Crop Husbandry and Food Production: Modern Basis for the Interpretation of Plant remains

Extract

The full analysis of the initial and most exhaustive of our studies of present-day agriculture at Aşvan could not be completed in time for the present volume. It seemed relevant, however, to present a brief outline of some of the principles involved and the data collected.

Samples of vegetable remains represent a body of information which is concerned (in part, at least) with human manipulations of plant resources. These plants may have functioned as foods, fuels, building-timber, tools, dyes, drugs, cosmetics or as decorations. The compounded information may, further, suggest certain forms of ancient economy, though quantification of the data at a level representative of the settlement as a whole is rarely possible. Any such inferences can, however, only exist within the realms of one's own familiarity with equivalent modern situations (or, less consistently, historical situations). If our deductions here are to be repeatable, our present-day (or historical) models must be defined: it is not sufficient to have hazy analogues lurking in the data banks of our subconscious.