Domesticated Landscapes: The Subsistence Ecology of Plant and Animal Domestication

Harvesting different species as foods or raw materials calls for differing skills depending on the species being harvested and the circumstances under which they are being taken. In some situations and for some species, the tactics used are mainly behavioral—that is, people adjust, or adapt, their own actions to fit the behavior and circumstances of the species they are taking. Under other circumstances and for other species, the skills and tactics used may call for greater environmental preparation or manipulation. Therefore, instead of trying to distinguish people today and in the past as either foragers or farmers, it makes sense to define human subsistence behavior as an interactive matrix of species and harvesting tactics, that is, as a provisions spreadsheet.     

One,two, three phytoliths: assessing the minimum phytolith sum for archaeological studies

The number of phytolith studies has increased steadily in the last decades in palaeoecological as well as archaeological research, and phytolith analysis is currently recognised as a proper area of expertise within archaeobotany. This has led towards a strengthening in the standardisation of the different steps involved in analysis; e.g. sampling strategies, laboratory extraction or processing of plant material/soils for the creation of reference collections. In spite of this, counting procedures remain one of the areas that could be further developed. The aim of this paper is to assess representativeness of phytolith count size in archaeological samples and specifically to assess whether an increase in total number of individuals counted influences the number or distribution of morphotypes observed. Two statistical tests are performed to evaluate the representativeness of count size: phytolith sum variability analysis (PSVA) and morphotype accumulation curve (MAC). The analyses show the relationship among the number of counted phytoliths, the variability (that is, the number of different morphotypes identified) and the stabilisations of the MACs. Results allow us to support the standard count size in phytolith studies, which ranges from 250 to 300 particles. Together with a quick scan, this strategy should produce a precise and clear phytolith assemblage for archaeological studies.     

From Bells to Cannon – The Beginnings of Archaeological Chemistry in the Eighteenth Century

This paper attempts to track the history of the chemical analysis of archaeological copper alloys back beyond the accepted origins of archaeometallurgy, and even before the pioneering work of Martin Heinrich Klaproth, as identified by Earle Cayley. It would appear that the chemical analysis of copper metal was developed in Revolutionary France around 1790 to enable the estimation of the amount of tin in the alloy as a response to the need to convert church bells into cannon. What is perhaps remarkable to our eyes, however, is that this group of scientists (including Mongez, Darcet and Dizé), who were the leading chemists of their day, were also interested in the analysis of archaeological metals. This is further evidence for the blossoming of the age of scientific enlightenment, when, shortly after the development of gravimetric methods of analysis, the entire contents of the ‘cabinets of curiosities’ were the subject of scientific study by the leading savants of the day.