fuel across much of the western United States, seems a potentially better candidate for 14C dating than tree wood since the possibility for significant age discrepancy might be less. A comparison of multiple assays from single features reveals that sagebrush can overestimate age more than even tree wood charcoal. A plausible cause of this appears to be persistence of the shrub on the ground surface for an extended interval after death, such that use as fuel almost invariably occurs hundreds of years after fixation of carbon. The potential for age discrepancy may decrease as population density increases because the demand for fuel wood would have resulted in a more rapid turnover of the fuel biomass. This is not true for Archaic period foragers of western North America when population levels were likely quite low and residential mobility quite high.

Collecting and Preserving Botanical Materials of Archaeological Interest

1944 ◽  
Vol 9 (3) ◽  
pp. 289-294 ◽  
Author(s):  
Elso S. Barghoorn
Keyword(s):  
Archaeological Site ◽  
Archaeological Sites ◽  
Careful Study ◽  
Significant Information ◽  
Chemical Changes ◽  
Plant Remains

In archaeological sites plant remains are frequently encountered either as artifacts or as natural deposits. A study of such remains commonly yields much valuable information, not only for the archaeologist but for other investigators as well. Thus, the former vegetation of a region and its possible bearing upon the previously existing climate are often revealed. Both the botanist and the paleontologist are interested in the preservation of plant remains and the structural and chemical changes which they have undergone since their deposition or submergence. In addition, of course, the careful study of woody artifacts frequently affords significant information regarding the Customs and practices of primitive peoples in working their materials. In order that the greatest value may be obtained from a study of botanical materials, however, it is essential that certain precautions and techniques be used in collecting and preserving them. Unfortunately, much botanical information available in an archaeological site is either discarded or overlooked in the process of digging and exposing the site.

Flotation Techniques for the Recovery of Small-Scale Archaeological Remains

1968 ◽  
Vol 33 (3) ◽  
pp. 353-362 ◽  
Author(s):  
Stuart Struever
Keyword(s):  
Small Animal ◽  
Archaeological Sites ◽  
Small Scale ◽  
Water Separation ◽  
Small Plant ◽  
Animal Remains ◽  
Animal Bone ◽  
Animal Bones ◽  
Plant Remains ◽  
Flotation Technique

AbstractThis paper outlines the procedures and equipment necessary for applying a simple flotation technique to recover animal bone, seeds, and other small cultural remains lost in the normal screening of soils from archaeological sites. Soil is initially processed in the field by a water-separation technique. The resulting concentrate is later treated, in the laboratory, by chemical flotation, to separate faunal from plant remains.This simple, inexpensive technique enables processing of soil in quantity, thereby allowing recovery of small plant and animal remains from midden or feature fills where they occur in very low densities.It is argued that, without use of such a flotation procedure, inferences about prehistoric subsistence patterns from faunal and floral remains are sharply biased in favor of larger animals and in favor of hunting, over natural plant food collecting, since conventional screens are not adequate for recovery of most plant remains or small animal bones.

A late-Holocene pollen record from the western Qilian Mountains and its implications for climate change and human activity along the Silk Road, Northwestern China

The Holocene ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 28 (7) ◽  
pp. 1141-1150 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jun Zhang ◽  
Xiaozhong Huang ◽  
Zongli Wang ◽  
Tianlong Yan ◽  
En’yuan Zhang
Keyword(s):  
Late Holocene ◽  
Qilian Mountains ◽  
Archaeological Sites ◽  
Pollen Record ◽  
Human Environment ◽  
Plant Remains ◽  
Tree Ring Data ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Silk Road

The sparsity of long-term reliable climatic records hampers our understanding of human–environment interactions in the semi-arid Hexi Corridor, NW China. Here, we present a late-Holocene pollen record from a small alpine lake, Tian’E, in the western Qilian Mountains. The chronology is provided by nine accelerator mass spectrometry (AMS) 14C dates from terrestrial plant remains. The ratios of Artemisia and Amaranthaceae (A/C) are used to reconstruct the history of regional humidity: An unstable climate occurred during 1530–1270 BC; there were three relatively wet periods, at 1270 BC–AD 400, AD 1200–1350, and AD 1600–present; and there were two dry periods, from AD 400 to 1200 and from AD 1350 to 1600. Comparison with tree-ring data indicates that continuous droughts were responsible for the abandonment of several archaeological sites and ancient cities in the region, including the major city of Dunhuang, which was abandoned in AD 1372 and AD 1524 for nearly 200 years.

scholarly journals Benefits and weaknesses of radiocarbon dating of plant material as reflected by Neolithic archaeological sites from Poland, Slovakia and Hungary

2017 ◽  
Vol 44 (1) ◽  
pp. 188-201 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marek Nowak ◽  
Magdalena Moskal-Del Hoyo ◽  
Aldona Mueller-Bieniek ◽  
Maria Lityńska-Zając ◽  
Krzysztof Kotynia
Keyword(s):  
Plant Material ◽  
Radiocarbon Dating ◽  
Production Systems ◽  
Archaeological Sites ◽  
Plant Materials ◽  
Hulled Wheats ◽  
Neolithic Age ◽  
Plant Remains ◽  
History Of ◽  
Cultivated Species

Abstract Radiocarbon dating of the plant material is important for chronology of archaeological sites. Therefore, a selection of suitable plant samples is an important task. The contribution emphasizes the necessity of taxonomical identification prior to radiocarbon dating as a crucial element of such selection. The benefits and weaknesses of dating of taxonomically undetermined and identified samples will be analysed based on several case studies referring to Neolithic sites from Hungary, Slovakia and Poland. These examples better illustrate the significance of the taxonomical identification since plant materials of the Neolithic age include only a limited number of cultivated species (e.g. hulled wheats) and typically do not contain remains of late arrived plants (e.g. Carpinus betulus and Fagus sylvatica). For more accurate dating results cereal grains, fruits and seeds, which reflect a single vegetative season, are preferred. Among charred wood, fragments of twigs, branches and external rings should mainly be taken into account, while those of trunks belonging to long-lived trees should be avoided. Besides the absolute chronology of archaeological features and artefacts, radiocarbon dating of identified plant remains might significantly contribute to the history of local vegetation and food production systems.

scholarly journals Hominin and animal activities in the microstratigraphic record from Denisova Cave (Altai Mountains, Russia)

2019 ◽  
Vol 9 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Mike W. Morley ◽  
Paul Goldberg ◽  
Vladimir A. Uliyanov ◽  
Maxim B. Kozlikin ◽  
Michael V. Shunkov ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Environmental History ◽  
Ancient Dna ◽  
First Generation ◽  
Middle Pleistocene ◽  
Archaeological Sites ◽  
Depositional History ◽  
Southern Siberia ◽  
Sedimentary Deposits ◽  
Plant Remains ◽  
Sedimentary Deposit

Abstract Denisova Cave in southern Siberia uniquely contains evidence of occupation by a recently discovered group of archaic hominins, the Denisovans, starting from the middle of the Middle Pleistocene. Artefacts, ancient DNA and a range of animal and plant remains have been recovered from the sedimentary deposits, along with a few fragmentary fossils of Denisovans, Neanderthals and a first-generation Neanderthal–Denisovan offspring. The deposits also contain microscopic traces of hominin and animal activities that can provide insights into the use of the cave over the last 300,000 years. Here we report the results of a micromorphological study of intact sediment blocks collected from the Pleistocene deposits in the Main and East Chambers of Denisova Cave. The presence of charcoal attests to the use of fire by hominins, but other evidence of their activities preserved in the microstratigraphic record are few. The ubiquitous occurrence of coprolites, which we attribute primarily to hyenas, indicates that the site was visited for much of its depositional history by cave-dwelling carnivores. Microscopic traces of post-depositional diagenesis, bioturbation and incipient cryoturbation are observed in only a few regions of the deposit examined here. Micromorphology can help identify areas of sedimentary deposit that are most conducive to ancient DNA preservation and could be usefully integrated with DNA analyses of sediments at archaeological sites to illuminate features of their human and environmental history that are invisible to the naked eye.

Carbonised Plant Remains from Two Iron Age Sites in Central Hampshire

1980 ◽  
Vol 46 ◽  
pp. 321-344 ◽  
Author(s):  
M. A. Monk ◽  
P. J. Fasham
Keyword(s):  
Iron Age ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Archaeological Sites ◽  
Systematic Sampling ◽  
Data Presentation ◽  
Animal Remains ◽  
Plant Remains ◽  
Different Types ◽  
Subsistence Patterns

In recent years increasing attention has been focused on the palaeoeconomic interpretation of prehistoric sites, and a number of projects have been carried out both in Britain and abroad on plant and animal remains from archaeological sites with a view to interpreting subsistence patterns and activities of early communities. Though large-scale, systematic sampling and recovery of palaeoethnobotanical data has been carried out on several sites in the last ten years, the practice is still not widespread and has yet to be judged by its results. Fundamental issues relating to sampling, recovery and data presentation still require attention. Although studies of palaeoeconomic material have been done on Iron age sites in southern Britain, for example at Portway (Murphy 1977a) and Abingdon (Parrington 1978), as yet little evaluation of this evidence has taken place. The aim of this paper is to present, assess and compare the evidence from two such studies of different types of Iron Age site.

scholarly journals A comparison of the influences of flotation and wet sieving on certain carbonized legume and cereal remains

2016 ◽  
Vol 75 (1) ◽  
pp. 144-148 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sara Mareković ◽  
Renata Šoštarić
Keyword(s):  
Plant Species ◽  
Archaeological Sites ◽  
Water Recovery ◽  
Recovery Techniques ◽  
Plant Remains ◽  
Wet Sieving

Abstract In order to determine the influence of recovery techniques with water (flotation and wet sieving) on carbonized plant remains, a certain amount of wheat, barley, millet, horsebean and lentil macrofossils from archaeological sites was taken and treated with water. Moist recovery was also applied to in-laboratory, artificially, charred barley, millet and lentil samples. After the treatments, the investigated remains were re-counted and the percentages of still recognizable remains for every plant species and for each method were recorded. Comparisons were made of the sensitivities of the investigated species and of the differences in the degree of macrofossil breakup depending on the method of recovery. Our investigation proved that flotation is a less aggressive method than wet sieving and that barley, horsebean and wheat carbonized macrofossils are resistant to moist treatments, while the breakup percentage of lentil and millet (from archaeological sites) is higher than 30%, which should be taken into account when deciding on the (non)use of water recovery in the investigations.

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