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The International Society of Ethnobiology
- Ninth International Congress
Hosted by the Department of Anthropology
at the University of Kent, Canterbury, UK, 13th - 17th June, 2004
sldskds
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Panel 27
Ethnobotanist of distant pasts: in honour of Gordon Hillman
Co-chairs: Ehud Weiss and Andrew Fairburn
Gulbenkian Theatre, Tuesday 15th June
10.20 – 12.20, 14.40 - 15.40 and 16.00 - 18.00
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Professor Hillman is going to be honoured as the SEB's Distinguished
Economic Botanist for 2004 and a session in his honour is more than appropriate.
The major theme of the papers will be the influence of Gordon Hillman, as a teacher
and as a researcher, on economic botanists and especially archaeobotanists throughout
the world.
10.20 – 12.20
HARRIS, DAVID.
Institute of Archaeology, University College London, 31-34 Gordon Square, London
WC1H 0PY, UK.
david.harris@ucl.ac.uk.
COLLEAGUE, COLLABORATOR AND FRIEND: GORDON HILLMAN AND THE DEVELOPMENT OF ARCHAEOBOTANY
AT THE LONDON INSTITUTE OF ARCHAEOLOGY
Gordon Hillman came to the Institute in 1981 from the University of Wales, Cardiff,
to take up a research position working on plant remains from the Epipalaeolithic/Neolithic
site of Tell Abu Hureyra, Syria, where he had been the archaeobotanist at the excavations
conducted by Andrew Moore in the early 1970s. I envisaged Gordon's move to London
as the first step towards broadening and strengthening archaeobotany at the Institute
(where, under my predecessor Geoffrey Dimbleby, there had been a strong focus on
pollen analysis), and a few years later we were able to appoint Gordon to a Lectureship
in Archaeobotany. Thus began an extraordinarily productive collaboration between
us, during which we developed an undergraduate and postgraduate training programme,
launched a series of research initiatives, co-edited "Foraging and Farming:
the Evolution of Plant Exploitation" (1989), and undertook fieldwork in Southwest
and Central Asia. In this contribution to the Panel I will reflect on how, under
Gordon's influence during those years, archaeobotany developed as a field of study
in its own right and as part of the larger enterprise of archaeology - and I will
recall, and illustrate, some of the memorable experiences I shared with him.
ERTUG, FUSUN.
Department of Anthropology, Yeditepe University, 26 Agustos Yerlesimi, Kayisdagi
Caddesi, 34755 Kayisdagi, Istanbul, Turkey.
fertug@attglobal.net.
GORDON HILLMAN’S INFLUENCE ON THE ARCHAEOBOTANY OF TURKEY AND ON A GENERATION OF
TURKISH ARCHAEOLOGISTS
Gordon Hillman was a young Research Fellow at the British Institute of Archaeology
in Ankara between 1970 and 1975. When he arrived in Turkey, he had a profound knowledge
of horticulture obtained in his family farm, and had trained in both agricultural
botany and archaeobotany. He joined excavations such as Asvan tepe, Can Hasan in
Turkey and Abu Hureyra in Syria, traveled extensively, collected plant samples and
studied traditional agricultural practices of Anatolian farmers in the early 1970s.
He published some of his observations from Eastern and Southeastern Anatolia. Even
this limited number of publications (8 articles in total, including 2 reports on
Can Hasan, and two others in which he refers to Turkey) made an impact on his contemporaries
and the future generation of Turkish archaeologists. He probably followed in the
footprints of the other archaeobotanists who worked in Turkey before him, such as
Jack Harlan, Hans Helbaek and others. In a video documentation I will present interviews
with Turkish archaeologists, such as Halet Cambel, Mehmet Ozdogan, Behin Aksoy, Ulge
Goker and Nur Balkan-Atli, and give a visit to his lab in Ankara BIAA, trying to
shed light on his impact on the archaeobotanical studies and the archaeologists of
Turkey.
JONES, Martin Kenneth.
Department of Archaeology, University of Cambridge, UK.
mkj12@hermes.cam.ac.uk.
DORMANCY AND THE PLOUGH: SEED BIOLOGY AS AN INDICATOR OF AGRARIAN CHANGE IN THE FIRST
MILLENNIUM A.D.
Over the past 20 years, a number of fluctuations, both synecological and autecological,
in archaeobotanical assemblages have been used as indicators of changing cultivation
technology. In this paper, I want to revisit an approach I explored in the 1980s
into using seed dormancy attributes to identify changes in cultivation. It is an
approach that resonates with the thinking behind FIBS analysis that has been so successfully
developed by G.Jones, Charles et al at Sheffield. It is timely to revisit that approach
for three reasons: first, the last two decades have seen a great enrichment in the
archaeobotanical database generally; second, the data currently have a much better
spread across the first millennium A.D.; thirdly, our understanding of the cultural
and environmental context of the first millennium A.D. is greatly improved.
WEISS, EHUD.
Harvard University, Dept. of Anthropology, Peabody Museum, 11 Divinity Avenue,
Cambridge, MA 02138, USA.
eweiss@fas.harvard.edu.
FACES AMONG THE PLANTS: THE ECONOMY AND SOCIETY OF OHALO II'S DWELLERS.
Gordon Hillman taught us that archaeobotany is a scientific tool that allows us to
reconstruct the lives of humans in the past through their plants. With this definition
in mind, I will try to show in this paper how one unique plant assemblage - from
the Upper Palaeolithic site of Ohalo II, Israel - helps us to gain insights into
the private and social lives of the inhabitants who lived here 23,000 years ago.
The site's rich plant assemblage of some 90,000 seeds and fruits, representing 142
taxa, is larger than that of any contemporary site and even larger than that from
some later sites. Hence, Ohalo II opens a window onto the environment and way-of-life
of its hunter-gatherer dwellers: their diet, the environment in which they lived,
the habitats where they collected food, and the routes they travelled, their food
processing techniques, the way they used and segregated space within the hut for
food preparation and other tasks, and finally the site's seasonality.
14.40 - 15.40
ZOHARY, DANIEL.
Department of Evolution, Systematics and Ecology, The Hebrew University, Jerusalem
91904, Israel.
Zohary@netvision.net.il.
FOUNDER CROPS OF THE NEAR EAST NEOLITHIC AGRICULTURE: WHY WERE THEY SO SUCCESSFUL?
The available archaeobotanical information clearly shows that the establishment of
Neolithic agriculture, first in the Near East and later over South West Asia and
Europe, was largely based on the domestication of eight or nine grain crops. Moreover,
at least the five genetically better studied plants, namely emmer and eincorn wheats,
barley, lentil and pea, seem to have been taken into cultivation only once or - at
most - very few times. This paper re-examines the Near East founder crops in order
to understand what caused this apparent success. More specifically it tries to answer
the following questions: (i) Why are there so few events of domestication in each crop? (ii) Why largely
the same Neolithic crop assemblage started agriculture over the vast territories
of South West Asia and Europe?
BUTLER, ANN.
Cherry Tree Cottage, Castle Hill, Bletchingley, Surrey RH1 4LB, UK.
eannbutler@tiscali.co.uk.
EVIDENCE OF DOMESTICATION OF THE VICIEAE: A CONSIDERATION OF THE SELECTION PROCESS
This paper examines criteria used as evidence of domestication in the remains of
ancient seeds and fruits of cool-season grain legumes of the tribe VICIEAE. Morphological
and anatomical observations will be reviewed. The changes from the wild types that
characterised the earliest crops depended upon the selection process. This process
will be considered against information gained in the field from today's farmers practising
traditional non-mechanised agriculture in the Old World.
KISLEV, MORDECHAI.
Faculty of Life Sciences, Bar-Ilan University, 52900 Ramat-Gan, Israel.
kislev@mail.biu.ac.il.
THE HISTORY OF RESEARCH ON THE ORIGIN OF CULTIVATED BARLEY
The search for the first cultivated plant species has been in progress for less than
200 years. In 1807, Alexander von Humbolt candidly expressed the level of scientific
knowledge: "The origin, the first home of the plants most useful to man, and
which have accompanied him from the remotest epochs, is a secret. We do not know
what region produced spontaneously wheat, barley, oats and rye." In the mid-1800s,
Alphonse de Candolle noted that 44 edible species out of 196 cultivated plants of
the Old World should be regarded as of very ancient cultivation (more than 4000 years).
Later he added: "At the present day, we know at least most frequently, from
what country they first came." Nikolai Vavilov (1926) further developed these
investigations in theory and practice. "The problem of origin," he wrote,
"was usually solved with reference to the whole plant or to all its species
and genetic groups - to all cultivated barleys, flaxes, oats, etc." Hans Helbaek
(1953) processed early Neolithic botanical material from Jarmo, Iraq and stated that
"wheat and barley were the first cereals to be cultivated." During the
lecture I will discuss why barley was the best candidate as the first cultivated
crop.
16.00 - 18.00
WILLCOX, GEORGE.
CNRS Arch/orient, Jalès 07460 France
g.willcox@wanadoo.fr.
VEGETATION HISTORY AND THE BEGINNINGS OF AGRICULTURE IN THE NEAR EAST
Gordon Hillman made a major contribution to our knowledge of the transition from
hunter/gatherering societies to farming communities in the Near East. He was one
of the first to integrate knowledge of vegetation, and in particular the wild
cereals, into models of the origins of agriculture. In this presentation I will
take information from identified charcoal and seeds obtained from archaeological
sites, pollen from lake beds, and the present-day vegetation to demonstrate how our
knowledge of past vegetation profoundly influences our understanding of this
important step in human history.
CRAWFORD, GARY; Gyoung-Ah Lee.
Department of Anthropology and the Study of Religion, University of Toronto at
Mississauga, Mississauga, Ontario L5L 1C6, Canada.
gcrawfor@utm.utoronto.ca, gyoungah.lee@utoronto.ca
CROPS, WEEDS, AND CONTEXT IN NEOLITHIC NORTH CHINA
Plant remains recovered by flotation from four projects in the Yellow River basin
are providing an unprecedented view of early crops and other plants there, particularly
from the Late Neolithic. Broomcorn millet, foxtail millet and rice appear to have
established their historically known distributions by 2000 cal. B.C. Rice, contrary
to previous views, was a late Neolithic resource in the lower Yellow River. The morphology
of the archaeological rice caryopses is problematic, being quite distinct from wild
rice as well as indica and japonica rice. Soybean has also been recovered but its
cultigen status is unknown. At least one western Asian crop, wheat, is present in
Late Neolithic samples. The weedy plants are dominated by a variety of wild grasses.
Considerable plant remains distributional variation is noted within and among sites.
Possible reasons for these patterns are explored.
DE MOULINS, DOMINIQUE; Carl Phillips.
Institute of Archaeology, University College London, 31-34 Gordon Square, London
WC1H 0PY, UK.
d.demoulins@ucl.ac.uk; karp.phillips@virgin.net.
THE DOUM PALM (SIC) IN SOUTH ARABIA: PAST AND PRESENT
The doum palm (Hyphaene thebaica) is well known from the archaeobotanical literature
from Egypt where, in addition to actual remains of the fruit, the tree is also frequently
depicted in tomb paintings etc. Recently, charred remains of the fruit have been
identified at a number of Late Bronze Age and Iron Age sites in South Arabia where
Hyphaene sp. is a native species. In this paper we shall discuss the species, Hyphaene
sp., found in South Arabia (Yemen) and its present distribution in that region as
well as its occurrence in the archaeological record. Suggestions will be made as
to whether, when and why the doum palm was largely replaced by the introduction of
the date palm (Phoenix dactylifera). Based on oral and historical evidence, the many
possible uses of the palm and its fruit will be discussed. Comparative data from
other regions will also be referred to along with some consideration of the lexical
problems concerning the usage of the name "doum".
FAIRBAIRN, ANDREW STEPHEN.
Department of Archaeology & Natural History, Research School of Pacific and
Asian Studies, Coombs Building, Australian National University, ACT 0200, Australia
andrew.fairbairn@anu.edu.au.
MACROBOTANICAL RESEARCH IN THE ARCHAEOBOTANY OF NEW GUINEA: IS THERE ANY POINT?
With the exception of the analysis of plant remains from rare anaerobic (waterlogged)
deposits, macrobotanical techniques are relatively poorly developed in the archaeology
of New Guinea. Archaeobotany has a clear role to play in understanding subsistence
and environmental development in this island, which has evidence of independent agricultural
development by 6900 BP, arboriculture by 5400 BP and is a possible source area for
many crop plants used across the Indo-Pacific region. Experiments in flotation recovery
of charred plant remains from sites in New Guinea and the Bismarck Archipelago, combined
with a survey of ethnographic and ethnohistorical data, suggest that macrobotanical
methods (especially wood charcoal analysis) are suited in particular to the investigation
of arboriculture's ancient past. Problems remain with preservation and the attainable
level of taxonomic precision in identifications, but the analysis of charred macrobotanical
remains has the potential to provide much more widespread information concerning
the development of Holocene subsistence practices in New Guinea than is currently
available. This paper is dedicated to Professor Gordon Hillman, a great innovator
in the systematic development of macrobotanical techniques in archaeology and tutor
to the speaker.
MCLAREN, FRANCES; Capparelli Aylen.
University of East London, Romford Road, London E15 4LZ.
f.mclaren@uel.ac.uk
THE EARLY USE OF PROSOPIS L. SPECIES AS FOOD: OLD WORLD AND NEW WORLD EVIDENCE.
Chemical analysis (Infrared and Gas Chromotography/Mass Spectroscopy) of a stone
pestle residue from the Palaeolithic site of Hayonim Cave, in the southern
Levant, produced evidence of the processing of Prosopis pods. Ethnographic
evidence from the old world produces little verification for the use of Prosopis
in human diet. In Argentina today Prosopis pods are still processed by grinding
them in huge mortars and pestles by the indigenous and semi indigenous peoples because
the current economic climate has dictated that in order to survive they have had
to revert to “famine foods”. This paper discusses the past evidence use of Prosopis
species for food and methods of food preparation required, and Gordon Hillman’s assistance
in this novel type of research.
The ICE2004 pages are maintained by Christine Eagle
email: C.M.Eagle@kent.ac.uk
Conference email: ice2004@kent.ac.uk
Last updated: 02.06.04