Comparative study of the crafts traditions in the Batanes islands (Philippines) and Lanyu (Taiwan, Republic of China) based on plant anatomy-phytolith analysis and ethnobotany

Aquesta tesi doctoral pretén donar a conèixer nous coneixements botànics i artesania tradicional utilitzada per dissenyar cistelleria a les illes Bashiic, ubicades al sud de Taiwan i nord de Filipines. Aquestes illes són excel·lents contextos realitzar estudis etnobotànics, de fet les illes de Batanes i Lanyu estan aïllades i preserven moltes espècies autòctones o endèmiques que es poden utilitzar com els marcadors de contacte. La cistelleria està formada per fibres vegetals definit per qualitats específiques de longitud, resistència, flexibilitat, imputrescibilitat etc. La col·lecció referencia de plantas actual utilitzada per Els fabricants de cistelles Ivatan (Batanes) i Tao (Yami) (Lanyu) presentats en aquest volum pretenen millorar la identificació de restes arqueobotàniques i la seva interpretació tecnològica. Aquesta pot també s'utilitza per identificar restes vegetals trobades en peces arqueològiques gràcies a les parts anatòmiques, grans de midó o fitòlits. Algunes cistelleries destinades a protegir cossos i objectes, es caracteritzen per una tècnica de disseny amb vinculació única per a nusos que utilitza principalment fibres de plàtan inclosa Musa textilis-abaca. Les diferents espècies de plataners presents o no a les illes Bashiic poden aportar, amb les altres plantes forestals, nova informació sobre la web propagació dels humans i plantes, i en particular a la diàspora austronèsia.Esta tesis doctoral tiene como objetivo entender el conocimiento botánico y sobre cestería en las islas Bashic, localizadas en el sur de Taiwan y el norte de Filipinas. Estas islas son un marco geográfico excelente para llevar a cabo estudios etnobotánicos, de hecho, las islas Batanes y la isla Lanyu están aisladas y preservada numerosas especies autóctonas o endémicas, que pueden usarse como marcadores de contacto. La cestería se compone de fibras vegetales que se definen por sus cualidades específicas en longitud, resistencia, flexibilidad, resistencia a la putrefacción, etc. La colección de referencia actual de las plantas utilizadas por las personas que fabrican cestas Ivatan (Batanes) y Tao (Yami) (Lanyu) se presentan en este volumen con el objetivo de mejorar la identificación de restos arqueobotánicos y su interpretación tecnológica. También tiene como objetivo último identificar restos de plantas encontradas en las piezas arqueológicas gracias al hallazgo de partes anatómicas, restos de almidón o fitolitos. Ciertas cestas destinadas a proteger cuerpos y objetos, se caracterizan por una técnica de diseño única conocida como "anudado" que emplea principalmente fibras de plátano, incluida Musa textilis-abaca. Las diferentes especies de los plátanos presentes o ausencia en las islas Bashiic pueden aportar, junto con otras plantas, nueva información sobre la propagación de humanos y plantas, y en particular sobre la diáspora austronesia.This doctoral thesis aims at providing a better knowledge of basketry traditions and plantbased raw materials that were used for this craft in the Bashiic islands located in Southern Taiwan and Northern Philippines. These islands are excellent context to carry out ethnobotanical studies: Batanes and Lanyu Islands are both isolated contexts and host numerous vegetal taxa, most of which are indigenous or even endemic and can be used as markers of contact. Handicraft is mostly made of plant fibres of specific properties, such as limited length, flexibility, strength, un-putrescibility, among others. Creating a reference collection of Ivatan (Batanes Islands) and Tao (Yami) (Lanyu Island) present-day handicraft will be useful in identifying and comparing plants and the techniques used for manufacturing ancient handicrafts. This type of analysis can be applied to archaeological artefacts where botanical micro remains- such as anatomical parts, starch grains and phytoliths- may have been preserved. Some baskets which are used to protect bodies and things are made into a knotting-tying technique employing Musa textilis- abaca and other banana species fibers, these baskets are representing a unique knowledge. Musa spp. status within other useful forest products can be of great interest to understand human and plant propagation through times, especially the Austronesian diaspora

The invisible Plant Technology of Prehistoric Southeast Asia: Indirect Evidence for Basket and Rope Making at Tabon Cave, Philippines, 39-33,000 Years Ago.

A large part of our material culture is made of organic materials, and this was likely the case also during prehistory. Amongst this prehistoric organic material culture are textiles and cordages, taking advantage of the flexibility and resistance of plant fibres. While in very exceptional cases and under very favourable circumstances, fragments of baskets and cords have survived and were discovered in late Pleistocene and Holocene archaeological sites, these objects are generally not preserved, especially in tropical regions. We report here indirect evidence of basket/tying material making found on stone tools dating to 39–33,000 BP from Tabon Cave, Palawan Philippines. The distribution of use-wear on these artefacts is the same as the distribution observed on experimental tools used to thin fibres, following a technique that is widespread in the region currently. The goal of this activity is to turn hard plant segments into supple strips suitable as tying material or to weave baskets, traps, and even boats. This study shows early evidence of this practice in Southeast Asia and adds to the growing set of discoveries showing that fibre technology was an integral part of late Pleistocene skillset. This paper also provides a new way to identify supple strips of fibres made of tropical plants in the archaeological record, an organic technology that is otherwise most of the time invisible

Stuck within notches: Direct evidence of plant processing during the last glacial maximum to Holocene in North Sulawesi

The existence of an organic or plant-based technology during the Late Pleistocene and Early Holocene is an ongoing debate in Island Southeast Asia (ISEA). Evidence of plant-based technologies in the current archaeological record of ISEA is very limited. Nevertheless, excavations of prehistoric sites across the region have provided clues that plants played a key role in the subsistence and technology of early islanders. Our previous use-wear study on the assemblage from Leang Sarru, a rockshelter in the Talaud Islands, North Sulawesi with an occupation history of c. 35,000 years, indicated that plant remains were preserved on artefacts from 22,000 years ago. In this paper, we present the identification of these plant remains that include parenchyma, fibres, stomata, starch, phytoliths, and raphides. However, in the case of Leang Sarru, we observed that not only were those residues deposited on unretouched lithic flakes typical for the prehistoric sites in ISEA but were especially preserved on flakes with a distinctive notched retouch – a case which has never been documented in the region yet. We conducted experiments using replicas of notched tools to test our hypothesis that they were particularly designed and used for scraping and smoothing plant materials. Our results show that a variety of plants can be processed using these notched tools. The simple modification was observed to be efficient in scraping experiments, and plant residues were stuck within the notches – possibly a factor in their preservation. Overall, the current debate on the presence or absence of plant working revolves around the absence of formal tool types in ISEA. Other aspects of cultural and technological adaptations, such as tool retouching for particular functional purposes, might have been overlooked in favour of a justification that plant-based technologies were preferred

ICOPS Workshop Series - FAIR data

This is the sixth workshop in the International Committee on Open Phytolith Science (ICOPS) workshop series on Open Research Skills. In this workshop we had multiple speakers: Introduction to FAIR and FAIR Phytoliths project results - Emma Karoune - slides in the main presentation FAIR Data principles and Imaging Resources - Jean-Marie Burel - slides attached as pdf. Sobre la nomenclatura fitolitica en Argentina y el uso del ICPN 2.0 - Maria-Gabriela Musaubach - slides in the main presentation Youtube video of the workshop: Emma Karoune FAIR Data Workshop_1.Emma.Introduction to FAIR and FAIR Phytoliths Project results - YouTube Jean-Marie Burel FAIR Data workshop_2.Jean Marie. FAIR Principles and imaging resources - YouTube Maria-Gabriela Musaubach FAIR Data Workshop_3.Gabi. Sobre la nomenclatura fitolítica en Argentina, el uso del ICPN 2.0. - YouTube Round table FAIR Data Workshop_4.Round table on the FAIR Data session - YouTub

EOSC-Life Report on the work of the Open Call Projects

This Deliverable 3.3 is a report on the Digital Life Sciences Open Call and two Internal Calls organised by EOSC-Life WP3. The organisation of these Calls followed the successful integration and support of 8 Demonstrator projects&nbsp;which provided the first concrete use cases in the initial phase of EOSC-Life. The three Calls overall supported 11 scientific user projects, selected to facilitate integration of concrete use-cases across Life Sciences domains into the European Open Science Cloud (EOSC)&nbsp;framework. Through the Calls, the practical goal was to facilitate co-creation of an open, digital collaborative space for life science research by developing FAIR&nbsp;tools, workflows, resources, infrastructures, and guidelines together with the EOSC-Life RIs experts and communities. We report in this Deliverable the following achievements: Organisation of the EOSC-Life Open and Internal Calls; Integrating and training the EOSC-Life WP3 Open Call&nbsp;and Internal Call&nbsp;project teams in EOSC-Life; Activities for connecting project teams with EOSC-Life and LS-RI communities and dissemination of projects outcomes to broader communities; Work done in the individual projects, their results, and impact of developed resources; Recommendations from the EOSC-Life WP3 project teams and the EOSC-Life community for future Open Calls. </ol