The purpose of this paper is to evaluate the possibility of paleoentomology as a proxy in garden archaeology research. Garden contexts can prove difficult to identify and interpret due to the many changes the contexts go through during their activity period. Mixing of materials, harvesting and cultivation of many different plants will affect the environmental data that is retrieved from them and thus our interpretation of horticulture. This essay looks at the contexts and materials involved in the gardening process; irrigation sources, fertilizer, garden plant macrofossils and modern ecological insect and host plant relationships. The goal is to suggest a conceptual indicator group of insect and plant species that could aid in the identification of garden context and the in situ growth of relic plants. Paleoentomological information from the relating contexts (middens, composts, wells etc.) and other indicator groups have been included along with the ecological data in order to get a more complex picture over the garden contexts and their varying content. For instance, many of the plants found in garden soils are recorded as host plants to several insect species. This paper argues that investigation of these relationships can aid garden archaeology and further our understanding of herbivorous insects’ and associated species’ relationships to plant domestication in pre-history.

L’étude des pratiques mortuaires de l’ère chrétienne est un champ de recherche largement exploré par les historiens et les archéologues. Pourtant, en dépit d’une certaine tendance scientifique actuelle à questionner les rapports homme/milieu, aucune étude n’aborde la pompe funèbre dans une optique ethnobotanique. Cette enquête diachronique reconstitue les accessoires végétaux que la société puise dans son environnement pour accompagner le cadavre. Une méthodologie est développée pour la reconnaissance des micro- et macro-restes végétaux, en particulier le pollen, appliquée aux vestiges de huit sites archéologiques français et italiens (Ier-XVIIe s). Ces données, parfois éclairées par les sources écrites, livrent des informations inédites sur deux types de pratiques. D’une part, des dépôts végétaux constitués d’espèces florales accompagnent le corps des défunts et lui confèrent une image plus éclatante du point de vue visuel et olfactif, y compris dans les milieux sociaux les plus humbles. Ces données invitent les archéologues à considérer l’existence d’un mobilier funéraire peu connu jusqu’alors. D’autre part, les végétaux sont utilisés pour l’embaumement interne des plus privilégiés. L’opération transforme chirurgicalement la dépouille, et les chairs sont apaisées par le baume, une préparation dans laquelle les plantes jouent un rôle prédominant en vertu de leurs propriétés médicinales, olfactives, et symboliques. Ce travail pose les bases méthodologiques d’une archéobotanique funéraire. Les origines anciennes des pratiques mises en évidence devront à présent être reconstituées, mais c’est aussi leur rémanence dans la société contemporaine qu’il conviendra d’analyser. / Roman and Christian mortuary practices are widely explored by historians and archaeologists in Western Europe. Considered as a relic of a social being, the dead body contributes to a better understanding of human communities and cultures. However, even if Man-Environment interactions are now a central issue of the scientific research, no study has questioned funerary behaviors in an ethnobotanical perspective yet. This work aims to reconstitute plant accessories that people collect in their environment to treat the corpse and modify its appearance or its anatomical and biological properties. An original methodology is set up to sample and analyze macro and microbotanical remains, especially pollen, from Roman, Medieval and Modern tombs (1st-17th centuries AD) excavated on eight archaeological sites in France and in Italy. These archaeobotanical data confronted with written sources shed light on two kinds of practices.On the one hand, plant materials such as floral arrangements, litter and cushion made of colorful and fragrant species accompany the defunct into the grave. These tributes modify the sensory perception of the corpse and materialize devotion to the deceased, even in more humble social backgrounds. These results invite archaeologists to consider a new and unexpected kind of grave goods during fieldwork and laboratory analysis.On the other hand, plants are used for embalming into elite social circles. In Europe this practice, most likely originated in Ancient Times, is accurately documented by written and archaeological sources between the 14th century and the early 19th century. Evisceration and excerebration procedures physically transform the corpse, then the flesh and the skin are treated with an aromatic balm composed by many plants and exudates such as wormwood, mint, myrrh and frankincense. Surgeons appeal to medicinal, olfactory and symbolic properties of plants in order to stop the decay process and honor the body.This work lays foundation for an ethno-archaeobotany of death and brings some elements to understand the relationship between the dead body and its plant environment. Ancient origins of these mortuary practices now need to be identified. Moreover their persistence in contemporary society could also be analyzed through an ethno-sociological approach.

Von 1983 bis 1993 wurden im Rahmen des DFG-Schwerpunktprogramms „Siedlungsarchäologische Untersuchungen im Alpenvorland“ spätneolithische und bronzezeitliche Ufersiedlungen am westlichen Bodensee untersucht. Botanische Untersuchungen an den archäologischen Fundplätzen und Pollenprofile aus nahegelegenen Seen und Mooren ergaben große Unterschiede zwischen spätneolithischer und bronzezeitlicher Landnutzung. Das Landnutzungsmodell für das Spätneolithikum, ein Wald-Feldbau-Verfahren mit Feuereinsatz, wird seit 1994 experimentell überprüft. Darüber hinaus wurde 2003 ein neues Projekt begonnen, in dem mehr und bessere Daten zur spätneolithischen und bronzezeitlichen Landnutzung erhoben werden sollen. Das Untersuchungsgebiet ist das Südufer des Überlinger Sees mit mehr als zwölf prähistorischen Ufersiedlungen. An diesem Seeufer und auf dem südlich anschließenden Bodanrück wurden fünf Pollenprofile entnommen. Die vorläufigen Ergebnisse bestätigen die Resultate vom Untersee und aus dem Hegau. / In the years 1983-93, the „Schwerpunktprogramm der Deutschen Forschungsgemeinschaft ‚Siedlungsarchäologische Untersuchungen im Alpenvorland’“ studied Late neolithic and Bronze Age lake shore dwellings in the western Lake Constance region. Botanical investigations at the sites and of long-term sediment and peat profiles nearby reveal big differences between Late Neolithic and Bronze Age land use. The favoured land-use model for the Late Neolithic, a slash-and-burn system with shifting cultivation, was tested experimentally since 1994. In 2003, a new project was initiated to collect consistent environmental data about Late Neolithic and Bronze Age land use. As research area the southern shore of the Überlinger See with more than twelve Neolithic and Bronze Age lake shore dwellings was choosen. Five sites at this shore and at the adjacent Bodanrück were sampled for – offsite – pollen analysis. The preliminary pollen results seem to confirm the pollen data from the Untersee and Hegau region.

Bread is an important cultural and social marker, and it occurs in many contexts, often preserved as carbonised. However, as bread fragments are typically small and anonymous, their total value of them is not appreciated. Often bread material is grouped simply as organic and not considered. Material from Late Iron Age and the early Medieval times Gamla Uppsala, Valsgärde, and Gnista (Uppland County, Sweden) is analysed here. In this text, both settlement and ritual contexts were taken into consideration in the trends concerning bread production and/or consumption. This thesis aims to establish a protocol for distinguishing bread from other carbonised materials, including a macroscopic description that can be used in the field. Micro morphological and lipids analyses are relevant resources to study charred bread-like fragments recovered in archaeological contexts. Other laboratory methods, including FTIR, GC–MS, and GCIMS, were used alongside these methods. Experimental archaeology allowed for the build-up of a list of references to compare the material collected in the field. Developing a method to study these remains sheds light on the cultural value of bread, one of the most spread foodstuffs, and its connections with conviviality. / Bröd är en viktig kulturell och social markör, och det förekommer i många sammanhang ofta bevarat som förkolnat. Men eftersom brödfragmenten vanligtvis är små och anonyma, uppskattas inte deras fulla värde. Brödmaterial sorteras ofta endast som organiskt material och tas inte i vidare beaktning. Material mellan yngre järnålder och tidig medeltid från Gamla Uppsala, Valsgärde och Gnista (Upplands Län, Sverige) analyseras här. I denna text har både bosättnings- och rituella sammanhang beaktats för att undersöka trenderna kring brödproduktion och/eller konsumtion. Denna uppsats syftar till att identifiera bröd från annat förkolat material inklusive en makroskopisk beskrivning som kan användas i fält. Mikromorfologiska analyser och lipidanalyser är relevanta metoder för att studera förkolnade brödliknande fragment från arkeologiska sammanhang. Vid sidan av dessa metoder användes andra laboratoriemetoder, som inkluderade FTIR, GC–MS och GCIMS. Experimentell arkeologi gjorde det möjligt att bygga upp en lista med referenser för att jämföra det material som samlats in i fält. Dessa metoder används för att belysa det kulturella värdet av bröd, ett av de mest spridda livsmedlen och dess kopplingar till social gemenskap.

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No description available.

This thesis analyses the carbonised remains of the great hall building in Gamla (old) Uppsala, Sweden, which burnt down sometime between 7th to 8th century AD. It is easily assumed that the people of Gamla Uppsala, who lived in one of the most important central places in Iron Age Scandinavia, had both the economy and power to build a most spectacular hall. Previous research on halls has focused on architectural changes as well as the power and rituals such buildings might have represented. However, no previous Swedish archaeological studies have discussed the quality of construction wood as an indication of a well-built hall building. Wood can rarely be analysed in-depth as it is most often decomposed, or only a few charred pieces remain from the constructions. The hall in Gamla Uppsala provides an unusually large amount of charcoal remains. Therefore, an anthracological analysis is used in this thesis to discuss the quality of the hall construction based on the choice of timber. The purpose of this thesis was to identify what kind of wood the builders used to construct the great hall, how much timber and time it would take to build the 50 m long hall building and if the required timber could be found in the area surrounding the hall. The purpose was also to try to identify whether the construction wood was of good quality. The results show that the large timbers were of scots pine (Pinus sylvestris), and the wattle walls were made of juniper branches (Juniperus sp.). The great hall required at least 6250 scots pine trees, which is 4–5 hectares of clear-cut logging. As the landscape at Gamla Uppsala mainly consisted of large open fields, there were not enough trees that would grow locally to get this amount of timber for the hall. Junipers would, however, grow in the open landscape, and the builders would have gathered a minimum of 3600–5300 branches for the wattle walls. It would have taken around four months or less to build the hall, not including the time it would take to prepare the building material. The identified construction materials suggest that the timber was carefully chosen for the great hall building in Gamla Uppsala. / I denna uppsats har förkolnat virke analyserats från hallbyggnaden på kungsgården i Gamla Uppsala, som brann ner någon gång mellan 600- och 700-talet e.Kr. Det är lätt att anta att människorna i Gamla Uppsala, som då bodde i en av järnålderns viktigaste centralplatser, hade en tillräckligt stor social och ekonomisk makt för att bygga en spektakulär hallbyggnad. Tidigare forskning om hallbyggnader har fokuserats på arkitektoniska förändringar samt på den sociala makt och de rituella ceremonier som hallbyggnader ofta är förknippade med. Det finns däremot inga arkeologiska studier i Sverige som har fokuserats på virkeskvalitet från byggnader med sådan dignitet som hallbyggnaden i Gamla Uppsala. Möjligheten att utföra djupare analyser på arkeologiskt trä är sällsynt då det ofta hunnit förmultna, eller endast utgörs av några få förkolnade bitar av ursprungsvirket. Hallen i Gamla Uppsala har efter branden en ovanligt stor mängd förkolnat virke som bevarats i gott skick. Genom vedartsanalyser på de arkeologiska trälämningarna kan kvaliteten på hallbyggnaden diskuteras baserat på val av virke. Syftet med denna uppsats var att identifiera vilka vedarter som användes för att konstruera hallen, hur mycket virke som krävdes, hur lång tid det skulle ta att bygga den 50 m långa hallbyggnaden och om virket kunde hämtas i närområdet kring hallen. Syftet var också att försöka identifiera om konstruktionsvirket var av god kvalitet. Resultaten av analysen visar att majoriteten av virket var av furu (Pinus sylvestris), medan flätverksväggarna var gjorda av ene grenar (Juniperus sp.). För att bygga hallen krävdes minst 6250 tallar, vilket skulle motsvara 4–5 hektar avverkad skog. Eftersom landskapet vid Gamla Uppsala huvudsakligen bestod av stora öppna fält kunde det inte ha funnits tillräckligt med träd som växte i närområdet för att samla in den mängd virke som krävdes för konstruktionen av hallen. Ene var tillgängligt i närområdet i det öppna landskapet, och byggarna behövde minst 3600–5300 grenar till flätverksväggarna. Det skulle ha tagit cirka fyra månader eller mindre att bygga hallen, frånsett den tid det skulle ta att förbereda byggmaterialet. Virket verkar ha valts ut noggrant för hallen på kungsgården i Gamla Uppsala.

No description available.

Traditional agriculture has played an important role in shaping the landscape for thousands of years. Agriculture and interactions between humans and their surroundings have changed since the beginning of historic time in Sweden, approximately 1000 years ago. Through botanical macrofossil analysis of plant remnants found in an urban ditch in Sigtuna, Sweden, I examine which natural landscapes the town’s inhabitants may have interacted with in terms of resource collection in the beginning of the Medieval period. The results showed indications of predominantly nutritious wet grassland habitats, but also dry grassland and forests, as well as remnants of urban and cultivated species. The species indicate that the resources may have been used as winter fodder for animals, but possibly also as sustenance for humans as well as building material. The results indicated little change over time, regarding which landscape types were interacted with, but there were possible indications of a decrease in grassland resource collection in the youngest sample from 1150 A.D. Further research is needed to understand the indication. The material indicates that the Cyperaceae family will be instrumental in continuing this research.

This thesis is a case study using paleoethnobotanical analysis of Kilgii Gwaay, a 10,700-year-old wet site in southern Haida Gwaii to explore the use of plants by ancestral Haida. The research investigated questions of early Holocene wood artifact technologies and other plant use before the large-scale arrival of western redcedar (Thuja plicata), a cultural keystone species for Haida in more recent times. The project relied on small-scale excavations and sampling from two main areas of the site: a hearth complex and an activity area at the edge of a paleopond. The archaeobotanical assemblage from these two areas yielded 23 plant taxa representing 14 families in the form of wood, charcoal, seeds, and additional plant macrofossils. A salmonberry and elderberry processing area suggests a seasonal summer occupation. Hemlock wedges and split spruce wood and roots show evidence for wood-splitting technology. The assemblage demonstrates potential for site interpretation based on archaeobotanical remains for the Northwest Coast of North America and highlights the importance of these otherwise relatively unknown plant resources from this early time period. / Graduate / cohenjenny2@gmail.com