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ARCHAEOBOTANY

Academic year and teacher
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Versione italiana
Academic year
2022/2023
Teacher
GIOVANNA BOSI
Credits
6
Didactic period
Secondo Semestre
SSD
BIO/02

Training objectives

- to understand the potential contribution and the importance of the botanical records for the reconstruction of environment and for the study of the interrelationships between human populations and the plant world;
- to teach the reader how to approach identification of botanical remains;
- to understand the strengths and weaknesses of the different botanical records as regards of the overall objectives of research.

Prerequisites

None

Course programme

Botany and the cultural heritage. Introduction to Archaeobotany: theory and objectives
Materials and methods of Archaeobotany
Brief overview of Systematic Botany
Pollen and archaeopalynology
NPPs, microcharcoals, phytoliths and starch granules
Seeds/fruits and archaeocarpology
Plant domestication (cereals and non-cereals crops)
Pratical workshop (in Modena)

Didactic methods

Lectures
Laboratory activities: Archaeopalynology: samples treatment; preparation of microscopic slides; view and analysis of microscopic slides of the reference collection and of archaeological layers; Palinoteca (pollen reference collection); Atlases and identification keys; Diagrams: use of Tilia software.
Archaeocarpology: floatation and sieving techniques; identification of records; Carpoteca (seeds/fruits reference collection); Atlases and identification keys.

Learning assessment procedures

Written examination (3 questions and the scientific paper report): the exam will ascertain the student knowledge about matters addressed during lectures, deepening wide-ranging topics and interdisciplinary issues of Archaeobotany. The candidate should prove, on the basis of a scientific publication of his choice among the ones indicated by the teacher, to undestand aims, methods and results obtained.

Reference texts

Cappers R.T.J., Neef R. (2012) Handbook of Plant Palaeoecology. Barkhuis/ Groningen University Library, Groningen.

Marston J.M., D'Alpoim Guedes J., Warinner C. (eds.) (2014) Method and Theory in Paleoethnobotany. University Press of Colorado, Boulder.

Pearsall D.M. (2015) Paleoethnobotany. A Handbook of Procedures (3rd Ed.). Routledge, New York.

further material provided by the teacher