There is more to life than subsistence: use-wear and residue analyses on pre-Still Bay stone tools at Sibudu

peer reviewe

Archaeobotany in Australia and New Guinea: practice, potential and prospects

Archaeobotany is the study of plant remains from archaeological contexts. Despite Australasian research being at the forefront of several methodological innovations over the last three decades, archaebotany is now a relatively peripheral concern to most archaeological projects in Australia and New Guinea. In this paper, many practicing archaeobotanists working in these regions argue for a more central role for archaeobotany in standard archaeological practice. An overview of archaeobotanical techniques and applications is presented, the potential for archaeobotany to address key historical research questions is indicated, and initiatives designed to promote archaeobotany and improve current practices are outlined

Archaeobotany in Australia and New Guinea: practice, potential and prospects

Archaeobotany is the study of plant remains from archaeological contexts. Despite Australasian research being at the forefront of several methodological innovations over the last three decades, archaebotany is now a relatively peripheral concern to most archaeological projects in Australia and New Guinea. In this paper, many practicing archaeobotanists working in these regions argue for a more central role for archaeobotany in standard archaeological practice. An overview of archaeobotanical techniques and applications is presented, the potential for archaeobotany to address key historical research questions is indicated, and initiatives designed to promote archaeobotany and improve current practices are outlined

Phytoliths as a tool for investigations of agricultural origins and dispersals around the world

Agricultural origins and dispersals are subjects of fundamental importance to archaeology as well as many other scholarly disciplines. These investigations are world-wide in scope and require significant amounts of paleobotanical data attesting to the exploitation of wild progenitors of crop plants and subsequent domestication and spread. Accordingly, for the past few decades the development of methods for identifying the remains of wild and domesticated plant species has been a focus of paleo-ethnobotany. Phytolith analysis has increasingly taken its place as an important independent contributor of data in all areas of the globe, and the volume of literature on the subject is now both very substantial and disseminated in a range of international journals. In this paper, experts who have carried out the hands-on work review the utility and importance of phytolith analysis in documenting the domestication and dispersals of crop plants around the world. It will serve as an important resource both to paleo-ethnobotanists and other scholars interested in the development and spread of agriculture

Tracing Domestication and Cultivation of Bananas from Phytoliths: An update from Papua New Guinea

researchThere is now good evidence from current banana distributions and genetic analysis that Papua New Guinea and nearby regions have played a key role in the domestication of edible Eumusa and Australimusa bananas. Strong support for this also comes from phytoliths in the archaeobotanical record. Seeds have diagnostic phytoliths which can be used to discriminate between the two main sections of edible bananas, the giant banana, Musa ingens, and Ensete. Therefore, the presence of seed phytoliths and their subsequent disappearance from archaeological assemblages can be used to trace processes of domestication leading to parthenocarpy and sterility. Following loss of viable seeds, banana presence can still be documented from phytolith morphotypes from other plant parts, particularly the volcaniform morphotypes from leaves. Nevertheless, according to several pioneer studies, these are more difficult to differentiate unless they occur in regions where certain species or varieties of bananas are not endemic. This paper reviews results from morphometric and morphotypic analyses of Musaceae phytoliths and briefly introduces the ‘New Guinea Banana Project’ which builds upon previous analyses. The morphometric database, combined with a comprehensive set of images, facilitates banana phytolith identification and is another step forward in solving the issues surrounding banana dispersal, cultivation and domestication, especially in the Pacific/New Guinea region

Going Bananas in Papua New Guinea: A preliminary study of starch granule morphotypes in Musaceae fruit

researchStarch granules can be well preserved in a variety of archaeological contexts, for example, in residues and sediments. Therefore, starch analysis has potential to provide another means of tracking the exploitation, dispersal and domestication of Musa bananas and Ensete. Starch granule morphotypes from fruits of Ensete glaucum and wild and cultivated Australimusa and Eumusa bananas were analyzed in this preliminary study. Numerous starch granule morphotypes were present in every sample analyzed. One hundred and nine morphotypes, representing 38 morphotype groups (variants) were described. Of these, several are specific to the samples analyzed and others occurred in more than one sample. They can be used to discriminate between different genera, sections, species and cultivars. Raphides were also numerous in wild Australimusa bananas. Although additional studies are required to determine levels of specificity, this preliminary study shows that starch analysis (and raphide presence and abundance) can be used in a similar way to phytolith analysis in the identification of Musaceae and has extremely good potential as a tool for tracing the prehistory of bananas in the archaeological record