Method and Theory in Paleoethnobotany

Method and Theory in Paleoethnobotany edited by John M. Marston, Jade d’alpoiM Guedes, and Christina Warinner University Press of Colorado Boulder © 2014 by University Press of Colorado Published by University Press of Colorado 5589 Arapahoe Avenue, Suite 206C Boulder, Colorado 80303 All rights reserved Printed in the United States of America he University Press of Colorado is a proud member of he Association of American University Presses. he University Press of Colorado is a cooperative publishing enterprise supported, in part, by Adams State University, Colorado State University, Fort Lewis College, Metropolitan State University of Denver, Regis University, University of Colorado, University of Northern Colorado, Utah State University, and Western State Colorado University. ∞ his paper meets the requirements of the ANSI/NISO Z39.48-1992 (Permanence of Paper). ISBN: 978-1-60732-315-0 (pbk.) ISBN: 978-1-60732-316-7 (ebook) Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Method and theory in paleoethnobotany / edited by John M. Marston, Jade D’alpoim Guedes, and Christina Warinner. pages cm Includes bibliographical references. ISBN 978-1-60732-315-0 (pbk.) — ISBN 978-1-60732-316-7 (ebook) 1. Paleoethnobotany. 2. Plant remains (Archaeology) 3. Paleoethnobotany—Methodology. 4. Archaeology—Methodology. I. Marston, John M. CC79.5.P5M48 2014 930.1'2—dc23 2014010694 23 22 21 20 19 18 17 16 15 14 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 Contents List of Figures ix List of Tables xvii Preface xix John M. Marston, Jade d’Alpoim Guedes, and Christina Warinner 1. Paleoethnobotanical Method and heory in the Twenty-First Century John M. Marston, Christina Warinner, and Jade d’Alpoim Guedes 1 Part I: Formation Processes 2. Formation Processes of the Macrobotanical Record Daphne E. Gallagher 19 3. Formation and Taphonomic Processes Afecting Starch Granules Amanda G. Henry 35 4. Formation Processes of Pollen and Phytoliths Deborah M. Pearsall 51 Part II: Recovery, Identification, and Data Management 5. Sampling Strategies in Paleoethnobotanical Analysis Jade d’Alpoim Guedes and Robert Spengler 77 6. Recovering Macrobotanical Remains: Current Methods and Techniques Chantel E. White and China P. Shelton 95 7. Laboratory Analysis and Identiication of Plant Macroremains Gayle Fritz and Mark Nesbitt 115 8. Digitizing the Archaeobotanical Record Christina Warinner and Jade d’Alpoim Guedes 147 Part III: Quantification and Analysis 9. Ratios and Simple Statistics in Paleoethnobotanical Analysis: Data Exploration and Hypothesis Testing John M. Marston 163 10. he Use of Multivariate Statistics within Archaeobotany Alexia Smith 181 11. Analysis and Interpretation of Intrasite Variability in Paleoethnobotanical Remains: A Consideration and Application of Methods at the Ravensford Site, North Carolina Amber M. VanDerwarker, Jennifer V. Alvarado, and Paul Webb 205 vi CO N T EN T S 12. Intersite Variation within Archaeobotanical Charred Assemblages: A Case Study Exploring the Social Organization of Agricultural Husbandry in Iron Age and Roman Britain Chris J. Stevens 235 Part IV: Integration of Paleoethnobotanical Data 13. Peopling the Environment: Interdisciplinary Inquiries into Socioecological Systems Incorporating Paleoclimatology and Geoarchaeology Timothy C. Messner and Gary E. Stinchcomb 257 14. From the Ground Up: Advances in Stable Isotope-Based Paleodietary Inference Christina Warinner 275 15. Ancient Biomolecules from Archaeobotanical Remains Nathan Wales, Kenneth Andersen, and Enrico Cappellini 293 16. A Landscape Context for Paleoethnobotany: he Contribution of Aerial and Satellite Remote Sensing Jesse Casana 315 Part V: Interpretation 17. Human Behavioral Ecology and Paleoethnobotany Kristen J. Gremillion 339 CO N T EN T S vii 18. Documenting Human Niche Construction in the Archaeological Record Bruce D. Smith 355 19. Paleoethnobotanical Analysis, Post-Processing Shanti Morell-Hart viii CO N T EN T S 371 References Cited 391 About the Contributors 531 Index 535 Preface As its title suggests, this book presents the current state of method and theory in paleoethnobotany, synonymously termed archaeobotany, the study of archaeological plant remains and human-plant interactions in the past. We conceive of this volume as an homage to, and descendent of, two deining works in the ield: the edited volume, Current Paleoethnobotany: Analytical Methods and Cultural Interpretations of Archaeological Plant Remains (Hastorf and Popper 1988) and the two editions of Paleoethnobotany: A Handbook of Procedures (Pearsall 1989, 2000). Both are staples of any paleoethnobotanist’s oice or laboratory reference shelf and both engage with the challenge of interpreting plant data from archaeological sites. It speaks to the continuing relevance of Current Paleoethnobotany in particular that even after twenty-ive years many of its chapters continue to be relevant and regularly cited. Here we attempt to build upon the success of these two seminal volumes by covering subjects that relect recent technical, methodological, and theoretical advances in the ield and by inviting a wide variety of scholars to write on the subjects in which they are expert. We have also taken advantage of this opportunity to update bibliographies to relect the expansion of botanical studies in archaeology over the past two and a half decades and to incorporate the increasing diversity of scientiic studies of human-plant interactions in the past. his volume builds upon the tradition of edited volumes in the ield of paleoethnobotany. Such volumes have often come about as published versions of conference sessions, typically at meetings of the Society for American Archaeology (SAA; e.g., Gremillion 1997; Hastorf and Popper 1988; Scarry 1993b) or the International Work Group for Palaeoethnobotany (IWGP; e.g., van Zeist and Casparie 1984; van Zeist et al. 1991), but also resulting from ad hoc symposia (e.g., Hart 1999, 2008). his book has a similar origin: it was conceived during a session at the 2010 Annual Meeting of the SAA in St. Louis organized by two of us (d’Alpoim Guedes and Warinner), in which Marston and several of the contributing authors were participants. We three editors then planned and organized an electronic symposium at the 2011 Annual Meeting of the SAA in Sacramento and invited authors to write on speciic topics that would form the basis for this volume. We are thankful that additional authors who were not able to attend the session were able to submit chapters in the following months to expand and strengthen this volume. he structure of this book roughly follows the process of paleoethnobotanical analysis. Part I deals with formation processes of macro- and microbotanical remains, whereas part II discusses their recovery and identiication, as well as strategies for data management. Part III focuses on quantitative analysis of plant macroremains and methods for interpreting intra- and intersite variation. Part IV describes the integration of botanical macroremains with other allied data types, focusing especially on nascent molecular technologies and remote sensing. Finally, the three chapters of part V take three distinct theoretical approaches to the interpretation of archaeological plant remains and illustrate potential avenues for future investigation. We leave out the integration of plant and animal remains deliberately, as it has been treated fully in a recent edited volume (VanDerwarker and Peres 2010) and multiple articles (especially see Smith and Miller 2009 and associated articles). Our hope is that this volume will serve the ield for the next three decades as well as Current Paleoethnobotany has for the past twenty-ive years. As we describe in chapter 1 of this volume, many of the technologies and analyses described at length here were not possible in the 1980s, nor even imagined to afect archaeology as much as they have. Certainly, as Ford recently predicted (2003:xvi; 2004:xiv), the successor to this volume will focus increasingly on recent and future advances made in molecular and computational archaeology and on the expansion of a truly global archaeology, including work beyond the traditional European and North American sites so well studied to date. he xx P R EFAC E inclusion of the diverse voices of paleoethnobotanists from developing countries will be a welcome addition to the already rich and productive dialogues in our ield. John M. Marston Boston, MA Jade d’Alpoim Guedes Boston, MA, and Pullman, WA Christina Warinner Norman, OK, and Zürich, Switzerland P R EFAC E xxi