Thesis (Ph.D.)--Boston University / The Pre-Pottery Neolithic period (ca. 11,700-8250 cal. B.P.) marks an era of monumental social and economic development in Southwest Asia. The beginnings of cultivation transformed subsistence practices in the region, reflecting both changes in human diet and the activities of collecting, preparing, and consuming plant foods. Archaeobotanical studies have provided critical evidence of the physiological processes of plant domestication, yet so far have rarely shed light on the specific tasks associated with early agriculture in the southern Levant. The site of el-Hemmeh, located in central Jordan, offers a unique perspective on the development of agriculture as it is one of the few archaeological sites occupied during both the Pre-Pottery Neolithic A (ca. 11,700-10,500 cal. B.P.) and Late Pre-Pottery Neolithic B (ca. 9250-8700 cal. B.P .) periods. This dissertation presents macrobotanical evidence collected from el-Hemmeh using a novel flotation tank design to recover charred plant remains from a total of 15 PPNA contexts and 32 Late PPNB contexts. These plant remains are pertinent to understanding the mechanisms of early Neolithic plant domestication and the local environmental setting in which cultivation occurred at el-Hemmeh. The assemblage provides evidence of the purposeful cultivation of predomesticated barley during both the PPNA and Late PPNB periods, as well as fully domesticated emmer wheat during the Late PPNB. Many of the weedy, opportunistic plant species found in the PPNA deposits are edible or useful medicinally and may have been collected as secondary food sources alongside cultivated plants. Additionally, ripped cereal chaff and large numbers of broken grains provide evidence of routine cereal processing tasks, including harvesting, threshing, dehusking, and intensive grain grinding during the Late PPNB. This research answers calls by archaeologists to identify the ways in which large-scale economic changes of the Neolithic are reflected at the local level through an examination of context-by-context patterns in macrobotanical data reflecting plant processing, cooking, and discard activities at el-Hemmeh.

The aim of this project is to produce new archaeobotanical evidence for the early-mid Neolithic sequence of Çatalhöyük in Central Anatolia, and use it as a basis for investigation into the nature and scale of crop husbandry at a long-living early farming settlement in south-west Asia. The archaeobotanical weed record is here considered the primary source of information on the aspects of crop husbandry indicative of different cultivation practices (i.e. permanence, seasonality and intensity) and crucial for distinguishing between contrasting agricultural systems (i.e. intensive vs. extensive cultivation) Of the thousands of archaeobotanical samples available from the study site, 115 samples from the early-mid Neolithic occupation were selected as archaeobotanically rich and originating from archaeologically well-defined situations (‘primary deposits’). Crop remains dominate the selected dataset and it is suggested that crop processing is one of the major source of the material. Another major taphonomic factor contributing to, and shaping the macro-botanical assemblage is burning of animal (sheep/goat) dung as fuel, as has been documented by micromorphological, and previous and current archaeobotanical analysis of macro-remains and phytoliths at the site. It has been proposed that residues from the two processes (crop processing and dung burning) are mixed in many archaeological deposits, obscuring the distinction between and impeding consideration of the two separate practices. Various analytical approaches are applied and combined in order to ‘disentangle’ arable weeds from dung-derived taxa in the archaeological deposits. In order to determine the stage(s) of crop processing represented by the samples, ethnoarchaeological models and ethnographically-derived statistical methods for crop processing analysis are employed. The archaeobotanical criteria for identification of dung-derived material, supported by the ethnographic information, ecological data and observations from the sheep/goat feeding experiments, are used for recognition of the material arriving at the site via burning of dung. The variability in the assemblage is explored using the correspondence analysis; the patterning revealed the differences between arable weeds and wild taxa deriving from sheep/goat dung, enabling the clear separation of the two datasets. The material identified as deriving from sheep/goat dung offers a basis for consideration of livestock diet, with wider implications for land use and integration with farming. The archaeobotanical weed data are compared on the basis of their ecological characteristics to the modern weed surveys and studies of traditional crop husbandry regimes. The results indicate that crops were grown in fixed plots sown in autumn and managed using intensive methods (e.g. careful tillage, weeding, manuring) implying close proximity of the fields to the settlement. The combined evidence from animal and crop husbandry suggests intensive garden cultivation as the most plausible model for early-mid Neolithic Çatalhöyük. The identified cultivation system has implications for issues such as settlement location, residents’ mobility, crop cultivation productivity and long-term sustainability, as well as social context of farming possibly reflected in the settlement’s spatial organisation.

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This study deals with the archaeobotany of the West House, a Late Bronze Age house at Akrotiri, on the island of Thera, Cyclades, Greece. The island is also known as Santorini. Due to a volcanic eruption (c.1600 B.C.) which covered the whole town with ash, the settlement site of Akrotiri, has been preserved in its pristine state. This enables us to find all the storage contexts within the West house in an ash-sealed state, with absolute certainty of contemporaneity of contexts, structures and material culture. This thesis examines the results of archaeological contexts for botanical data, to provide information on agriculture, crop processing and storage. Preservation of seeds was in the form of charred, silicified, and mineralized material. Our spectrum of crops has increased with the addition of two species: cf.Lathyrus clymenum and Lupinus cf.albus, thus increasing the number of cultivated pulses known from the Late Bronze Age Aegean. Crops were cf. Lathyrus clymenum (a new find as a L.B.A. crop), Lens culinaris, Pisum sativum, Hordeum vulgare, H.distichum, Triticum monococcum. Other important crops included Ficus carica, Vitis vinifera and Olea europaea. A third group of possible crop plants included Lathyrus cicera/L.sativus, Lupinus cf. albus, Vicia ervilia, Linum usitatissimum and Coriandrum sativum. The find of crops in the latest stage just before consumption is unique for archaeobotanical material and includes split legumes, bulgur-type cracked barley, and flour. Work was also carried out on segetal and ruderal weed seeds to provide information on crop processing, field fragmentation, field contamination, and insect infestation.

Early evidence for the importance of legumes in nutrition is limited by difficulties in the identification and interpretation of pulse remains from archaeological contexts. The main aims of this work are to seek in a detailed survey of legume seed micromorphology, criteria that can be used i) for the identification of species and, ii) as evidence of cultivation. Assessment of the role of SEM in archaeobotany is a supplementary aim. Archaeological evidence of pulses in the Old World is first reviewed, followed by the rationale for the selection of members of the tribe Vicieae as the species researched. The second part of the thesis is a background study of the Vicieae and its four major genera Vicia, Lathyrus, Lens and Pisum. Brief accounts of their taxonomy, seed morphology and geographical distribution are followed by an examination of traditional Old World systems of pulse agronomy. Chapter three concerns the material and methods of research. The results are described qualitatively in chapter four, and following multivariate analysis in chapters five and six. The seventh chapter describes some miscellaneous procedures. The eighth chapter is a discussion of the results. Identifications down to species level using seed micromorphology are restricted to certain taxa, contrary to some published reports; but allocation of specimens to a higher taxonomic rank, using an array of criteria, is usually more realistic. Most useful characters are found in features in the hilar region. Clear evidence of cultivation has only been observed in the genus Pisum. Using SEM, similar data may be recorded equally in fresh seeds and fragments of charred archaeological specimens. It is concluded that seeds of the Vicieae usually do not exhibit sufficient morphological differences for species identification. Evidence for cultivation may rather be sought in biochemical changes that facilitate control of the germinationin seeds of cultigens. Future research into pulse biochemistry and agronomy is anticipated.

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This master thesis deals with two case studies in environmental archaeology and battlefield archaeology focusing on two major events in the late history of the Swedish coastal town Umeå and its nearby village Sävar. Established in the early 1600's, Umeå was known for its export of timber and import of cereals. The town has suffered from numerous fires, the fire in 1888 being the most devastating. Few written records of the town remain from before the 1900's. The latest war in Sweden's history is documented in historical sources and took place at Krutbrånet, Sävar where the Swedish troops suffered defeat against the russian forces in 1809. The old port in Umeå has not been previously excavated archaeologically and only a small part of the battlefield area at Krutbrånet has been surveyed. Neither of the sites have yet been protected sites under Swedish heritage conservation act. The purpose of these two case studies is to present new research results from these two sites.In the first case study, archaeobotany and soil chemistry methods were used to analyse soil samples from undisturbed cultural layers in a construction trench at the old port of Umeå. A thick burnt layer consisted of charcoal, oats and weeds, suggesting storage and possibly intended as food for horses. Oat and pea were radiocarbon dated to most likely late 1800's which places the burned layer with oats to the big city fire in 1888. The area could have intact cultural layers that are important to investigate for understanding the  unknown history of Umeås old port.The basis for the second case study is the material evidence of lead musket bullets found during a small field survey at Krutbrånet, conducted in 2010. The bullets were studied using X-ray Fluorescence together with spatial analysis to determine if troop nationality could be possible to distinguish based on composition, characteristics and spatial positions. The results revealed bullets  in varied sizes and composed of lead but also alloys of copper, antimony and tin that appear in mixed quantities spread in all the studied areas of the battlefield. Field surveys of uninvestigated areas at Krutbrånet are needed to understand the context of the studied material and of troop formations. Further studies could also be isotope analyses to determine the origins of the oats and bullets.

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