Differentiating banana phytoliths: wild and edible Musa acuminata and Musa balbisiana |
| |
Authors: | T. Ball L. Vrydaghs I. Van Den Hauwe J. Manwaring E. De Langhe |
| |
Affiliation: | 1. Department of Ancient Scripture, Brigham Young University, 375A JSB, Provo, UT 84602, USA;2. Agricultural and Forest Economy, Royal Museum of Central Africa, Chée de Louvain 12, B-3080 Tervuren, Belgium;3. Laboratory of Tropical Crop Improvement, K.U. Leuven, Kasteelpark Arenberg 13, B-3001 Leuven, Belgium |
| |
Abstract: | Recent reports indicate that phytoliths may provide direct archaeological evidence of banana cultivation. However, archaeologists may, in many places, recover phytoliths generated by banana plants with quite different historical backgrounds. Hence the need for a differentiation among phytoliths produced by specific banana groups. The present paper discusses the morphometric distinction between phytoliths produced by the constitutive diploid species Musa acuminata and Musa balbisiana. Our study suggests that domestication of the banana, which was initiated at the diploid M. acuminata level, does not appear to have influenced phytolith morphometry. |
| |
Keywords: | Archaeobotany Bananas Phytolith morphotypology Phytolith morphometry |
本文献已被 ScienceDirect 等数据库收录! |
|