Glynis Jones (archaeologist)

Last updated
Glynis Eleanor Jones
NationalityEnglish
Alma mater University of Cambridge
Scientific career
Fields Archaeologist / Archaeobotany
Institutions Museum of London, University of Sheffield
Thesis

Glynis Eleanor Jones FBA is a British archaeobotanist, who is Professor of Archaeology at the University of Sheffield.

Contents

Biography

Jones graduated from Cardiff University with a degree in zoology, before working as a science teacher in the UK and Greece. [1] Next, Jones worked as a research assistant at the British School at Athens, before undertaking an MPhil and then PhD in Archaeology at the University of Cambridge. [1] After completing her PhD, Jones worked in the Department of Urban Archaeology, Museum of London, before commencing an academic post at the University of Sheffield in 1984. [1] In 2004 Jones was appointed Professor of Archaeology. [2]

Jones has pioneered the development of archaeobotanical methodologies including ethnobotany, crop-processing analysis, weed ecology, and aDNA, and archaeobotanical research in Greece. Early work used ethnographic observations of crop-processing in Greece to produce models which could be applied to archaeobotanical remains. [3] From the 1990s onwards, Jones has worked with colleagues including Amy Bogaard to develop the application of functional weed ecology to archaeobotanical assemblages in order to reconstruct past crop husbandry. [4] More recently, Jones has been utilising DNA of modern landraces to investigate the spread of domesticated cereals into Europe, [5] and working to develop the application of stable isotope analysis to archaeobotanical remains.

Jones is noted for her skill in teaching and research. [6] Jones is credited with initiating archaeobotanical study in Greece, training Greek archaeologists in archaeobotany and initiating the recovery of macroscopic plant remains from archaeological sites. [7] [8]

Jones was elected as a Fellow of the British Academy in 2013. [2] She is a vice-president of the British School at Athens, [2] and serves on the editorial board of the Journal of Archaeological Science . [9]

Selected publications

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Einkorn wheat</span> Primitive wheat

Einkorn wheat can refer either to a wild species of wheat (Triticum) or to its domesticated form. The wild form is T. boeoticum, the domesticated form is T. monococcum. Einkorn is a diploid species of hulled wheat, with tough glumes ('husks') that tightly enclose the grains. The cultivated form is similar to the wild, except that the ear stays intact when ripe and the seeds are larger. The domestic form is known as "petit épeautre" in French, "Einkorn" in German, "einkorn" or "littlespelt" in English, "piccolo farro" in Italian and "escanda menor" in Spanish. The name refers to the fact that each spikelet contains only one grain.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Paleoethnobotany</span> Study of plants used by people in ancient times

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.

Environmental archaeology is a sub-field of archaeology which emerged in 1970s and is the science of reconstructing the relationships between past societies and the environments they lived in. The field represents an archaeological-palaeoecological approach to studying the palaeoenvironment through the methods of human palaeoecology. Reconstructing past environments and past peoples' relationships and interactions with the landscapes they inhabited provides archaeologists with insights into the origin and evolution of anthropogenic environments, and prehistoric adaptations and economic practices.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Founder crops</span> Original agricultural crops

The founder crops are the eight plant species that were domesticated by early Neolithic farming communities in Southwest Asia and went on to form the basis of agricultural economies across much of Eurasia, including Southwest Asia, South Asia, Europe, and North Africa. They consist of three cereals, four pulses, and flax. These species were amongst the first domesticated plants in the world.

Lallemantia oil is a seed oil, extracted from the seeds of the Lallemantia iberica. It contains 68% linolenic acid, making it an unusually rich source, and of potential commercial interest. Lallemantia oil has been discovered at a number of archeological sites in northern Greece, dating from the Bronze Age. As the plant is not native to this region, the presence of this oil suggests that it was imported from further east.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Gordon Hillman</span>

Gordon Hillman was a British archaeobotanist and academic at the UCL Institute of Archaeology. He has been described as "a pivotal figure in the development of archaeobotany at the Institute of Archaeology at University College London, [who] through his research, publications and teaching had a major influence on the field worldwide."

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.

Iraq ed-Dubb, or the Cave of the Bear, is an early Neolithic archeological site 7 km (4.3 mi) northwest of Ajlun in the Jordan Valley, in modern-day Jordan. The settlement existed before 8,000 BCE and experimented with the cultivation of founder crops, side by side with the harvesting of wild cereals. Along with Tell Aswad in Syria, the site shows the earliest reference to domestic hulled barley between 10,000 and 8,800 BCE. The site is located on a forested limestone escarpment above the Wadi el-Yabis in northwest Jordan. An oval-shaped stone structure was excavated along with two burials and a variety of animal and plant remains.

Triticum araraticum is a wild tetraploid species of wheat. T. araraticum is one of the least studied wheat species in the world.

George Willcox is an archaeobotanist who specialises in the origins of agriculture in the Near East. He has been employed as researcher with the CNRS France since 1989. He has dual French and British nationality. He studied environmental archaeology under the late Prof. Dimbleby at the Institute of Archaeology in London during the early 1970s and was then was employed as environmental archaeologist by the Museum of London. In 1977 he married and left his job to follow his interest in Near Eastern archaeobotany. An interest which he had acquired as an undergraduate working with Gordon Hillman in Turkey. During the next few years he worked in Turkey, Afghanistan Jordan, Oman, Kuwait, Tajikistan, India and Syria and started amassing a charred archaeobotanical collection and modern reference collection. These are now housed at the Muséum national d’Histoire naturelle in Paris. It was during this somewhat precarious period that he moved to France and founded a family. In 1984 Gordon Hillman introduced George to Jacques Cauvin and Patrica Anderson at the CNRS Institut de Préhistore Orientale in south east France where they developed a project on experimentally cultivating wild cereals In 1989 George entered the CNRS working on a number of early Neolithic sites in Syria in particular with Danielle Stordeur at Jerf el Amhar. He lectured at several French universities on archaeobotany and the origins of agriculture and supervised post graduate students. He was an associate editor for Vegetation History and Archaeobotany for many years and received an honorary doctorate from the University of Basel in 2013. His 117 scholarly publications are a measure of his research achievements. In 2014 with statutory retirement the CNRS awarded George the status of "Directeur de Recherche Emérite, CNRS" which allows him to continue to supervise students, sit on PhD panels, peer review manuscripts and carry out field work.

Amy Bogaard FBA is a Canadian archaeologist and Professor of Neolithic and Bronze Age Archaeology at the University of Oxford.

Carol Palmer is a British anthropologist, environmental archaeologist and botanist. She is currently Director of the British Institute in Amman, an Honorary Fellow at Bournemouth University, and a part of the Thimar collective. Her primary research interests are in rural societies in the Arab world, changes in the practices of food production on the landscape and in society, and ethnobotany. She collaborates as Project Partner of the INEA project, which aims to examine archaeological site usage using phytolithic and geochemical evidence. She has also been a part of the Antikythera Survey Project and the Wadi Faynan Landscape Survey, and from 2001-2004 served as secretary of the Association of Environmental Archaeology.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Marijke van der Veen</span> Dutch archaeobotanist

Marijke van der Veen, is a Dutch archaeobotanist and Emeritus Professor of Archaeology at the University of Leicester.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Naomi Miller</span> Archaeobotanist

Naomi Miller is an archaeobotanist who works in western and central Asia. Miller is based at the University of Pennsylvania.

Stefanie Jacomet is professor of archaeobotany at Basel University. Her research focuses on investigating wetland sites in Central Europe and developing archaeobotanical methodologies.

The International Work Group for Palaeoethnobotany (IWGP) is an informal, international collective of archaeobotanists, with the main goal of establishing and maintaining international communication and collaboration by a series of conferences. These conferences focus mainly, but not exclusively, on the study of plant macrofossils in order to reconstruct past subsistence, trade, construction, ritual, and the environment.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Lisa Lodwick</span> British archaeologist (died 2022)

Lisa Lodwick was an archaeologist who studied charred, mineralised and waterlogged macroscopic plant remains, and used carbon and nitrogen stable isotope analysis to understand the crop husbandry practices of the ancient Romans.

Nicki Whitehouse is a British archaeologist and Environmental Archaeologist. She is a Professor in Archaeological Science at the University of Glasgow.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Department of Archaeology, University of Sheffield</span>

The Department of Archaeology at the University of Sheffield, UK, is an academic department providing undergraduate and postgraduate courses in archaeology and its sub-disciplines based in the city of Sheffield, South Yorkshire. It conducts archaeological associated research with several dedicated research centres. It was founded in 1976, stemming from early archaeology programs in the 1960s as one of the first universities in the UK with a dedicated Department of Archaeology.

Meriel McClatchie is an archaeologist specialising in archaeobotany. She is an associate professor at University College Dublin.

References

  1. 1 2 3 Sheffield, University of. "Jones, G - Our Staff - Archaeology - The University of Sheffield". www.sheffield.ac.uk. Retrieved 2018-07-29.
  2. 1 2 3 "Professor Glynis Jones". British Academy. Retrieved 27 July 2018.
  3. Jones, Glynis (1987). "A statistical approach to the archaeological identification of crop processing". Journal of Archaeological Science. 14 (3): 311–323. doi:10.1016/0305-4403(87)90019-7. ISSN   0305-4403.
  4. Jones, G.; Charles, M.; Bogaard, A.; Hodgson, J. (2010). "Crops and weeds: the role of weed functional ecology in the identification of crop husbandry methods". Journal of Archaeological Science. 37 (1): 70–77. doi:10.1016/j.jas.2009.08.017. ISSN   0305-4403.
  5. Jones, G.; Charles, M. P.; Jones, M. K.; Colledge, S.; Leigh, F. J.; Lister, D. A.; Smith, L. M. J.; Powell, W.; Brown, T. A. (2013). "DNA evidence for multiple introductions of barley into Europe following dispersed domestications in Western Asia". Antiquity. 87 (337): 701–713. doi:10.1017/S0003598X00049401. ISSN   0003-598X. S2CID   85778364.
  6. "Portrait of an inspirational woman: Professor Glynis Jones". University of Sheffield. Retrieved 27 July 2018.
  7. Valamoti, Soultana M.; Bittmann, Felix (2014-12-09). "Proceedings of the 16th conference of the International Work Group for Palaeoethnobotany, Thessaloniki 2013". Vegetation History and Archaeobotany. 24 (1): 5–7. doi: 10.1007/s00334-014-0505-8 . ISSN   0939-6314.
  8. Jones, G.; Baxevani, K.; Halstead, P. (1982). "Save seeds". Anthropologika. 3: 86–87.
  9. "Journal of Archaeological Science - Editorial Board". Journal of Archaeological Science. Retrieved 27 July 2018.