Methods in Paleoethnobotany: Studies of Cereal Cultivation

Archaeological literature on prehistoric agriculture is often concerned with theoretical discussion than with the archaeobotanical data that have been analyzed to steer the discussion. Many books on prehistoric agriculture focus on high-level theories, while seemingly smaller questions regarding preservation, recovery, and identification of plant materials are only briefly addressed. This book discusses several technical questions with a special emphasis on the following four issues: (1) preservation conditions: what are the most common preservation conditions of cereal remains generally encountered at archaeological sites?; (2) morphological changes: what changes in shape do cereal remains undergo in different preservation conditions?; (3) identification methods: what methods have been used for the identification of cereal remains?; and finally (4) evidence of cultivation: what lines of evidence do paleoethnobotanists use to determine whether the identified cereal remains were cultivated?