Introduction to Archaeobotany (Part 1), by A. Decaix and C. Douché

Archaeobotany is a specialised field of study within archaeology,
focusing on analysing the interactions between plants and ancient
societies. The central interest of the discipline is to investigate
their mutual influence and co-evolution through time. The discipline
emerged at the beginning of the 19 th century, when macrobotanical
remains were recovered by chance during the excavations in Egypt. With
the development of the « new archaeology », thoughout the mid-20 th
century, the recovery of plant remains became progressively part of
the archaeological investigations. Today, the micro- and macro-remains
allow us to reconstruct environmental conditions and human activities
such as agriculture. This ARWA Lecture entitled « Introduction to
Archaeobotany », is dedicated to students and/or researchers which are
not familiar with this discipline. The main aim is to give an overview
of the potential contribution of micro and macrobotanical remains to
archaeology. We will present the main research questions and methods
of the sub-specialities of archaeobotany (study of pollen, phytolith,
charcoals and seeds/fruits) and give some advice on sampling
strategies to apply on the field.