Carla Lancelotti

Pompeu Fabra University | UPF · Department of Humanities

In this study we investigate the relationship between phytolith formation and transpiration rate in Eleusine coracana (finger millet), Cenchrus americanus (syn. Pennisetum glaucum, pearl millet) and Sorghum bicolor (sorghum). The aim is to produce a prediction model to reconstruct water management for agriculture in archaeological contexts in dryla...

C 4 crops such as sorghum ( Sorghum bicolor ) and finger millet ( Eleusine coracana ) have played a significant role in the economic livelihood in arid and semi-arid zones of tropical and sub-tropical Africa since prehistoric times. However, to date, our knowledge of their past management practices is limited. Stable isotope analysis of archaeobota...

The open research movement has gained momentum in the last decade and no academic can ignore the necessity to make research more open, as it improves reliability, sustainability and reusability of data. In this paper, we present the results of a community-based survey concerning the extent to which open practices are known and applied within the ph...

Archaeobotanical investigations at the site of Ona Adi in Tigrai were conducted during the 2013–2015 field seasons within the framework of the Eastern Tigrai Archaeological Project (ETAP). The site occupation spanned the Middle/Late Pre-Aksumite period (ca. 750/600 BCE) to the fall of the Aksumite Kingdom (ca. 700 CE), including the Pre-Aksumite to...

In archaeology, the study of past plant processing activities in domestic spaces has hitherto relied greatly on the observed distribution of macrobotanical and artefactual remains. However, the surfaces where such activities took place can themselves preserve microscopic remains, potentially traceable to the activity that originated them. This pape...

The main goals and challenges for the life science communities in the Open Science framework are to increase reuse and sustainability of data resources, software tools, and workflows, especially in large‐scale data‐driven research and computational analyses. Here, we present key findings, procedures, effective measures and recommendations for gener...

Lithic tools are generally considered secondary artefacts when it comes to the Indus Valley Civilisation (IVC), also known as the Harappan Civilisation. However, they were utilized for an array of different functions and formed part of day-today life of people. Until now, scholars have worked exhaustively to understand the technology behind manufac...

We have called these the BeSURE recommendations (BE SUstainable REcommendations). These recommendations cite sustainable training methodologies and ensure high-quality metadata that support the sustainable reusability of scientific objects. Roles and responsibilities must be shared to ensure sovereignty, sustainable services, and tools. Finally, ou...

This paper presents the results of the mineralogical, petrographic and chemical study of different archaeological samples related to terracruda sculptures and other elements that were part of the architectural decoration of the Buddhist sites of Tepe Narenj and Qol‐e‐tut (Kabul, Afghanistan ‐ 5th to 11th centuries CE). The main objective of the stu...

Palaeoethnobotanical studies completed at the archaeological site of Mezber in Tigrai, Ethiopia, have led to important new insights on plant husbandry practices of the Pre-Aksumite Period (1600 cal bc to cal ad 25) in the Horn of Africa. The Mezber material record includes a transition from an agro-pastoralist economy in the Initial Phase (1600–900...

Cross-cultural models are a useful tool to generate hypotheses about the past using ethnographic data, especially when they can be validated against the archaeological record. In this paper, we propose the use of computer modelling techniques to gain insights into the agricultural history in the northern Horn of Africa of two key staple crops, i.e....

Phytolith research contributes to our understanding of plant-related studies such as plant use in archaeological contexts and past landscapes in palaeoecology. This multi-disciplinarity combined with the specificities of phytoliths themselves (multiplicity, redundancy, naming issues) produces a wide variety of methodologies. Combined with a lack of...

The earliest evidence of agriculture in the Horn of Africa dates to the Pre-Aksumite period (ca. 1600 BCE). Domesticated C3 cereals are considered to have been introduced from the Near East, whereas the origin (local or not) and time of domestication of various African C4 species such as sorghum, finger millet, or t'ef remain unknown. In this paper...

Finger millet, pearl millet and sorghum are amongst the most important drought-tolerant crops worldwide. They constitute primary staple crops in drylands, where their production is known to date back over 5000 years ago. Compared to other crops, millets and sorghum have received less attention until very recently, and their production has been prog...

Archaeobotany is a well‐established field of archaeology that studies plant remains recovered from archaeological sites. The vast majority of archaeobotanical studies so far published have dealt with reconstructing how humans exploited plants rather than human‐plant interactions. The grand challenges in which archaeobotany plays a primary role are...

The interpretation of crop water management practices has been central to the archeological debate on agricultural strategies and is crucial where the type of water strategy can provide fundamental explanations for the adoption and use of specific crops. Traces of water administration are difficult to detect and are mostly indirect, in the form of...

This work presents the results of archaeobotanical examinations of fragments of monumental terracruda sculptures from the Buddhist sites of Tepe Narenj and Qol-e-tut (Kabul, Afghanistan—5th to eleventh centuries CE). The results indicate that different plants and parts of plants were intentionally added to the clay mixtures. In particular, we ident...

[This corrects the article DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0250776.].

Drylands cover more than 40% of the earth’s land surface, are found on all continents, and are home to 30% of the world’s population. Due to water scarcity, they are generally considered unsuitable for lasting human settlement. While pastoralism has been reconceptualized recently as a rational, efficient, and sustainable way to live in drylands, ag...

Biosilica accumulation in plant tissues is related to the transpiration stream, which in turn depends on water availability. Nevertheless, the debate on whether genetically and environmentally controlled mechanisms of biosilica deposition are directly connected to water availability is still open. We aim at clarifying the system which leads to the...

Modern plant tissues are often processed for phytolith analysis. They represent a fundamental source of comparison for archeological and palaeoenvironmental phytolith assemblages; they efficiently serve for morphological studies of phytolith shapes and dimensions and, in the last two decades, they have been increasingly involved in physiological st...

Modern plant tissues are often processed for phytolith analysis. They represent a fundamental source of comparison for archeological and palaeoenvironmental phytolith assemblages; they efficiently serve for morphological studies of phytolith shapes and dimensions and, in the last two decades, they have been increasingly involved in physiological st...

The rhythms and organisation of daily life at Çatalhöyük were influenced by seasonal variation in the natural and social world its residents navigated. Seasonal changes in day length, temperature and rainfall shape overall productivity of the landscape (Fairbairn et al. 2005a). These biophysical cycles would have been punctuated by seasonal changes...

Mackay in 1938 had said that, ‘no arrowheads nor weapons of flint have as yet been found, and though this has been termed a Chalcolithic owing to the presence of these long flint flakes, copper and bronze already practically entirely ousted stone’. But when we looks at the artefacts found from most of the Harappan civilization/Indus Valley Civiliza...

Recently, Agnihorti et al. reported on the unique discovery of seven 'organic rich balls' from the Early-Mature Harappan period site of 4MSR (Binjor). Using a combination of microbotanical, geochemical and isotopic analysis they argued that the objects were multi-grained food-balls that had ritual and social functions, with further reaching implica...

In this paper we present the results of phytolith investigations at two archaeological sites in northwestern Morocco: Khil (Tangier) and Kaf Taht el-Ghar (Tétouan). The two sites located in Western Maghreb, one on the Atlantic and one on the Mediterranean coast, were investigated in the framework of the AGRIWESTMED project. Phytolith analysis compl...

Numerous and extensive ‘Stone Walled Sites’ have been identified in southern African Iron Age landscapes. Appearing from around 1200 CE, and showing considerable variability in size and form, these settlements are named after the dry-stone wall structures that characterize them. Stone Walled Sites were occupied by various Bantu-speaking agropastora...

The reconstruction of land use practices in hyper-arid Saharan Africa is often hampered by the accuracy of the available tools and by unconscious biases that see these areas as marginal and inhospitable. Considered that this has been for a long time the living space of pastoral mobile communities, new research is showing that agriculture might have...

In the 12,000 years preceding the Industrial Revolution, human activities led to significant changes in land cover, plant and animal distributions, surface hydrology, and biochemical cycles. Earth system models suggest that this anthropogenic land cover change influenced regional and global climate. However, the representation of past land use in e...

The reconstruction of land use practices in hyper arid Saharan Africa is often hampered by the accuracy of the available tools and by unconscious biases that see these areas as marginal and inhospitable. Considered for a long time the living space of pastoral mobile communities, new research is showing of agriculture might have been more important...

We live in a time of pressing planetary challenges, many of which threaten catastrophic change to the natural environment and require massive and novel coordinated scientific and societal efforts on an unprecedented scale. Universities and other academic institutions have the opportunity and responsibility to assume a leading role in an era when th...

The Tigray region in Ethiopia witnessed the rise and fall of the Pre-Aksumite and Aksumite communities between the mid 2nd millennium bce and the late 1st millennium ce. Despite the importance of these entities in recent African prehistory, the issue of how they interacted with their surrounding environment has only been addressed very recently. He...

This work presents the results of the study of a fragment of architectural terracruda sculpture from the Buddhist archaeological site of Tepe Narenj (Kabul, Afghanistan, fifth-ninth centuries CE) through X-ray micro-computed tomographic analysis. This technique offers great potential for the study of artworks that, due to their nature, condition, o...

This article argues that a holistic approach to documenting and understanding the physical evidence for individual cities would enhance our ability to address major questions about urbanisation, urbanism, cultural identities and economic processes. At the same time we suggest that providing more comprehensive data-sets concerning Greek cities would...

Seasonal variation in the natural world of Neolithic Çatalhöyük shaped the organization of daily life and social world of its residents. Seasonal cycles in climatic patterns, hydrology, growing seasons of wild and domestic plants, and seasonal behaviors of herded, hunted and gathered animals would have affected the overall productivity of the lands...

FAO guidelines on water requirements for plant growth in the absence of irrigation, stipulate that cultivation is not viable in areas with less than 450mm of annual rainfall. Indeed, in all maps of agricultural land use, most hyper-arid, arid, and semi-arid drylands are considered unproductive. Yet, modern societies in arid and semi-arid drylands s...

The archaeology and ethnoarchaeology of rain-fed cultivation in arid and hyper-arid North Africa - Volume 93 Issue 370 - Carla Lancelotti, Stefano Biagetti, Andrea Zerboni, Donatella Usai, Marco Madella

Ancient civilisations depended heavily on natural fuel resources for a wide array of activities, and this had an impact on such resources that can be traced in the archaeological record. At its urban apex, the populations of the Indus Civilisation (2600–1900 BC) produced a wide range of objects and crafts, several of which involved highly specialis...

Kanmer: Charcoal analyses raw data. (XLS)

Shikarpur: Charcoal analyses raw data. (XLS)

Harappa: Charcoal analyses raw data. (XLS)

Spherulite analyses raw data. (XLS)

R scripts for CA and PCA with datasets used for statistical analyses. (ZIP)

Laboratory protocols used in this study. (DOC)

Wood and charcoal reference collection catalogue. (PDF)

Alamgirpur: Charcoal analyses raw data. (XLS)

Phytolith analyses raw data. (XLS)

Multi-element analyses raw data. (XLS)

Please, consider submitting a paper for session #440 at the next EAA. The call for paper ends on February 15th. Submission to be made through the conference website: https://eaa.klinkhamergroup.com/eaa2018/

The interpretative power of quantitative intra‐site spatial analysis has long been recognised by archaeologists. On the contrary, very few ethnoarchaeological works have engaged with the statistical analysis of intra‐site pattern of artefacts and ecofacts. Nonetheless, ethnoarchaeology is uniquely placed to guide and assist in the identification of...

The exploitation of lithic resources was an important aspect of prehistoric resource exploitation strategies and adaptation. Research has mostly focused on technological and spatial aspects of lithic factory sites, often overlooking how these sites were integrated within local socioecological dynamics in terms of food acquisition and consumption. T...

This paper explores the nature and dynamics of adaptation and resilience in the face of a diverse and varied environmental and ecological context using the case study of South Asia’s Indus Civilization (ca. 3000–1300 BC). Most early complex societies developed in regions where the climatic parameters faced by ancient subsistence farmers were varied...

This paper explores the nature and dynamics of adaptation and resilience in the face of a diverse and varied environmental and ecological context using the case study of South Asia’s Indus Civilization (ca. 3000–1300 BC). Most early complex societies developed in regions where the climatic parameters faced by ancient subsistence farmers were varied...

The thorough reconstruction of subsistence practices throughout human history remains one of the most challenging questions in archaeological research. Analyses of microbotanical remains recovered from archaeological artefacts have greatly contributed to our knowledge of past livelihood strategies. However, certain methodological issues are seldom...

The identification of fuel-related practices in archaeological contexts is almost always associated with the identification of fire-related structures. Charcoal analysis is the standard method of identifying wood use in the past; however, in many circumstances wood was not the primary source of fuel. In arid and semi-arid environments alternative f...

A workshop sponsored by the Simulpast project.

The origins of agriculture and the shift from hunting and gathering to committed agriculture is regarded as one of the major transitions in human history. Archaeologists and anthropologists have invested significant efforts in explaining the origins of agriculture. A period of gathering intensification and experimentation and pursuing a mixed econo...