PLANT PROCESSING AROUND THE GLOBE: ARCHAEOBOTANICAL, EXPERIMENTAL AND ETHNOBOTANICAL APPROACHES

VALAMOTI SOULTANA; CAPPARELLI A; WOLLSTONECROFT M.,

Wilhelmshaven

Simposio; 15th Symposium of the International Work Group for Palaeoethnobotany; 2010

IWGP commeete

Stemming from presentations and discussions between the authors during the 2007 IWGP in Krakow, a symposium was organized within the framework of the 5th International Conference of Ethnobotany, held in Bariloche, Patagonia Argentina in September 2009. Title of the symposium: ‘Recent research in post-harvest traditions in human prehistory: Old and New World palaeoethnobotanical approaches to linking the archaeology and ethnobotany of plant processing’. The main theme of our symposium was plant processing techniques aiming towards the transformation of plants into foodstuffs, their shelf life and their nutritional properties as regards human food and health. The selection of techniques, the formation of dietary traditions, the relationship of processing techniques with land use, permanence or mobility of habitations are trajectories of inquiry discussed by the participants. Archaeobotanists, ethnobotanists and archaeologists from Japan, Turkey, Greece, France, Canada and Argentina presented recent ethnographic research on plant processing and its potential for contributing towards the interpretation of archaeobotanical remains. Wollstonecroft outlined the significance of post-harvest plant processing in the evolution of human societies and in expanding the potential of natural resource exploitation. Processing of Algarrobo (Prosopis chilensis, Prosopis flexuosa), carob trees of Latin America has been one of the research interests of Capparelli. Experimental and ethnographic work on the uses of this plant in Argentina, have helped clarify potential uses of the plant at archaeological sites where it has been found in abundance. López, Capparelli and Nielsen presented their ethnographic research as regards processing of quinoa (Chenopodium quinoa) in Bolivia. Lema’s contribution combined ethnographic and archaeobotanical work towards the investigation of morphological and culturally developed classifications for wild and domesticated plants used for food, with ++ as her case study. Moving from the New World to the Old, Leo Aoi Hosoya discussed wild acorn processing by 4th millennium B.C. farming communities of China and Japan. From Japan to Turkey, F. Ertuğ investigated recent linseed (Linum usitatissimum) processing in Cappadocia for the production of oil in a region where olives do not grow. Valamoti presented her ethnographic work on traditional trachanas production in modern Greece and information on bulgur production which in conjunction with experimental research, contributed towards the interpretation of archaeobotanical remains of stored, pre-processed cereals from Bronze Age northern Greece. Patricia Anderson discussed cereal processing in the region of Atlas in Tunisia.