Evaluation of desiccated and deformed diaspores from natural building materials
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 6144580 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Tamás Henn (0000-0003-1679-1815, University of Pecs), Róbert W Pál (0000-0003-2843-8517, University of Pecs) |
| Year | 2015 |
| Volume | 6 |
| Issue | 1 |
| Pages | 10-24 |
| Publication date | 2015-03-27 |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Ethnobiology Letters (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 2159-8126 • E-ISSN: 2159-8126 |
| Publisher | Society of Ethnobiology (PUBLISHER • US) |
| DOI | 10.14237/ebl.6.1.2015.229 |
| OpenAlex | W2021313828 |
| Language | EN |
| References cited | 9 |
With the increasing sophistication of paleoethnobotanical methods, it is now possible to reconstruct new aspects of the day-to-day life of past peoples, and, ultimately, gain information about their cultivated plants, land-use practices, architecture, diet, and trade. Reliable identification of plant remains, however, remains essential to the study of paleoethnobotany, and there is still much to learn about precise identification. This paper describes and evaluates the most frequent types of deformed desiccated diaspores revealed from adobe bricks used in buildings in Southwestern Hungary that were built primarily between 1850 and 1950. A total of 24,634 diaspores were recovered from 333.05 kg adobe samples. These seeds and fruits belong to 303 taxa, and the majority were arable and ruderal weed species. A total of 98.97% of the diaspores were identified to species. In other cases, identification was possible only to genus or family (0.93% and 0.10% of diaspores, respectively). Difficulties in identification were caused mainly by morphological changes in the size, shape, color, and surface features of diaspores. Most diaspores were darker in color and significantly smaller than fresh or recently desiccated seeds and fruits. Surface features were often absent or fragmented. The most problematic seeds to identify were those of Centaurea cyanus, Consolida regalis, Scleranthus annuus and Daucus carota ssp. carota, which are discussed in detail. Our research aids archaeobotanists in the identification of desiccated and deformed diaspores
Biological dispersal · Biology · Botany · Daucus carota · Diaspore (botany · Germination · Identification (biology · Population · Seed dispersal · Sociology · Taxon · Ancient and Medieval Archaeology Studies · Archaeology and ancient environmental studies · Isotope Analysis in Ecology
Seed Identification Manual
Geoarchaeology and taphonomy of plant remains and microarchaeological residues in early urban environments in the Ancient Near East
Comparing different pre-treatment methods for strongly compacted organic sediments prior to wet-sieving
The economic value of chaff and straw in arid and temperate zones
The value of the archaeobotanical analysis of desiccated plant remains from old buildings
A statistical approach to the archaeological identification of crop processing
Formation processes of desiccated and carbonized plant remains – the identification of routine practice
The influence of inconsistent wet-sieving procedures on the macroremain concentration in waterlogged sediments
Identifying problematic remains of ancient plant foods
| Highly cited | No |
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