Movement of Garden Plants from Market to Bushland: Gardeners' Plant Procurement and Garden‐Related Behaviour

In Australia, the largest importer of exotic plant species is the gardening industry, and most major environmental weeds originally derive from domestic gardens or nurseries. To provide strategies for weed management, this study aims to clarify two key points on the pathway along which garden plants flow from the market to the natural environment with the help of human activities. These are local residents' procurement of garden plants, and local residents' garden‐related behaviour (e.g. leaving organic materials in reserves). We draw on a survey (382 respondents) among Wollongong (New South Wales, Australia) residents whose property has at least one boundary adjacent to bushland. Frequency analysis and ordinal regression were used. The results indicated that most respondents obtained garden plants, and relevant information, from nurseries but perceived that there was insufficient plant origin information (that is, whether introduced from abroad, native to Australia or local to the Illawarra) to help them make choices. It also indicated that a minority of respondents frequently left organic materials (such as lawn clippings) in reserves neighbouring their garden, and many of these respondents saw some benefits in doing so. This study confirms the significant role of nurseries in gardeners' plant choice, and raises questions about the significance of dumping garden waste.     

Going underground: experimental carbonization of fruiting structures under hearths

We show that carbonized fruits and seeds recovered from Middle Stone Age deposits in rock shelters are likely to have been carbonized as part of post-depositional processes. We buried indigenous South African fruits, nuts and seeds at pre-determined depths and distances from the centers of experimental fires. The cold ashes of the hearths and the sand surrounding them were subsequently excavated, using standard archaeological techniques and dry-screening. The fruiting structures from the oxidizing part of the fire were burnt to ashes, whereas those buried in sand under anoxic conditions survived in varying forms. Those buried 5 cm below the center of the fire were carbonized; those buried 10 cm below the center of the fire were dehydrated; and those 5 cm and 10 cm below the surface at the outer edge of the fire were unaffected. Size, moisture or oil content of the original fruit or seed did not appear to influence whether or not carbonization took place. Temperatures recorded 5 cm below the experimental fires suggest that the carbonization occurred at or before a maximum temperature of 328 °C, and also at lower maximum temperatures (152 °C) that were maintained for long periods. Even when the quantities of a particular wood are controlled, open fires may produce variable underground temperatures and the temperatures below ancient hearths would have been equally variable. We suggest that Cyperaceae (sedge) nutlets, the most numerous fruiting structures in the Sibudu Middle Stone Age archaeobotanical assemblage, occur in the shelter as a result of human activity, subsequent burial, and accidental carbonization when hearths were built directly above the buried nutlets.     

Feeding the Crusades: Archaeobotany,Animal Husbandry and Livestock Alimentation on the Baltic Frontier

ABSTRACT

The integrated results of micromorphology, plant macrofossil, pollen, phytolith, and non-pollen palynomorph analyses represent an important study of two thirteenth-century Teutonic Order castles at Karksi (Livonia), and Elbl?g (Prussia). The research examines deposits that formed during the period of active crusading. At Karksi, the investigation of a midden and of the organic-rich sediment beneath allows the diachronic use of this area to be understood. Freshwater aquatic indicators are consistent with the occurrence of shallow stagnant water, as also suggested by a waterlaid pond sediment identified in thin-section. Coprophilous spore taxa suggest the use of the pond as a watering hole. Plant macrofossils from the midden represent a range of habitats, mostly from wet/damp areas, as well as pastures and meadows, and also woodlands. Fragments of millet are embedded within herbivore dung in thin-section showing the use of this grain as fodder. At Elbl?g, parasite ova may derive from animal feces as they also occur in the dung observed in thin-section, and a range of coprophilous fungal spore taxa were extracted. The results reveal information about the range of livestock that the Teutonic Knights kept, whereabouts within the castles the animals were stabled, and what fodder was used.     

INVADED BY WEEDS: CONTESTED LANDSCAPE STORIES

Landscapes tell stories of the lives and dwelling of those who inhabit them. They are not given, but in constant motion. In North Norwegian coastal societies cultural landscapes are rapidly transforming. One of the most visible and debated agents of landscape transformations are weeds such as cow parsley and dock. As well as threatening the biodiversity of coastal landscapes, the “invading weeds” seem to challenge the embodied landscapes of their dwellers. Focusing on the rapid spread of cow parsley, this article investigates complex and contested aspects of landscape changes. Inspired by Ingold's phenomenological perspective as well as performative theories, we search for ways of approaching hybridized relations within dwelt places. The transformative agency of cow parsley is used as a lens to approach societal dynamics and challenges. Through a study of the coastal community of Herøy in Northern Norway, we have explored people's engagement with the changing cultural landscape. The cow parsley covered landscape is perceived as a deteriorated landscape and as such seems to affect a form of alienation. We demonstrate a disruption between the emerging landscape produced by new ways of dwelling, and the landscape people wish to dwell in. What happens when the landscape tells stories which their dwellers do not want to be part of?     

LABOUR MOBILITY AND PLANT PERFORMANCE: ON THE (DIS)SIMILARITY BETWEEN LABOUR‐ AND CAPITAL‐INTENSIVE SECTORS FOR KNOWLEDGE DIFFUSION AND PRODUCTIVITY

In this article we analyse differences between capital‐ and labour‐intensive sectors with regard to the impact of workforce composition and labour mobility on plant performance. By the use of geo‐referenced longitudinal employer–employee data on a micro level, we analyse labour flows between plants within and between labour market regions. The analysis is carried out using weighted least squares (WLS) regression analysis combined with additional variance analysis (ANOVA). The results show that there are differences between the sectors with regard to both in‐house workforce composition and type of skill inflow. A high degree of related knowledge in the in‐house workforce has a strong positive effect on plant performance in the labour‐intensive sectors. The analysis of labour inflow indicates that knowledge in the capital‐intensive sectors is localized – only intra‐regional labour flows give rise to increased plant productivity. In the labour‐intensive sectors, the geographic and cognitive dimensions complement one another; similar knowledge needs to be non‐local in order to be beneficial to plant performance, and unrelated knowledge mainly contributes to plant productivity growth when it is local.     

Gathering and using information at the fifteenth-century Church councils: the example of crusade

ABSTRACT

The discussion of crusade at the councils of Constance (1414–18) and Basel (1431–49) is used to test the hypothesis that in the fifteenth century increasing importance was attached to the gathering of information. At Constance the chief crusading topic was the past and future of the Baltic crusade; at Basel attention was given to the negotiation of peace with the Hussites and union with the Orthodox Greeks. The paper considers the origin and character of the information that reached the councils; how it was used in the discourse at Constance and Basel; and it then assesses the effect of information on collective decision-making at the councils. While it is only possible to see information exerting an impact in the case of peace with the Hussites, the overall value placed on it by the conciliar delegates was high, corroborating recent arguments that the fifteenth century was an ‘information age’.     

Sampling seeds

Problems of sampling carbonized plant material are discussed. Firstly, the problem of actually selecting a sample in the laboratory is considered, and some experiments which investigate various procedures are described. Secondly, the statistical aspects of determining optimal sample sizes are considered. Formulae are given for calculating optimal sample sizes and confidence intervals. Upper bounds, which are independent of the total population size, are provided for the sample size required to achieve any desired accuracy.     

Prehistoric farming in the mfolozi and hluhluwe valleys of Southeast Africa: an archaeo-botanical survey

The Mfolozi and Hluhluwe Valleys of southeastern Africa are representative of a sub-tropical biome and have archaeological evidence for farming settlement spanning more than 1500 years. By collecting information on soils and plant communities within the same sample frame as archaeological data, the relative importance of environmental and anthropomorphic influences can be assessed. It is argued that, although climate and soils have determined the overall distribution of plant communities, human land use has had a considerable effect on the composition of both woodland and grassland. The nature of this interaction between man and environment provides inferential data on prehistoric economies and also aids the formulation of conservation policies in protected areas.     

Relict Anthropogenic Ecosystem from the Middle Ages: History of a Salt Marsh from Transylvania (Sic,N Romania)

ABSTRACT

A paleoecological study was performed on a sediment core recovered from a former artificial lake – the Reedbed of Sic near Cluj-Napoca, Romania – in order to explore the history of water management and nearby salt mining, and its impact on the environment. From the Roman period, the area served as a recipient of salty wastewaters. The most significant shift in the sediment composition and macrofossil assemblages took place after 1000 AD, suggesting a significant upturn in salt mining. The impact of mining-related activities was further increased in the Middle Ages when, according to documentary sources, fishponds and watermills were constructed in the area. They led to the stabilisation of the water level in the lakebed, and enhanced the appearance of reed beds and the spread of secondary salt marsh vegetation. This biotop was later invaded by the Entzia macrescens, an agglutinated foraminiferal taxon, known mostly from the high intertidal marshes worldwide. In the investigated marshland, the dominance of halophytic species reached their acme in the seventeenth century, which coincides with the acme of mining activities. This medieval – early Modern Age industrial ecosystem survived the abandonment of salt mines and fishponds, being preserved until today.     

Wild Birds of the Italian Middle Ages: Diet,Environment and Society

ABSTRACT

Wild birds are intrinsically associated with our perception of the Middle Ages. They often feature in heraldic designs, paintings, and books of hours; few human activities typify the medieval period better than falconry. Prominent in medieval iconography, wild birds feature less frequently in written sources (as they were rarely the subject of trade transactions or legal documents) but they can be abundant in archaeological sites. In this paper we highlight the nature of wild bird exploitation in Italian medieval societies, ranging from their role as food items to their status and symbolic importance. A survey of 13 Italian medieval sites corresponding to 19 ‘period sites’, dated from the fifth to the fifteenth centuries, reveals the occurrence of more than 100 species (certainly an under-estimate of the actual number). Anseriformes and Columbiformes played a prominent role in the mid- and late medieval Italian diet, though Passeriformes and wild Galliformes were also important. In the late Middle Ages, there is an increase in species diversity and in the role of hunting as an important marker of social status.