Monthly Archives: September 2019

25th EAA Conference_Session 60: ‘Beyond “founder crops”: new insights into understudied food plant resources’._Program

BEYOND “FOUNDER CROPS”: NEW INSIGHTS INTO  UNDERSTUDIED FOOD PLANT RESOURCES
Building: UniS
Room: A 017
Time: 14:00 – 17:30

Organisers:

Caracuta, Valentina (Institut de Science de l’Ecologie de Montpellier)

Antolin, Ferran (Integrative Prähistorische und Naturwissenschaftliche Archäologie – IPNA, University of Bern)

14:00 INTRODUCTION

14:15 RE-DEFINING THE “FOUNDER PLANTS” IN SOUTHWEST ASIA
Arranz Otaegui, Amaia (University of Copenhagen)

14:30 LOST IN THE MISTS OF TIME – FABA BEAN (VICIA FABA) AN OVERLOOKED FOUNDER CROP
Caracuta, Valentina (Institut des Science de l’Ecologie de Montpellier)

14:45 GROWING EAST ASIAN MILLETS: EXPERIMENTAL AND MORPHOLOGICAL  STUDIES ON FOXTAIL MILLET (SETARIA ITALICA) AND RELATED WEEDY TAXA
Lee, Gyoung-Ah – Vaughn, Maria – Kneisly, Angelica (University of Oregon)

15:00 OLIVE AND GRAPE IN PREHISTORIC AEGEAN: RESEATING THE RESEARCH AGENDA
Margaritis, Evi (The Cyprus Institute) – Pagnoux, Clemence (LIRA Laboratory, Department of Archaeology, University of Thessaloniki)

15:15 OIL AND FIBRE PLANTS DURING THE NEOLITHIC PERIOD IN THE NORTHWEST  MEDITERRANEAN REGION AND NORTH OF ALPS
Jesus, Ana – Antolín, Ferran (Universität Basel; Integrative Prehistory and  Archaeological Science – IPAS) – Bouby, Laurent (University of Montpellier)

15:30 OAT DOMESTICATION: ARCHAEOBOTANICAL EVIDENCE FROM PREHISTORIC  EUROPE
McClatchie, Meriel (University College Dublin) – Murphy, Charlene – Fuller, Dorian (University College London)

15:45 DISCUSSION SLOT

16:30 CRAB APPLE IN PREHISTORIC EUROPE: FROM THE NEOLITHIC “GOLDEN AGE”  UNTIL THE ARRIVAL OF THE DOMESTICATED FORM
Antolin, Ferran (Integrative Prehistory and Archaeological Science) – Brinkkemper, Otto (Cultural Heritage Agency of the Netherlands) – Kirleis, Wiebke (Kiel University) – Pelling, Ruth (Historic England)

16:45 INTRODUCTION AND DISTRIBUTION OF CULTIVATED AND WILD PLANTS IN EUROPE FROM 8000 – 800 BCE BASED ON LINGUISTICS AND ARCHAEOBOTANY
van Amerongen, Yvonne (Leiden University Centre for Linguistics; Archaeological Research Leiden) – Kroonen, Guus (Leiden University Centre for Linguistics; Department of Nordic Studies and Linguistics, University of Copenhagen)

17:00 DISCUSSION SLOT

25th European Archaeological Association (EAA) Conference_Session 60

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Session 60: ‘Beyond “founder crops”: new insights into understudied food plant resources’.

The beginning of agriculture is seen as the major transition in the human past, a changeover that strengthened sedentary lifestyle, drastically reduced the risk of famine and the dependence on the environmental conditions, and ultimately, allowed the human population to prosper.

Archaeological and genetic discoveries have shed light on the most relevant processes that accompanied the domestication of the so‐called “founder crops” (emmer, einkorn, barley, lentil, pea, chickpea, bitter vetch and flax). Nevertheless, the role of minor crops and weedy plants, as well as wild plants that could have been cultivated but eventually not domesticated, among hunter‐gatherers and early farmers is relatively understudied. With the increasing corpus of archaeobotanical data, together with the appearance of new and more powerful genomic, biometric and radiocarbon dating techniques, we are gaining new insights into plant cultivation and domestication that had not been possible before.

Within the framework of this session we would like to bring together researchers working on the cultivation of wild plants and the domestication of minor crops in Southwestern Asia, Northern Africa and Europe. We also encourage new archaeobotanical and paleogenomic discoveries to be presented, to track and date changes in the phenotypes and genotypes of plants that are considered marginal, but were instead crucial for the survival of ancient and modern‐primitive communities.

Papers that discuss the mechanism of exploitation of minor crops among modern traditional societies from an ethnographic perspective are considered relevant to the discussion.

The organizers

Valentina Caracuta (France)  valentina.caracuta@umontpellier.fr

Institut de Science de l’Ecologie de Montpellier, France

Ferran Antolin (Switzerland)  Ferran.Antolin@unibas.ch

IPNA/IPAS, University of Basel