Enset (Ensete ventricosum (Welw.) Cheesman) is an important plant belonging to the Musaceae family, cultivated predominantly in south and south-west Ethiopia. It is often referred to as the "tree against hunger" and considered a good crop to tackle food insecurity. Yet, it remains a relatively unknown crop outside its country of origin. Our interdisciplinary project "Evolutionary dynamics of vegetative agriculture in the Ethiopian Highlands: integrating archaeobotanical and genomic science" aims to provide a better understanding of the evolutionary and cultural history of enset by unravelling the narrative of the cultural and geographical "story" of domestication and its antiquity. Archaeobotanical investigations, specifically phytolith analysis, are crucial to estimate the antiquity of the enset cultivation system and to do this, robust phytolith identification criteria need to be established. Results on the ongoing phytolith analysis are presented, particularly looking at the phytoliths found in enset leaves. We focus on the variations of enset phytoliths and where these are in the plant. We also introduce the aims of, and some preliminary data from, our ethnographic work in south-west Ethiopia which investigates the extent to which agricultural and cultural changes in recent decades have altered patterns of local enset landrace diversity, uses and relative importance.
The ethnobotanical collections of the French National Museum of Natural History shelter about 50,000 herbaria specimens collected from the early 20th century in all continents. Auguste Chevalier founded this collection in 1911 to study useful plants and their application for economic development. Then, as the direction of the laboratory changed, the research thematic evolved to ethnobotanical issues. Nowadays, recent projects aim to valorise the specimens by a digitisation process in order to offer access and visibility to these collections. Moreover, because of their origin and the diversity represented, the collections hold an important value for current research. For example, the sorghum collection (Sorghum spp.), containing about 1,000 specimens, is a precious resource to explore the taxonomy and morphological properties of sorghum varieties. To do this, we developed several scientific illustrations of the various morphotypes of sorghum, integrated to the determination tool Xper3. This material can have applications for other disciplines by supplying well identified, documented and accessible seed references. Exploring different illustration techniques, the use of scientific drawing supplied relevant tools to determine the morphotype of two sorghum seeds from the archaeological site of Mouweis in Sudan. The identification of the morphotype (caudatum) has enabled the completion of the puzzling history of sorghum.
Old Dongola in northern Sudan, with a history dating back to the 5th century, was the capital of the Christian Kingdom of Makuria, one of the three medieval Nubian kingdoms. Following the collapse of Makuria in the 14th century, the city underwent significant cultural and social transformations, marked by migration of Arab tribes and the rise of new power structures. During the 16th and 17th centuries, Old Dongola served as the seat of a local ruler under the Funj Sultanate, reflecting its integration into wider Islamic governance. This period saw the emergence of diverse communities, shaped by the interplay of religious conversion, migration, and political changes. Here we present new archaeobotanical findings obtained through the application of a systematic sampling by collecting sediments from each excavated context, and a recovery strategy which combined flotation and dry sieving at the citadel of Old Dongola in northern Sudan. Our archaeobotanical results, spanning the Kingdom of Dongola and the Funj periods (14th-18th centuries), shed light on the development of dietary habits of the inhabitants of the city, which primarily revolved around cereals like sorghum, pearl millet, barley, and wheat, supplemented by crops such as purslane and fruits including watermelon, dates, grapes, and figs. Furthermore, the analysis of plant remains provided insights into the consumption of pulses such as cowpea and grass pea. Importantly, the discovery of imported plants, including tobacco seeds, underscores the significance of Old Dongola in the ancient world's trade networks. These findings greatly enhance our understanding of subsistence practices and the utilisation of economic and medicinal plants in the region.
The ancient Egyptian term "hebeni" is traditionally translated as "ebony" and refers to dense, black woods used in prestigious furniture, but the precise identification of these black woods is not so simple and raises questions about the trade routes used to acquire them. This paper examines questions of provenance for hebeni wood, as well as its various iconographic representations and uses. It explores the imitation of these black woods in Egyptian material culture and the import of objects made from them into Egypt. Crucially, the study tackles the anatomical identification of these dark woods, showcasing a protocol successfully tested in the field. Xylological analysis to precisely identify these species is challenging due to limited access to archaeological material and the inherent hardness of these woods, which complicates traditional sampling. This paper presents a field-tested analytical protocol that overcomes these limitations, enabling identification of dense woods. We present results from analyses conducted on blackwood furniture discovered by the Egyptian-British Western Wadi mission (MoTA/NKRF) in Luxor's West Bank, shedding new light on the identity of ancient Egyptian "hebeni".
The International Workshop for African Archaeobotany (IWAA) is addressed to scholars working in the field of relationships between plants and humans in Africa. The 10th IWAA was organised in Paris from 27th to 30th June 2023 and hosted at the National Museum for Natural History (Museum National d'Histoire Naturelle). The 10th IWAA gathered 74 participants from 18 countries. It included contributions relating to human-plant interactions that dealt with seed and charcoal macroremains, wood, phytoliths, pollen, non-pollen palynomorphs analyses, as well as genomic and ethnobotanical studies.
This study presents an interdisciplinary investigation into a fragmentary wooden drum found in the abandoned village of Sibi Kili, located in the Niokolo Koba National Park in Senegal. Combining ethnobotanical and ethnoarchaeological research, qualitative ethnographic interviews and wood anatomical analyses, the study offers new insights into the material and spiritual culture of Mandinka communities. Drum-related information emerged through open-ended and follow-up conversations during fieldwork in villages near the park. The drum - historically used as a communicative and ritual instrument - was identified through microscopic analysis and ethnographic evidence as being crafted from Cordyla pinnata, a culturally significant and increasingly endangered tree species. The study reveals the material's durability, symbolic resonance, and ecological context. More than a musical object, the drum served as a medium of spiritual, social, and political communication, deeply embedded in rites of passage, community mobilisation, and traditional authority. This case highlights the importance of ephemeral artefacts in African archaeology and calls attention to the preservation of wooden cultural materials as repositories of intangible heritage. The findings affirm the value of integrative research approaches for understanding the long-term human-environment interactions and the cultural biographies of objects.
Archaeobotany in south-east Nigeria is still a growing field of study. While the northern and southwestern parts of Nigeria have a longer history of archaeobotanical research, the south-eastern region has only seen relatively recent studies, with much still unknown about its archaeobotanical history. This paper highlights the progress made so far in the development of archaeobotanical research in southeast Nigeria, a region with a rich history, cultural diversity, and geographic significance in West Africa. The article begins by reviewing the state of archaeological and archaeobotanical investigations in the region with the aim of identifying what has been done so far and what remains to be done. The paper then discusses the achievements, challenges, and prospects associated with the growth of archaeobotany, emphasising the need for local capacity building to advance the field. Recent archaeobotanical research in Igbo-Ukwu is used as a case study, demonstrating the ongoing work in the region and the potential it holds for understanding the paleoenvironment and early agricultural practices. Palynological and botanical macro-analysis of samples from recent excavations at IgboUkwu reveals the presence of wood charcoal, food residue, seeds/fruits such as Elaeis guineensis, Vitex sp., Pennisetum glaucum syn. Cenchrus americanus and Canarium sp., as well as fungal and pteridophyte spores, all associated with the 10(th)-13(th )century CE cultural deposits. The paper concludes that south-east Nigeria offers great potential for unlocking Africa's rich agricultural history and hence the need to develop archaeobotanical research in the region.
The burials of immature individuals from the La Tène period still remain a great mystery. In most regions, these types of burials are completely absent or very sporadic. The aim of the present paper is a multidisciplinary analysis of the discovery of such a burial from Plzeň-Radčice in the Czech Republic. The burial has many unique aspects, such as a good state of skeletal material preservation, an archaeological context and rich grave goods. For the purpose of assessment, we have carried out basic anthropological, archaeological and zooarchaeological analysis, microscopy assessment, measurement of stable and radioactive isotopes and DNA analysis. Based on these analyses, we found that the child individual (2–4 years old) from the studied burial was a male with a probable connection to the Danube region and Carpathian Basin.
This contribution analyses the remains of fish from archaeological excavation in the area of the fortified early mediaeval centre in Prague-Královice (12th–early 13th centuries). An analysis of the available material indicates a regular and widespread consumption of fish, which was, however, only a dietary supplement. Catfish (Silurus glanis) with a body length of about 75 cm, and pike (Esox lucius) with body lengths of about 45 cm and 60 cm were determined. They probably represent catches coming from large rivers (Elbe or Vltava) which are circa 15 km distant from the Prague-Královice stronghold. It can be assumed that some carp-like fish recognised only on the basis of scales could also be larger. However, the capital catches known from the elite environment of the nearby early mediaeval hillfort at Vyšehrad were not documented. The dominant fish in the studied assemblage are individuals up to 20 cm in length, with some only up to circa 5–10 cm, very probably including a gudgeon (cf. Gobio). It makes Královice unique among Czech archaeoichthyological reports of studied period materials. The presence of small fish leads to considerations on the way they were used, including speculations about preparation into a sauce or pâté or frying them, although these procedures are not historically documented in early mediaeval Bohemia. In mediaeval archaeological contexts in Bohemia up to the 13th century, a variety of at least fifteen fish species has been documented osteologically so far.
Grave mound 2 in Sankt Helena, community of Simmelsdorf, has provided insights into Early Iron Age burial practices. Due to the preservation of small organic material attached to bronze and iron artefacts, mound 2 quickly became one of the focal points of our research project (No 57601170). In addition, several wagon- and horse-gear-related objects were discovered in this burial mound, which led us to the question of whether a wagon was placed in this grave in Sankt Helena. To investigate this, the organic residues attached to several bronze objects were analysed using gas chromatography/ mass spectrometry (GC/MS). This allows the sample to be divided into its components and evaluated separately. The aim of this paper is to experimentally verify the presence of a wagon using chemical analyses of the organic material, in order to perhaps, for the first time, come closer to interpreting whether the burial mound contained a wagon or not.
The Centre for Fieldwork Archaeology of the Department of Archaeology, Philosophical Faculty, University of Hradec Králové, is developing a new environmental laboratory. It is focused on the application of several methods in large-scale rescue excavations on large infrastructure construction sites. The methods are focused on geochemistry – with wavelength dispersive X-ray fluorescence (WD XRF) as its main method of analysis, and optically stimulated luminescence (pOSL) dating. The laboratory is gathering various devices and apparatus to support its analytical strength in order to produce data of good quality. The laboratory also plans to develop the provision of services for other institutions and activities to support scientific cooperation in the above-mentioned methods.
Basaltoid rocks are widespread in central Europe and in the Corded Ware Culture (CWC) in Moravia they were a sought-after raw material for the production of polished stone tools, along with serpentinites, amphibolites and metabasites. An important precondition for the study of the provenance of CWC basaltoid artefacts was the use of non-destructive methods. Therefore, portable XRF (pXRF) and magnetic susceptibility (MS) measurements were used. Both methods have been applied to a total of 16 CWC polished stone artefacts from central Moravia. Furthermore, the most probable source rocks in northern Moravia and in the adjacent part of Silesia were measured in this way. The data obtained by pXRF, together with several hundred data items obtained from published papers, were evaluated by Principal Component Analysis (PCA). The results of this study confirmed our presumptions that the CWC people were connected predominantly with northern and western territories, i.e. northern Moravia and adjacent part of Silesia, Lower Silesia or Bohemia, rather than with Carpathian-Pannonian region.
From hunting implements to more versatile tools, the function of Mesolithic microliths have been questioned for a long time. Extensive experiments have contributed to a more nuanced understanding of fractures and other microscopic traces that are diagnostic of impacts on flint tools. In the northern Bohemian Mesolithic, raw materials are diverse with jasper representing an important source at some sites. In this study, we tested whether fractures on jasper backed points and triangular microliths used as projectiles exhibit similar wear to those made of erratic flint. To address this, we applied our observations to the Mesolithic assemblage of microliths from the Malý Faraon rock shelter, Czech Republic. The results of the archery experiment revealed that fractures on jasper microliths are comparable to the flint ones. Possible differences were observed between the various hafting modes. Microliths hafted as straight points displayed mainly parallel fractures, while barbs and oblique points displayed fractures on the sharp edges more often than other hafting modes, and the transversely hafted pieces showed a variety of traces. The use-wear analysis of the archaeological microliths revealed that most microliths were used as projectiles. Hunting and hide-working activities documented at the Malý Faraon rock shelter will contribute to the final interpretation of the site and its role in Mesolithic subsistence strategies.
Commingled remains analysis is a fundamental problem in bioarchaeology and forensic anthropology. In cases of commingling, the bones of all individuals represented must be accurately and reliably differentiated. X-ray fluorescence spectrometry (XRF) can identify species and individuals when bone fragments are found in archaeological or forensic contexts. The present study aimed to verify whether portable X-ray fluorescence spectrometry (pXRF) can be used to differentiate bone fragments at the species level (Bos taurus, Sus domesticus, Equus caballus, and Homo sapiens) and at the individual level of human individuals. We also aimed to verify whether species and individuals can be differentiated using pXRF even if the bones were burned. A total of 119 adult human bones from archaeological sites in Central Moravia and Silesia and 17 adult non-human bones from archaeological sites in Central Moravia (Czech Republic) were examined. All bones are dated to various periods (from the Bronze Age to Modern Times). When differentiating the unburnt and burnt bones at the species level, the overall accuracy of classification was 84.6% and 93.9%, respectively. When differentiating unburnt human bones at the individual level, the correct classification ranged from 88.1% to 72.7%. The differentiation of the burnt bones of humans at the individual level achieved an average success rate of more than 60%. The results confirmed that pXRF can be used for species and individual differentiation of unburnt bones and is almost equally applicable to burnt bones.
Diseases are a constant of the human experience and have been affecting past populations of all periods, including those that practised cremation as a dominant burial rite. This paper focuses specifically on children’s health status in the Late Bronze and Iron Age (circa 1500–600 BC) inferred from the osteological analysis of cremated human remains. We have analysed skeletal material from four Croatian (Poljana Križevačka, Slatina, Batina and Sotin) and four Austrian (Franzhausen-Kokoron, Unterradlberg, Inzersdorf, St. Pölten) cemeteries to demonstrate that despite the fragmentation, distortion and selective recovery process of the funerary activities, cremated remains still yield important information on the life and death of children in later European prehistory. Children in the Croatian graveyards were more frequently affected from pathological lesions (38%) than children in the Austrian sample (3%). Cranial porosity, cribra orbitalia, and endocranial lesions dominated, probably related to metabolic diseases such as rickets and scurvy which were noticed primarily in children younger than six years at death. Differences between the Croatian and Austrian samples are likely associated with taphonomic processes as indicated by differences in bone weight and fragmentation size. Since children are the most vulnerable part of communities, a focus on children’s morbidity and mortality can elucidate the living conditions of prehistoric societies as a whole.
We have compiled data on over 800,000 plant macroremains and their inclusions in pottery from 321 archaeological sites in the forest and forest-steppe zones of Eastern Europe, spanning from the Baltic to the Urals, which have been collected and studied in over a century of archaeobotanical research. The spatiotemporal distribution of these remains was analysed using multivariate statistics, unveiling intricate cultivation patterns influenced by both geoclimatic and historical factors. In the timeline, millet-dominated agriculture was prevalent in Eastern Europe from approximately 900 BCE to 150 CE, followed by an increase in barley production at around 250 CE, potentially associated with western migrations. During the Migration Period (approximately 450 to 650 CE), barley-focused agriculture peaked in the northern part of the region, while the forest steppe regions continued to exhibit millet-rich macroremains. Around 650 CE, wheat gained prominence in the steppe-bordered regions, and rye production increased in the north. We have noticed a gradual rise in the proportion of weed species over two millennia, leading to the growth of “mixed” cereal compositions. Our analysis demonstrates the potential to discern trends in cereal production by combining data from various research methods. However, data gaps hinder our understanding, underscoring the importance of intensive sampling.
The paper is devoted to the application of strontium isotope analysis to investigate samples from an 18th century burial ground in Semonice, northeastern Bohemia. The circumstances of the burial ground’s origins as well as the origins of the deceased could not unambiguously be determined with the help of archaeological and anthropological methods. However, the results of isotope analysis helped to answer both questions. When these are supplemented with the testimony of written sources, it is even possible to specify the time of the burial ground’s establishment.
The history of agricultural innovation, intensification and the associated diversity of land use and plant food consumption in the Roman provinces of Upper Germania and Raetia was investigated using charred plant macrofossils (on-site data) and pollen assemblages (off-site data). A presence/absence data set compiled from major published data (n=106) allowed to assess the diversity of food plants according to site types. Highest diversity occurred at small vici (rural villages), reflecting the diversity of features studied, but also the diversity of activities typical for this site type. Generally, the larger, urbanised or military sites, such as forts and large vici (country towns), show higher plant food diversity compared to the smaller, rural sites such as villae rusticae. This difference is based mainly on the diversity of fruits, vegetables and spices consumed. To put the results in a broader chronological context, the feature-based ubiquity of charred finds of six taxa, as indicators of less intensive agriculture (i.e. lowintensity tillage, longer fallow period, smaller field sizes) were evaluated. This dataset obtained from 248 archaeological sites covering the period from Bronze Age to Middle Ages, showed the strongest decrease of perennial arable weeds during the Roman period pointing to a possible shortening of fallow periods and deeper tillage than before. The pollen records (n=7) indicate a decreasing importance of wood pasture and ruderals during the Roman period compared to the preceding and following periods. The studied archaeobotanical evidence indicates a clear turning point in food culture and land use in the area during the Roman period.
Radiocarbon dating is a critical tool in archaeology and Quaternary Earth science, providing absolute age estimates. Established in 2004, the Czech Radiocarbon Laboratory (CRL) has advanced from radiometric methods requiring large sample sizes to using Accelerator Mass Spectrometry, which allows for the dating of microsamples. Since 2018, CRL has undergone significant upgrades, including the acquisition of the MILEA AMS system, enhancing its capacity and precision. CRL’s research spans a broad chronological range, providing insights into various periods from early human dispersal in Central Europe, through Neolithic subsistence, Early Iron Age to the Middle Ages. Additionally, CRL addresses modern challenges such as dating ivory to combat wildlife crime.
During the restoration of the Zápoľský Chapel in the village of Spišský Štvrtok, eastern Slovakia, archaeological excavation uncovered ten incomplete graves as well as 1024 bone fragments that were found in a frame of a surface survey in the Chapel’s exterior. The skeletal remains can be according to the excavated artifacts dated approximately to the 17th–18th century, which is a period when the church, the chapel and the monastery in Spišský Štvrtok were under the care of the religious order of the Minorite friars. The aim of the study was to determine the age, sex and height of the individuals in the graves and to calculate the minimal number of individuals (MNI) of the skeletal remains in the surface collection. Their health status was also evaluated by monitoring their pathological conditions. Among the pathological conditions, inflammatory bone changes (osteomyelitis and periostitis), neoplasms, and dental pathologies were present. Of interest was the presence of processus epicondylaris on the humerus of the individual in the grave nr. 5, which is rare in humans and may have been related to some increased strenuous activity. This anthropological research could contribute to the historical knowledge of the site and the population that lived in Spišský Štvrtok, Slovakia. Probably, many of the skeletal remains belonged to members of the Minorites and also to citizens of the village Spišský Štvrtok. However, the origin of the skeletal remains is unknown even after anthropological research and it is a good reason for deeper discussion and further analyses.
