No full-text available
To read the full-text of this research,
you can request a copy directly from the author.
Crops and climate in prehistoric Europe
Abstract
Selected areas of the European and Near Eastern archaeobotanical record are examined in the hope of elucidating the influences of climate, culture, and other factors on prehistoric agriculture. It is concluded that the long‐term effects of climate or environment are usually of little importance in comparison with those of other perturbing influences.
... After considering the lack of botanical information available for Early Copper Age sites, this thesis will apply a methodology called presence-analysis (Hubbard 1976Hubbard , 1980) to analyze the plant remains at the Vésztõ-Bikeri site. This methodology is appropriate to understand which plant resources were exploited during this time and the differential patterning if these resources across the settlement site. ...
... The remains of domesticated crops and animals are found abundantly throughout the Balkan region and in Hungary preceding the Vinča and Tiszapolgár cultural periods (Greenfield 1986; Whittle 1990). Botanically, these sites exhibit a sequence that parallels the studies conducted in the region (Hubbard 1980). The most ubiquitous crops identified in the Vinča cultures were Triticum dicoccum (emmer) and Triticum monococcum (einkorn) (Borojevic 1997 Defining differential plant distribution in the archaeobotanical record ...
... The accumulation of botanical material at an archaeological site can be related to a number of different activities (Lennstrom Transporting the plants to the settlement or other processing place, threshing (beating, trampling, hand rubbing), raking (of grain, chaff, leftover plant by products), washing, drying, burning, parching, roasting, winnowing, sorting, sieving, grinding, dehusking, braiding, bagging, cutting up, boiling, baking, toasting, preparing a storage location, and placing the material in storage (Hastorf 1988:125). In numerous Late Neolithic and Copper Age sites in Southeastern Europe, seeds, such as Hordeum vulgare (barley) and Triticum dicoccum (emmer), can be found in household settings (Bogaard 2001; Borojevic 1997; Hubbard 1980; McLaren and Hubbard 1990). Seeds can be dropped on the floor or outside of a house structure during the process of cleaning and cooking, and the scattering of seeds is not uncommon during processing (Hastorf 1998; Hillman 1984; Jones 1984). ...
In past decades, archaeobotanical research has facilitated a better understanding of the impact of cultivated and wild plants in the Great Hungarian Plain. With the introduction of complex flotation systems and improved sampling methodologies, archaeobotanists have been able to produce comprehensive analyses of plant remains, aiding in defining stratigraphy and cultural contexts of archaeological sites. This study, which focuses on macrobotanical remains from the Early Copper Age archaeological site, Vésztõ-Bikeri, will investigate the presence and spatial variability of plant remains of plants at a settlement site. Selected botanical samples were examined using a presence-analysis to evaluate the exploitation and distribution of plant remains at the Vésztõ-Bikeri site. This thesis tests the proposition that differential distribution of plant remains at settlements can aid in understanding the social dynamics of the household unit.
... Reviewing methods of quantitative analysis in paleoethnobotany, Glynis Jones (1991:64) defined a "unit of analysis" as one that "results from a single human activity." Numerous interpretations of diachronic change in plant resource use have been derived from quantitative analyses of macrobotanical samples (Allen 1989;Diehl 1996;Hubbard 1980;Johannessen 1988;Minnis 1978Minnis , 1985Minnis , 1986Pearsall 1983, Whalen 1981 Rocek studied were bell-shaped pits and multifloor stratified room-fill, respectively. ...
The general architectural transition from semi-subterranean pithouses to surface pueblos that occurred across the prehistoric North American Southwest has been attributed to increased agricultural dependence. In this study macrobotanical ubiquity scores, percentages, diversity, and richness were compared between pithouse and pueblo assemblages from the NAN Ranch Ruin, Grant County, New Mexico, to assess whether or not the macrobotanical evidence supported a link between increased agricultural dependence and the pithouse to pueblo transition at the site. Rarely were differences between values of relative macrobotanical abundance from the two periods found to be significant. Ubiquity analyses provided some evidence for greater agricultural dependence in the pueblo period. Ubiquity scores declined between the pithouse and pueblo periods for all taxa recovered from both periods, except maize (Zea mays L.) and goosefoot (Chenopodium spp.), an aggressive agricultural weed, probably because the puebloan occupants of the NAN Ranch Ruin relied more on maize agriculture than did the pithouse occupants at the site. Cotton (Gossypium hirsutum L.) was recovered only from pueblo deposits, perhaps indicating that this crop was not grown during the earlier pithouse period. Significant differences that were detected between pithouse and pueblo values of relative macrobotanical abundance were most likely due to the effect of variable sample sizes, when all samples were combined for analysis, regardless of their recovery contexts. Although the effect of variable sample volume was controlled by analysis of sub-samples representing five liters of excavated soil, the sub-samples varied in the number of specimens present. This finding illustrates the effect of variable numbers of specimens per sample on measures of relative abundance and the importance of comparing similar contexts in quantitative studies.
... Pare (2000, Figure 1.3) uses the degree of fill of circles to indicate the ubiquity of bronze in different regions and period. Bray and Pollard (2012) explicitly placed ubiquity analysis as a central tool in their approach to investigate the chemistry of copper artefacts, building upon pioneering work in archaeobotany (Hubbard, 1976;Hubbard, 1980;Popper, 1988;Pearsall, 2000, p. 214). They claimed that an appreciable difference of ubiquity in geographic space may be an indicator of the movement of metal (Bray and Pollard, 2012). ...
Traditionally, archaeometallurgical projects have visualised information through distribution maps of the find spots for different metal compositions or types of objects. However, this is limiting, and more innovative styles of communication are required to engage with more dynamic technological questions such as what underpins the use and circulation of metal. This paper compares four ways to process and represent the archaeometallurgical chemical composition dataset for Copper Age Iberia, and the different conclusions they tend to support. Using distribution maps, the wide spread of arsenical copper is clear, however more nuanced features are obscured. Through employing ubiquity analysis, with regular or irregular grids, it is possible to understand the relative importance of arsenical copper within the local consumption of metal, and how this relates to local extraction. While Relative Risk maps can suggest links between metal circulation and geographical features, particularly rivers. Rather than just being an aesthetic concern, we aim to demonstrate that visualisation of georeferenced data is an important research method.
... Thus any quantitative synthesis should be based on presence regardless of abundance : in other words the frequency of a taxon is dependent on its presence in an individual archaeological context. Presence-analysis has been summarized by Hubbard (1976). ...
An extensive range of plant remains was recovered from seven Roman sites in London where waterlogged conditions had resulted in good preservation. In the majority of cases the “artificial” nature of urban deposits precludes any objective ecological interpretation, since the allochthonous origin of the plant remains cannot be satisfactorily established. However, the presence of exotic plants in dated deposits is of both botanical and archaeological significance and is here artificially treated as an autonomous group. This varied group of plants (excluding carbonized cereals) is arranged according to their use and put in archaeological and botanical perspective. Species such as cucumber (Cucumis sativa), gold of pleasure (Camelina sativa), peach (Prunus persica), olive (Olea europaea) and millet (Panicum miliaceum) have not been recorded from Romano-British sites before. For many of these plants their status, either as introductions or imports, is uncertain. Whichever is the case, it is clear that a wide variety of economic plants was available in Roman London.
... In light of this, Huppert and Solow (2004) argue that the link between beetle distributions and modern climatic parameters cannot be tested robustly using conventional statistical methods, and hence that the uncertainties in MCR reconstructions, even those based on European or North American beetle data, are often poorly defined, and may be large. In this paper we examine the grounds for this criticism, and show how the uncertainties in MCR estimates might be better constrained, using a technique known as Ubiquity Analysis, used until now for the analysis of complex archaeological records (e.g., Hubbard, 1976Hubbard, , 1980Popper, 1988;Bond, 1998;Pearsall, 2000). ...
The Mutual Climatic Range (MCR) method, originally developed in the early 1980s to derive quantified palaeotemperature estimates from fossil beetle assemblage data, is based on assessments of the relationships between the modern distributions of beetle species and instrumentally measured climatic gradients. However, the MCR approach is based on presence/absence beetle data only, with no information on the spatial variation in relative dominance/importance of beetle species within their present climate ranges. This means that beetle–climate relationships are more difficult to test using conventional, probabilistic statistical methods. It is also unlikely that beetles have a normal (Gaussian) distribution in climate space, and hence calibration methods developed for correcting MCR values for bias in raw data are also questionable. In this paper, the underlying statistical weaknesses in the MCR method are examined, while an alternative approach, Ubiquity Analysis, is introduced. It is concluded that this approach offers much potential for reducing the uncertainties associated with MCR estimates.
Quantitative methods of analysis of the data accumulated by European archaeobotanists over the last 30 years allow the agricultural
history of Europe and the Near East to be seen in a new perspective. The histories of the major crop plants appear to be fairly
simple, but there seem to have been at least two kinds of free-threshing wheat in cultivation at different times in prehistoric
Europe. The evidence suggests that rye was a secondary crop associated with the later of these wheats. While the patterns
of crop exploitation seem interpretable in terms of natural ecology only in the very earliest periods, they appear to have
cultural correlations and may have some archaeological significance.
A total of 422 publications from 1991 and 1992 on archaeological remains of cultivated plants have been collected. A list is given of the finds according to species, country and age.
Archaeobotanical studies frequently focus on single site economies; as a result, relatively few such studies in the Near East use plant remains to develop regional perspectives. By comparing fanning practices and evidence for plant resources in the vicinities of two contemporary Halaf sites in different environments, this paper offers a first attempt to examine how peoples of the 5th millennium B.C., linked by their material culture, differed in their adaptation to local environments.
Methods used by some archaeological botanists to analyse their data can be successfully applied to certain aspects of geobotany. Presence/absence geobotanical records can be studied by multivariate statistical methods to yield lists of ecologicallyassociated taxa. A simple, parametrical, quantitative description of the samples at the more abstract level of plant associations can then be made, using the representation in the original samples of the elements of these lists. When applied to the macrobotanical evidence from the North Bohemian Basin, the relationships between the associations confirmed the patterns that had been suspected previously. As large-scale climatic changes did not seem to influence the fossil record, it was possible to treat the samples as though they were contemporary. The spatial distributions of the associations could therefore be represented as contoured maps. These maps identify which associations were autochthonous, which ones were allochthonous, and whence the allochthonous fossils came and how far they may have travelled.
Recent paleoethnobotanical approaches in historical archaeology have successfully explored the intersection of plantation foodways, social relations, and the environment in contexts of enslavement, including in the colonial period Caribbean. This article presents an analysis of macrobotanical remains from Estate Cane Garden, a 19th century a.d. plantation hospital in St. Croix, U.S. Virgin Islands. In this study, we demonstrate how enslaved people actively negotiated the adverse conditions of slavery by using plant resources to secure their own well-being, by examining the types of plants found at the hospital, interpreting potential plant use, and by situating the hospital assemblage within a broader Caribbean comparative analysis. Ultimately, we argue for the need for a greater number of paleoethnobotanical studies of historic (16th–19th century) Caribbean sites to develop more robust intersite comparisons in order to reach a more nuanced understanding of the roles of plants in plantation lifeways.
Zusammenfassung In Fortsetzung von Bibliographien über archäologische Kulturpflanzenreste wurde die einschlägige Literatur der Jahre 1976/1977 zusammengestellt und der Inhalt der erfaßten 101 Arbeiten kurz kommentiert.
The charred plant remains from Final Neolithic and Early Bronze Age levels at Mandalo, Macedonia, Greece provide evidence for a broad range of crops and wild plant resources. There is clear evidence for the storage of some of these, in particular emmer, lentils and bitter vetch, but also barley, einkorn, Celtic bean, grass pea and acorns. There is also evidence for the possible storage and use of animal dung fuel, which has not previously been reported for Greece, and for the cultivation of flax dating back to the 5th millennium BC. The diversity of plant resources will have provided a ‘buffering mechanism’ against occasional crop failure, and the relationship of this to the proposed ‘marginal colonization’ of Greece is discussed. On the basis of the species found in animal dung, it is suggested that the arable and pastoral sectors were integrated, with relatively small numbers of animals grazed locally on stubble or fallow fields.
In recent years increasing attention has been focused on the palaeoeconomic interpretation of prehistoric sites, and a number of projects have been carried out both in Britain and abroad on plant and animal remains from archaeological sites with a view to interpreting subsistence patterns and activities of early communities. Though large-scale, systematic sampling and recovery of palaeoethnobotanical data has been carried out on several sites in the last ten years, the practice is still not widespread and has yet to be judged by its results. Fundamental issues relating to sampling, recovery and data presentation still require attention. Although studies of palaeoeconomic material have been done on Iron age sites in southern Britain, for example at Portway (Murphy 1977a) and Abingdon (Parrington 1978), as yet little evaluation of this evidence has taken place. The aim of this paper is to present, assess and compare the evidence from two such studies of different types of Iron Age site.
Few would doubt that prehistorians have come to regard the formulating of models and the testing of hypotheses as among their most important concerns in recent years. This trend towards explaining, rather than merely accumulating data can be regarded partially as reflecting a desire to maintain some degree of command over a rapidly expanding body of information, but also the feeling that prehistoric archaeology has tended to lag behind related behavioural disciplines such as ecology or geography. What has become a highly conspicuous feature of these developments is that prehistorians have tended to undertake two radically different kinds of studies, particularly on prehistoric subsistence. The first relies upon published archaeological data, often accumulated over several years, from regions as large as countries or even continents; the second type, however, tends to be more modest in scope, and based upon a small body of evidence that has been specifically collected from either a small number of sites, or at most, a small region such as a single valley system. Recent studies by Murray (1970) on European neolithic animal husbandry, or by Ammerman & Cavalli-Sforza (1971) on European neolithic dispersal rates are convenient examples of the first type of study: both may be contrasted with the more detailed, localised types of studies on the same topics by Payne (1972) and Barker (1975). Whilst these two approaches may be complementary, it is nevertheless noticeable that they often reach strikingly different conclusions that frequently result from fundamental divergences of opinion about the quality of the data itself, and the most appropriate way to examine it.
The archaeological site of Gordion is most famous as the home of the Phrygian king Midas and as the place where Alexander the Great cut the Gordian knot on his way to conquer Asia. Located in central Anatolia (present-day Turkey) near the confluence of the Porsuk and Sakarya rivers, Gordion also lies on historic trade routes between east and west as well as north to the Black Sea. Favorably situated for long-distance trade, Gordion's setting is marginal for agricultural cultivation but well suited to pastoral production. It is therefore not surprising that with the exception of a single Chalcolithic site, the earliest settlements in the region are fairly late-they date to the Early Bronze Age (late 3rd millennium B.C.). The earliest known levels of Gordion, too, date to the Early Bronze Age, and occupation of at least some part of the site was nearly continuous through at least Roman times (second half of the 1st century B.C.). This work is a contribution to both the archaeobotany of west Asia and the archaeology of the site of Gordion. The book's major concern is understanding long-term changes in the environment and in land use. An important finding, with implications for modern land management, is that the most sustainable use of this landscape involves mixed farming of dry-farmed cereals, summer-irrigated garden crops, and animal husbandry. The large number of samples from the 1988-89 seasons analyzed here make this a rich source for understanding other materials from the Gordion excavations and for comparison with other sites in west Asia. © 2010 by the University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology. All rights reserved.
In most communities throughout the Western world cereal crops have always played a pivotal role in human nutrition and thus, both directly and indirectly, have been closely associated with the sociocultural development of those communities. Whether we are considering the activities of collecting/gathering cultures in the Near East in the sixth and seventh millennia BC, or the advanced agricultural economy of mid-Victorian Britain, annual cereal yield at the local level was of the profoundest importance both to human survival and social organization. In the absence of any well-coordinated inter- and intraregional trade arrangements, climatic aberrations or disease epidemics limiting harvest productivity could impose serious social stresses, to which the sporadic and often spontaneous outbreaks of corn riots in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries bear witness.
The results of the archaeobotanical analysis of three samples from the Roman site CSI (Irún, Basque Country, I - III A.D.) are presented. They correspond to a port zone where material from different proveniences has met: estuarine and river-close areas, urban waste and altered places. The human population of the Roman Oiasso had access to a wide range of plant foods, wild as well as domestic ones. Economically interesting species which have been imported or introduced at this time have been identified.
A critical review is offered of some of the methods of quantification applicable to fossil plant remains, at the levels of the individual specimens, groups of specimens, the composition of the sample, and of groups of samples. The results of multivariate statistical analyses of plant remains from Pleistocene lake deposits suggest that elaborate descriptions of the composition of samples of macro-remains are probably wasted effort. For archaeological material, it is argued that a rigourous assessment of the nature of the archaeological contexts of the samples is an essential prerequisite to justifying sophisticated interpretations of the analytical results. With carbonised material from archaeological contexts, classifications of preservation and distortion of individual seeds, technologically-based classifications of groups of seeds, indices of the heterogeneity of samples and of their waste content, and various other quantifications may be of interpretative value.
With special reference to a new standard pollen diagram from Ostfriesland the development of vegetation and climate in northwestern Germany from the Bølling Interstadial to the end of the Boreal period is considered. With the help of the Pinus curve the Allerød Interstadial in this area can be divided into two parts: (1) a colder Betula phase, and (2) a temperate Betula-Pinus phase with only one advance of the Pinus curve. Its rise, however, is not synchronous, but is delayed to the north. A short-lived climatic amelioration with an advance of pine was proved for the beginning of the Preboreal period. It was given the preliminary name “Friesland Oscillation”. The following slight deterioration of climate seems to be equivalent to the alpine “Piottino Oscillation”. Thus, the Preboreal (Zone IV) can be divided as follows:IVc - final improvement.IVb - Piottino Oscillation (Stadial).IVa - Friesland Oscillation (Interstadial).
For the early Neolithic site of Nea Nikomedeia in northern Greece (ca. 5470 B.C.) the following plant species could be established: Triticum monococcum, Triticum dicoccum, Hordeum vulgare var. nudum, Lens culinaris, Pisum sativum, Vicia ervilia, Quercus sp., Cornus mas, and Prunus cf. spinosa.
During the years 1953 to 1959, under the directorship of Seton Lloyd, with James Mellaart, the British Institute in Ankara carried out excavations in the mound of Beycesultan, the site of successive ancient habitations. The remains of cultivated plants recovered during this operation are the subject of the following communication.
Beycesultan is situated some 5 km. west of Çivril in the Denizli Vilayet of south-western Turkey. The locality is a flat upland plain in an intermontane valley at the south-western approach to the Anatolian plateau, some 2,500 feet above sea level. It is enclosed by low hills and watered by the upper reaches of the Meander river. The mountains above the plain are still partly wooded, and the drainage from these tracts accounts for the moisture and fertility which make the cultivation of cereals, pulses, poppy, grapes and fruit possible in the valley plain in spite of the comparatively low precipitation of some 14 to 16 inches. As suggested by the huge quantities of timber employed in the construction of the Middle Bronze Age palace the surrounding hilly area was once generously forested with oak, juniper and fir, but now the area is largely deforested in consequence of overgrazing.
During the 1972 season of the Aşvan excavations (see French, 1973, p. 77) it was decided that, given the huge quantity of charcoal recovered (292 samples) from the four sites by water-sieving and trench sampling from strata which cover a period of c. 4,500–5,000 years, an analysis of the charcoals would prove revealing. Part of the aim of the research is to evaluate what information is available from charcoals recovered by modern methods, and to determine if it is possible to draw sound conclusions about vegetational changes which have not been fully recorded for the late Holocene in Eastern Anatolia. Although some data has been made available through pollen analysis (see van Zeist, 1968, pp. 19–39) the distribution, duration and composition of the forest which existed before deforestation is not entirely understood.
A dearth of necessary data on which to base this work made contemporary studies a prerequisite. Firstly an adequate comparative collection of identified modern woods had to be built up to aid identification of ancient charcoals. Secondly, a reliable method of sub-sampling had to be devised in order to deal with the copious material.
Pollen diagrams have been obtained from three places in Greece. The one from Limni Kopais in southern mainland Greece covers the last part of the Würm glaciation and most of the Holocene and shows that at the end of the Würm the developing oak woodland responded to a climatic oscillation, comparable with the Allerød oscillation in northwest Europe, and was later seriously reduced during Final Neolithic times. A diagram from the uppermost peats of Tenaghi Philippon shows that the area was forested until at least the time of Christ and another from Gravouna, further east, which covers the last two thousand years or so, shows the change from oak forest to the present open shiblyak vegetation of the region. Where possible, correlations have been made with pollen zones of other authors who have published diagrams from the country.
Among the carbonized seeds and fruits recovered from Late Bronze Age and Iron Age layers of Deir 'Alia (ca. 1200-300 B.C.) those of Hordeum distichum, Triticum aestivum/durum, and Linum usitatissimum are most numerous. The leguminous seeds include Pisum sativum, Vicia ervilia, Lens culinaris, and Cicer arietinum. The following fruit tree species are represented : Olea europaea, Amygdalus cf. communis, Vitis vinifera, Ziziphus spina-christi, and Punica granátům. Lolium temulentum fruits were found in larger numbers. The wood of poplar, ash, plane tree, deciduous and evergreen oak, olive and tamarisk was used for constructional purposes and for burning.
Debris surrounding a deposit of carbonized grain found at the Roman fortress of Isca, Caerleon, Wales, was examined and various cereals, grasses and weeds identified. The find provides evidence of weed introductions new to Britain and of the use of cereals in brewing.
1.
The wild species of the genusLens were surveyed. WildL. orientalis was found to be morphologically closest to cultivatedL. culinaris. It is also the only wild species interconnected to the cultivated lentil by a series of intermediate types.
2.
Archaeologically lentil was established as one of the primary domesticants that founded the neolithic agricultural revolution in the Near East are.
3.
The geographic distribution of wildL. orientalis is centered in the neolithic nuclear area of the Near East are, i.e., northern Israel, Syria, South Turkey, North Iraq, and Western Iran.
4.
The conclusion was reached thatL. orientalis is the wild progenitor of cultivatedL. culinaris, and that its domestication took place in the Near East are.
An extensive insect fauna is described from an organic deposit occurring in a gravel pit at Lea Marston, Warwickshire, England. This organic deposit was lying beneath approximately 2.5 m of alluvial clay and directly above gravels which had provided organic material 14C dated at 11,700 ± 200 yr BP. The insect fauna was indicative of a temperate oceanic climate similar to that found today in southern England or south Sweden and suggested the presence of deciduous woodland. The six radiocarbon dates, however, agreed in giving the deposit an age of around 9500 yr BP which is earlier than the arrival of the principal broad-leaved trees. The pollen assemblage was consistent with the radiocarbon dates in showing, in addition to herbaceous pollen, only the presence of Betula, Salix, and small amounts of Pinus. As the insect faunas known from midland Britain at the close of the Devensian period, barely 500 yr before, are aretic in aspect and entirely devoid of thermophilous species a very rapid climatic amelioration is postulated which permitted the immigration of the very mobile insect fauna well in advance of the more slowly migrating trees.
Dendrochronology is the science of dating annual growth layers (rings) in woody plants. Two related subdisciplines are dendroclimatology and dendroecology. The former uses the information in dated rings to study problems of present and past climates, while the latter deals with changes in the local environment rather than regional climate.
Successful applications of dendroclimatology and dendroecology depend upon careful stratification. Ring-width samples are selected from trees on limiting sites, where widths of growth layers vary greatly from one year to the next (sensitivity) and autocorrelation of the widths is not high. Rings also must be cross-dated and sufficiently replicated to provide precise dating. This selection and dating assures that the climatic information common to all trees, which is analogous to the “signal”, is large and properly placed in time. The random error or nonclimatic variations in growth, among trees, is analogous to “noise” and is reduced when ring-width indices are averaged for many trees.
Some basic facts about the growth are presented along with a discussion of important physiological processes operating throughout the roots, stems, and leaves. Certain gradients associated with tree height, cambial age, and physiological activity control the size of the growth layers as they vary throughout the tree. These biological gradients interact with environmental variables and complicate the task of modeling the relationships linking growth with environment.
Biological models are described for the relationships between variations in ring widths from conifers on arid sites, and variations in temperature and precpitation. These climatic factors may influence the tree at any time in the year. Conditions preceding the growing season sometimes have a greater influence on ring width than conditions during the growing season, and the relative effects of these factors on growth vary with latitude, altitude, and differences in factors of the site. The effects of some climatic factors on growth are negligible during certain times of the year, but important at other times. Climatic factors are sometimes directly related to growth and at other times are inversely related to growth. Statistical methods are described for ascertaining these differences in the climatic response of trees from different sites.
A practical example is given of a tree-ring study and the mechanics are described for stratification and selection of tree-ring materials, for laboratory preparation, for cross-dating, and for computer processing. Several methods for calibration of the ring-width data with climatic variation are described. The most recent is multivariate analysis, which allows simultaneous calibration of a variety of tree-ring data representing different sites with a number of variables of climate.
Several examples of applications of tree-ring analysis to problems of environment and climate are described. One is a specification from tree rings of anomalies in atmosphere circulation for a portion of the Northern Hemisphere since 1700 A.D. Another example treats and specifies past conditions in terms of conditional probabilities. Other methods of comparing present climate with past climate are described along with new developments in reconstructing past hydrologic conditions from tree rings.
Tree-ring studies will be applied in the future to problems of temperate and mesic environments, and to problems of physiological, genetic, and anatomical variations within and among trees. New developments in the use of X-ray techniques will facilitate the measurement and study of cell size and cell density. Tree rings are an important source of information on productivity and dry-matter accumulation at various sites. Some tree-ring studies will deal with environmental pollution. Statistical developments will improve estimation of certain past anomalies in weather factors and the reconstructtion of atmosphere circulation associated with climate variability and change. Such information should improve chances for measuring and assessing the possibility of inadvertent modification of climate by man.
RECENT studies of deep-sea sediment cores have defined changes in surface water circulation1, in continental ice volume as recorded by oxygen isotope variations in foraminiferal tests2, and in the corrosiveness of near-bottom water to calcium carbonate3,4 during the past million years. These changes are all attributed to the major climatic changes that have occurred during the Quaternary1,2,5,6.
This article reviews the available information on the place of origin and time of domestication of the cultivated pea (Pisum sativum), lentil (Lens culinaris), broad bean (Vicia faba), bitter vetch (V. ervilia), and chickpea (Cicer arietinum). On the basis of (i) an examination and evaluation of archeological remains and (ii) an identification of the wild progenitors
and delimitation of their geographic distribution, it was concluded that pea and lentil should be regarded as founder crops
of Old World Neolithic agriculture. Most probably they were domesticated, in the Near East, simultaneously with wheats and
barley (certainly not later than the sixth millennium B.C.). Bitter vetch shows a similar mode of origin. The evidence on
the broad bean and the chickpea is much more fragmentary and the wild progenitors of these legumes are yet not satisfactorily
identified. But also these two pulses emerge as important food elements in Bronze Age cultures of the Near East and Europe.
Éispèces des plantes cultivées des stations primitives au sud-ouest de l'U
- Z V Janouchevitch
- V I Markevitch