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The Role of Palynology in Archaeology
Abstract
This chapter discusses the role of palynology in archaeology. A primary objective of archaeological investigation is to reconstruct and explain as fully as possible mechanisms and directions of prehistoric culture change. To accomplish this task, the archaeologist must look beyond the recovery and identification of cultural materials, such as lithic debris, points, grinding stones, perishables, and pottery. Through the careful analysis of other sources of information—such as plant macrofossils, namely, seeds, leaves, bark, flowers, and wood; animal remains, namely, bones, hair, tooth, and shells; soil chemistry, charcoal identification, and pollen—the archaeologist is able to speak more confidently about many aspects of past cultures. Once these analyses are completed, the archaeologist also is afforded an opportunity to test hypotheses about the paleoenvironment, diet, subsistence, disease, and the level of prehistoric technology and trade. One of these formerly peripheral areas of archaeological study being investigated with increased regularity is the recovery and analysis of fossil pollen. Although most archaeologists are aware of the basics of palynology, many of them are still not aware of the wide range of data that palynology can provide; they are neither familiar with new sampling techniques that yield these data nor aware of the importance of asking for the advice of a palynologist prior to conducting actual field investigations.
... The pHs of the samples are all in the neutral to slightly alkaline range between 7 and 8, which is conducive to good pollen preservation (Bryant and Holloway, 1983). ...
... Low to no pollen in the finely stratified ash layers of SU2 in P35 and R31 is probably due to thermal destruction of pollen during use of the hearths. Pollen does not preserve when subjected to intense heating (Bryant and Holloway, 1983), and experimental studies on exposure of pollen to high temperatures indicate that complete deterioration and loss of pollen grains takes place at temperatures upward of 350 • C (Ghosh et al., 2006;Pini et al., 2018;Sengupta, 1975), temperatures which hearths and open fires are capable of exceeding (David, 1990;Ward and Friesem, 2021). The ash layers of SU2 are associated with the standing stone of P35, dozens of broken soda-straws, and a portable grindstone used to process crystalline minerals (e.g., David et al., 2021b;Mialanes et al., 2022;Stephenson et al., 2020). ...
In southeastern Australia, GunaiKurnai caves are known by current Aboriginal Elders and from nineteenth century ethnographic documents as special places used by mulla-mullung (“clever men” and “clever women”) for the practice of magic and medicine. Pollen analysis conducted on sediments from one such cave, Cloggs Cave, reveals an unusually well-preserved and well-stratified pollen sequence extending back >25,000 years, with much of the pollen introduced into the cave by people carrying flowering plants. High concentrations of pollen, rare for limestone cave settings, were recovered, including pollen clumps of individual taxa representing deposition of in situ flowering material. These taxa are dominated by plants known through GunaiKurnai knowledge and ethnography to have special cultural uses and that match the plants known to have been used by mulla-mullung , and some edible plants. These include taxa such as Banksia spp., Pimelea spp. (rice flower), and Plantago spp. (plantain) and the plant families of Asteraceae (daisy) and Poaceae (grass). The largely anthropogenic pollen assemblage also signals the presence of plants from cooler and drier climates dominated by more open vegetation during the Last Glacial Maximum than that observed around Cloggs Cave in recent times. The Early Holocene pollen then reflects a warmer and wetter climate that supported the expansion of woodland elements. Together, the pollen record of Cloggs Cave provides remarkable insights into two articulating histories: the cultural practices of the GunaiKurnai Old Ancestors in a special, secluded cave; and the environmental history of Country.
... The two carbon isotope sequences, identified in white, come from Halls Cave, located 110 km northeast of the Mission Reach Project Area on the Edwards Plateau (Cooke 2005;Toomey 1993), and site 41BX831, located about 9 km to the southwest of the Project Area (Nordt et al. 2002;Thoms and Mandel 2007). The pollen sequences, shown in yellow, are from two different peat bog deposits in Lee County, roughly 170 km north of the project area (see Bousman 1998;Bryant and Holloway 1983;Camper 1991;Potzger and Tharp 1943, 1947, 1954. Finally, the sequence of shifts in abundance of planktonic foraminifera was pieced together from three cores found in two different sections of the GOM (Figure 3-1, red), roughly 650 to 750 km away from the Project Area (see Poore et al. 2013;Riche et al. 2007). ...
This is Volume 1 of four, now available, that summarize archaeological work along the Mission Reach segment of the San Antonio River in Bexar County, Texas.
... This unit was excavated in 50mm arbitrary increments. Excavators collected all cultural and organic material encountered during excavations, as well as 6l bulk soil samples for macroremain analysis and separate 250ml sedimentary samples for pollen analysis (following Bryant & Holloway 1983). ...
At Ollantaytambo, in the Cusco region of Peru, the Inka ( c . AD 1400–1532) built an elaborate anthropogenic landscape to facilitate intensive agriculture. After the 1532 Spanish invasion of the region, this landscape was reshaped by the introduction of new plants and animals, colonial land-management practices and demographic transformations. Here, the author employs botanical data from a derelict Inka-era reservoir to evaluate the timing and character of colonial transformations to the local agroecology. These transformations, they argue, tended towards agricultural deintensification, but this process did not begin until decades after the Spanish invasion.
... One of the elds that can reconstruct past environments is palynology through the study of microfossils. While palynology and other disciplines are frequently used on samples from an archaeological context (Bryant andHolloway, 1983 van Geel et al., 1983), this is less common with museum objects. For the present study palaeoecologists from different sub-disciplines worked together to reconstruct the most likely picture of place'. ...
... The agents that cause alterations to pollen during its transport and after its deposition are generally classified as mechanical, physicochemical, and biological (Bryant and Holloway 1983). In addition to the phenomena of transport, sedimentation and fossilization, other processes related to the differential characteristics of the pollen grain structure may determine the incidence of taphonomic alterations. ...
... One of the elds that can reconstruct past environments is palynology through the study of microfossils. While palynology and other disciplines are frequently used on samples from an archaeological context (Bryant andHolloway, 1983 van Geel et al., 1983), this is less common with museum objects. For the present study palaeoecologists from different sub-disciplines worked together to reconstruct the most likely picture of place'. ...
... However, preservation of pollen grains in archaeological sites should also be taken into consideration. There are several complex factors that govern the preservation of spores/pollens (Bryant and Holloway 1978) and sometimes preservation of pollen grains are poor due to mechanical degradation, chemical and biological factors. Thus, now a day besides spores/pollens, the non-pollen palynomorphs such as, phytoliths, fungal spores, and diatoms are also being studied from the same archaeological sediments. ...
Archaeobotany deals with the interpretation of preserved plant remains from the archaeological sites in order to reconstruct the past vegetation and climate change and past human-plant relationship. The archaeobotanical remains found in the archaeological sites are classified into two groups; macro and microbotanical remains. Usually, the microbotanical investigations includes the extraction of spores/pollen, phytoliths, diatoms, fungal spores and starch grains from the soils/sediments of the archaeological sites. But sometimes archaeological artefacts including potsherds may also provide us with valuable information. Palaeobotanical investigations and palaeoclimate reconstruction from the archaeological potsherds are rare especially from the coastal regions of the globe. In the present study two earthen vessels associated potsherds collected from the Tilpi region of Sundarbans, deltaic West Bengal were studied in a multi-proxy approach. The age of the earthen pots and potsherds found to be 2630 ± 25 years BP. The pollen, phytolith and non-pollen palynomorph data of the potsherds revealed that a non-littoral forest was present in the area under tropical warm and humid climate condition. However, occurrence of pollen grains and phytoliths of palms, and Concentricystes sp. indicate that the coast line was not far away from the area of deposition (Rao 1990, Ramanujam et al. 1998).
... The main factor in preserving pollen is the high acidity of plaggic soils, which makes it possible to conduct soil spore-pollen analysis. The palynological method (Bryant and Holloway, 1983) provides information on changes in plant communities, land use systems, but the results obtained are difficult to interpret. It should be remembered that not every substrate that contains pollen is suitable for analysis, as its origin cannot always be explained. ...
Plaggic Anthrosol are artificially created fertile soils with a high content of humus, nitrogen, phosphorus, potassium, and trace elements, which are also have of great importance as a chronicle of paleoecological and paleogeographical history of mankind, thus serving as an archive. Plaggic Anthrosol have been discovered not
only in Western Europe but also in North Asia. The soils of the southwestern Pacific and South America are very similar to Plaggic Anthrosol, but have some differences and are now classified as Terric Anthrosols. It has been
shown that the regular centuries-long application of a small substrate mixture onto the surface of a field, consisting
of forest litter, heather with roots and mosses, straw soaked in animal manure and urine (Germany,
Netherlands, Denmark, Russia); mixed with bones, feathers, and internal organs of seabirds (Scotland); guano
(Peru); marine limestone sand mixed with seaweed (Ireland) serves as a source for the formation of Plaggen soil.
The various formation conditions of these soils are reflected in their physical and chemical properties. The
present article discusses the geographical distribution, genesis, key properties of Plaggic Anthrosol, and explores their classification. One of the key points of this work is a review of the principles and mechanisms of carbon stabilization in anthropogenic Plaggen soils, leading to carbon capture in the soil, reducing greenhouse gas emissions from the soil, and increasing its fertility. The existence of Plaggen soils demonstrates the fundamental possibility of sustainable carbon sequestration and soil fertility enhancement in the intensive use of land for
gardening and agriculture. We can conclude that the potential of Plaggen soils represents a noteworthy example of the development of land use systems.
... Pollen, however, is a problematic proxy for studying firewood selectivity because the catchment area for pollen is much larger than the small distance foragers are willing to travel for firewood. Moreover, palynological samples can be misleading, as certain species may produce more pollen than others (e.g., spruce, poplar, alder), or pollen may be especially buoyant (e.g., birch), traveling long distances from the source (Bryant and Holloway, 1983;Traverse, 2007), among other obfuscating factors. The pollen profiles seen in Tanana Valley lake cores may not be representative of what was growing around the Gerstle River site. ...
In ancient Alaska, people allocated wood, bone, and oil for both fuel and non-fuel purposes, which required careful management. By examining these resources through the lens of human behavioral ecology (HBE) and the principle of least effort (PLE), we can understand fuel use-especially woody fuel use-from the standpoint of selectivity, wherein ancient people considered energetic output, handling costs, and state when choosing fuel sources. At any given site, some degree of firewood selectivity, ranging from complete indifference to marked discrimination, would have been most advantageous. Accordingly, ancient Alaskans at Cape Espenberg, Gerstle River, Hungry Fox, and Walakpa would have employed different fuel management strategies tailored according to their evolving needs. Results suggest that firewood indifference was more common, and that selectivity was advantageous only at longer-term occupations where fuel was abundant. Otherwise, proximity and handling costs trumped the benefits of taxon-specific selectivity, which is a strategy meant to confer desired combustion outcomes. Detecting when and where it was beneficial for ancient Alaskans to be selective grants insight into how they categorized fuel and adapted their fuel selection behaviors to fit particular circumstances. Moreover, the restrictions imposed by finite fuel availability have general implications for settlement patterns and mobility that may help trace ancient migration routes as hunter-gatherers leap-frogged from one fuel patch to another.
This study was begun in the summer of 1975 in Chaco Canyon, New Mexico. The purposes of the study were to identify pollen, investigate factors affecting variability, and investigate sampling techniques to obtain adequate representation of variability. Results indicate that variability within a room is extremely high. To rely on one sample from one location could lead to mistaken interpretation of the data. Pollen contamination of exposed surfaces was shown to occur within 12 hours.
Microbiological activity may result in definite patterns of removal of the exine from spores, pollen and other organic microfossils. Chemical or physical degradation does not produce these patterns, except in the case of crystal impressions onto or through the exine. Microbiological degradation of sporopollenin which results in definite patterns or scars is attributable to the higher bacteria (Actinomycetes) and true fungi. Other bacteria apparently decompose the exine in an orderly fashion but with no set or recognizable microscopic pattern.
This chapter presents a preliminary model for the paleoecology of the western Ozark Highland for the past 35,000 years and an interpretation of how man adapted to and exploited the Ozarks for the more than 10,000 years he occupied the area. This model, based on the work of many specialists, is the product of an interdisciplinary research program spanning the decade 1963–1974. The study focuses on a series of localities in and near an abandoned entrenched meander of the Pomme de Terre River—Breshears Bottoms—on the mosaic ecotone between the prairies of western Missouri and the oak-hickory forests of the northwestern Ozark Highland. The Pomme de Terre River, a north-flowing affluent of the Osage River, forms a sinuous border between the Salem and Springfield plateaus in west-central Missouri. Their relatively undissected uplands are areas of low relief, but streams have cut deeply into them, creating deep valleys bordered by areas of steep relief, including many high bluffs, some of them containing rock overhangs such as Rodgers Shelter. The narrow, terrace-stepped valley floors contain broad streams of clear running water.
The remarkable resistance of pollen and spore exines to biological decay and non-oxidative chemical attack is a major contributor to the existence of the science of Palynology. The particular type of chemical material which has these properties, called sporopollenin, has been isolated from a wide variety of pollen grains and spores of both higher and lower plants. Early chemical work by Zetzsche and co-workers produced a method for isolation of a standard sporopollenin preparation and established that the polymer was highly unsaturated, contained hydroxyl and C-methyl groups, and that these properties were similar for all the types of sporopollenin examined whether from a recent or fossil source. Later work by Shaw and co-workers has indicated that sporopollenins are oxidative polymers of carotenoids and/or carotenoid esters. Synthetic analogues may be prepared by ionic catalysed oxidative polymerisation of various types of carotenoids; and the products are very similar to the natural materials. The relationship between carotenoids and sporopollenin has been further confirmed by comparison of ozonisation and potash fusion products and by labelling experiments. The biosynthesis of sporopollenin in the sporogenous tissue is seen to resemble a typical suspension polymerisation process in which the globules undergoing polymerisation are known as orbicules. The polymerising globules which will contain carotenoids are laid down on the microspore sac in a manner which is governed by the pre-formed architecture of the sac which in this way operates as a template.