Club-rush (Bolboschoenus spp. (Asch.) Palla) is one of the most common edible wild plant taxa found at Epipaleolithic and Neolithic sites in southwest Asia. At Early Natufian site Shubayqa 1 (Black Desert, Jordan) thousands club-rush rhizome-tuber remains hundreds fragments prepared meals were found. The evidence indicated that underground storage organs this recurrently used as a source food 1...

Recent investigations of an apparently ‘empty,’ partly disturbed Viking chamber grave in Denmark (Fregerslev II, dated around the mid-10th century CE) provided opportunity to develop a novel multi-scale and multi-method analysis burial post-burial processes. To overcome limitations poor preservation artefacts bones, lack clear macrostratigraphic sequence, we integrated multi-proxy analyses orga...

Abstract Arctic mining has a bad reputation because the extractive industry is often responsible for suite of environmental problems. Yet, few studies explore gap between untouched tundra and messy megaproject from historical perspective. Our paper focuses on Advent City as case study emergence coal in Svalbard (Norway) coupled with onset mining-related change. After short but intensive human a...

BACKGROUND Archaeobotany, the study of plant remains from sites of ancient human activity, provides data for studying the initial evolution of domesticated plants. An important background to this is defining the domestication syndrome, those traits by which domesticated plants differ from wild relatives. These traits include features that have been selected under the conditions of cultivation. ...

Introduction Parasitology is the study of organisms that are symbi-otic with other organisms. In this form of symbiosis, the parasite species by definition benefits from the interaction while the host is harmed to some degree. In actuality, some parasites benefit their hosts. The animals traditionally studied by parasitologists range from protozoa to arthropods, and include all types of interna...

Broomcorn millet (Panicum miliaceum) was known throughout Eurasia in the second millennium BC in regions with warm, moist summers, where its cultivation reduced agricultural risk. Its cultivation during the warm, but dry months at Kyzyltepa and other Iron Age sites in western Central Asia was probably made possible through irrigation practices that were long known and originally developed in th...

Monagrillo (3520–1300 cal BC) is Panama’s oldest pottery. Archaeologists assumed it was a low-fired expedient ware made with any available clay. We studied 1) clay sources (thin sections; DTA; shrinkage, porosity, and plasticity tests), 2) manufacturing techniques (xeroradiography; thin sections; visual inspection), and 3) firing temperature (SEM-EDS; porosity tests). We identified two clay typ...

Archaeobotanical evidence for the exploitation of vegetatively propagated underground storage organs (USOs) in tropical regions Australia, Southeast Asia and Pacific is currently limited. Although there have been several key studies archaeological parenchyma published past two decades, systematic application identification methods crop species utilising charred, desiccated or waterlogged remain...

The fats, protein and carbohydrates afforded by tree nuts fruits are key resources for communities from Southeast Asia, through Melanesia, Australia across Oceania. They important in long-distance marine trade networks, large-scale ceremonial gatherings, core a wide range of subsistence economies, including foraging systems, horticulture swidden agriculture. Recent archaeobotanical evidence has...