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Maranta arundinacea, also known as arrowroot, maranta, West Indian arrowroot, obedience plant, Bermuda arrowroot, araru, araruta, ararao or hulankeeriya, is a large, perennial herb found in rainforest habitats of the Americas, but cultivated in tropical regions worldwide.
In archaeology, ground stone is a category of stone tool formed by the grinding of a coarse-grained tool stone, either purposely or incidentally. Ground stone tools are usually made of basalt, rhyolite, granite, or other cryptocrystalline and igneous stones whose coarse structure makes them ideal for grinding other materials, including plants and other stones.
Paleoethnobotany, or archaeobotany, is the study of past human-plant interactions through the recovery and analysis of ancient plant remains. Both terms are synonymous, though paleoethnobotany is generally used in North America and acknowledges the contribution that ethnographic studies have made towards our current understanding of ancient plant exploitation practices, while the term archaeobotany is preferred in Europe and emphasizes the discipline's role within archaeology.
Phytoliths are rigid, microscopic structures made of silica, found in some plant tissues and persisting after the decay of the plant. These plants take up silica from the soil, whereupon it is deposited within different intracellular and extracellular structures of the plant. Phytoliths come in varying shapes and sizes. Although some use "phytolith" to refer to all mineral secretions by plants, it more commonly refers to siliceous plant remains. In contrast, mineralized calcium secretions in cacti are composed of calcium oxalates.
Ancient Maya cuisine was varied and extensive. Many different types of resources were consumed, including maritime, flora, and faunal material, and food was obtained or produced through strategies such as hunting, foraging, and large-scale agricultural production. Plant domestication concentrated upon several core foods, the most important of which was maize.
"Las Vegas culture" is the name given to many Archaic settlements which flourished between 8000 BCE and 4600 BCE near the coast of present-day Ecuador. The name comes from the location of the most prominent settlement, Site No. 80, near the Las Vegas River and now within the city of Santa Elena. The Las Vegas culture represents "an early, sedentary adjustment to an ecologically complex coastal environment."
Gayle J. Fritz is an American paleoethnobotanist working out of Washington University in St. Louis. She is a world expert on ancient crops. Fritz runs the Paleoethnobotany Lab at Washington University in St. Louis under the auspices of the Anthropology Department.
Lee Ann Newsom is an Associate Professor of Anthropology at the Pennsylvania State University at University Park. She has written numerous books and articles. She was awarded a MacArthur Fellowship in 2002.
Kristen Johnson Gremillion is an American anthropologist whose areas of specialization include paleoethnobotany, origins of agriculture, the prehistory of eastern North America, human paleoecology and paleodiet, and the evolutionary theory. Currently a professor in the Department of Anthropology at the Ohio State University and editor of the Journal of Ethnobiology, she has published many journal articles on these subjects.
Monagrillo is an archaeological site in south-central Panama with ceramics that have been shown by radiocarbon dating to have an occupation range of about 2500 BC—1200 BC. The site is important because it provides the earliest example of ceramics in Central America along with one of the earliest examples of maize agriculture in the region. The site lies along Panama's most fruitful seacoast. and reached a maximum living area of 1.4 ha
Oña Canton is a canton of Ecuador, located in the Azuay Province. Its capital is the town of Oña, Ecuador. Its population at the 2001 census was 3,231.
Dolores Rita Piperno is an American archaeologist specializing in archaeobotany. She is a senior scientist emeritus of the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute in Balboa, Panama and the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History, Washington.
Starch analysis or starch grain analysis is a technique that is useful in archaeological research in determining plant taxa on a microscopic level. It can also be used in day-to-day life by specialists within the pharmaceutical and food industries in order to determine taxa origins and food quality. Specifically in regards to archaeology though, the identification of starch grains, through this context is done by comparison identification, in which several attributes of the grains are compared to other known samples in order to determine the type. This comparison technique, when done microscopically allows for the specific taxa identification of starch grains found on specific artifacts, such as ground stone tools, within soils, through dental calculus, or found in reference to ceramic vessels. Starch grain analysis can be helpful as a supplement to other forms of study to understanding tool use, agricultural activities, as well as other plant based subsistence strategies, and to reconstruct plant based diets throughout time.
Hatula is an early Neolithic archeological site in the Judean hills south of Latrun, beside Nahshon Stream, in Israel, 20 kilometres (12 mi) west of Jerusalem. The site is 15 metres (49 ft) above the riverbed on a rocky slope in an alluvial valley. Excavations revealed three levels of occupation in the Natufian, Khiamian and PPNA (Sultanian).
Robert M. Rosenswig is a Mesoamerican archaeologist born Oct. 30, 1968 in Montreal, Canada. He earned a B.A at McGill University in 1994, an M.A. at the University of British Columbia in 1998 and Ph.D. in 2005 from Yale University. Rosenswig currently conducts research projects Mexico, Belize, and Costa Rica. His research explores the emergence of sociopolitical complexity and the development of agriculture.
Naomi Miller is an archaeobotanist who works in western and central Asia. Miller is based at the University of Pennsylvania.
Dana Sue Lepofsky is a Canadian archaeologist and ethnobiologist. She is a professor at Simon Fraser University, a former president of the Society of Ethnobiology, and received the Smith-Wintemberg Award in 2018. Her research focuses on the historical ecology of the indigenous peoples of the Pacific Northwest Coast.
Lisa-Marie Shillito is a British archaeologist and senior lecturer in landscape archaeology as well as director of the Wolfson Archaeology Laboratory and Earthslides at Newcastle University. Her practical work focuses on using soil micromorphology, phytolith analysis and geochemistry in order to understand human behaviour and landscape change. Her work includes the Neolithic settlements of Çatalhöyük in Turkey and Ness of Brodgar and Durrington Walls in Britain, but also Crusader castles and medieval settlements in Poland and the Baltic and in the Near East.
Real Alto is an archaeological site in Chanduy valley of Ecuador, located between the cities Guayaquil and Salinas. It was settled between 6000 and 3800 BC.
Goeppertia latifolia is a species of plant in the family Marantaceae. Its native range is Panama to Ecuador and Trinidad. It is used as a food and medicine. Prehistoric Lucayan migrants to the Bahamas brought Goeppertia latifolia with them from their ancestral homelands. The flowers of Goeppertia latifolia do not open spontaneously.
References
- ↑ "Distinguished Ethnobiologist Awardee: Dr. Deborah M. Pearsall | Society of Ethnobiology". ethnobiology.org. Retrieved 2024-10-22.
- ↑ "Paleoethnobotany: A Handbook of Procedures". Goodreads. Retrieved 2024-10-22.
