Author: Robin Torrence
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1315434873
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 547
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Book Description
What role did plant resources have in the evolution of the human species? Why and how have plants been managed and transported to new environments? Where, how, and why were plants domesticated, and why do the patterns vary in different parts of the world? What is the relationship between the intensification of food production and the rise of complex societies? Numerous new studies are using starch granules discovered in archaeological contexts to answer these questions and improve our knowledge of past human behavior and environmental variation. Given the substantial body of successful research, the time has clearly come for a comprehensive description of ancient starch research and its potential for archaeologists. This book fills these roles by describing the fundamental principles underlying starch research, guiding researchers through the methodology, reviewing the results of significant case studies, and pointing the way to future avenues for research. The joint product of over two dozen archaeological scientists, Ancient Starch Research aims to bring the important new field of ancient starch analysis to the attention of a wider range of scholars and to provide them with the information needed to embark on their own research.
Author: Andrew Robert Laurence
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages :
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Book Description
Historically, earth ovens have been used to provide direct evidence of ancient plant use through the recovery of charred macrobotanical remains and indirectly by means of experimental archaeology and the ethnographic record. Experiments suggest that direct evidence of ancient starch-rich plant use can be obtained through the recovery of starch granules deposited on fire-cracked-rock (FCR) during cooking episodes even in regions where macrobotanical remains are scarcely preserved. Starch contamination, however, can enter into the archaeological record providing "background noise." Therefore, this study analyzes the results of the Paluxy Sand Geophyte Project to determine if archaeological starch (starch that is both cultural and ancient in origin) can be differentiated from contamination using FCR recovered from heating elements in well-preserved earth ovens at Fort Hood, Texas. FCR, non-cultural rock control samples (RCS), and air control samples (ACS) were processed and analyzed from 27 earth ovens at 6 sites. Contamination control measures were used, including the use of a clean bench, powder-free latex gloves, washing samples prior to processing, spot sampling, and comparisons between starch granule assemblages recovered from FCR and control samples. Laboratory and field equipment were processed and analyzed for contamination. Only one feature (Feature 4 from 41CV984) yielded starch granules that are unambiguously archaeological in origin, rather than the result of contamination, whereas starch assemblages from the other sites could be archaeological or contamination in origin. Small sample sizes, differential preservation, and/or the cooking of non-starch-rich plants could account for the lack of differences between FCR and RCS samples. Finally, maize (Zea mays) starch granules were recovered from all sample types suggesting that maize starch, most likely from "powder-free" gloves and air-fall is a significant source of starch contamination. The electronic version of this dissertation is accessible from http://hdl.handle.net/1969.1/149525
Author: Ying Guan
Publisher: Frontiers Media SA
ISBN: 2832520030
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 237
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Book Description
Author: Deborah M. Pearsall
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1351009664
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 242
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Book Description
Case Studies in Paleoethnobotany focuses on interpretation in paleoethnobotany. In it the reader is guided through the process of analyzing archaeobotanical data and of using that data to address research questions. Part I introduces archaeobotanical remains and how they are deposited, preserved, sampled, recovered, and analyzed. Five issue-oriented case studies make up Part II and illustrate paleoethnobotanical inference and applications. A recurrent theme is the strength of using multiple lines of evidence to address issues of significance. This book is unique in its explicit focus on interpretation for "consumers" of paleoethnobotanical knowledge. Paleoethnobotanical inference is increasingly sophisticated and contributes to our understanding of the past in ways that may not be apparent outside the field or to all practitioners. The case study format allows in-depth exploration of the process of interpretation in the context of significant issues that will engage readers. No other work introduces paleoethnobotany and illustrates its application in this way. This book will appeal to students interested in ancient plant–people interrelationships, as well as archaeologists, paleoethnobotanists, and paleoecologists. The short methods chapters and topical case studies are ideal for instructors of classes in archaeological methods, environmental archaeology, and ethnobiology.
Author: Timothy C. Messner
Publisher: University of Alabama Press
ISBN: 0817356495
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 214
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Book Description
!--StartFragment-- Starch grain analysis in the temperate climates of eastern North America using the Delaware River Watershed as a case study for furthering scholarly understanding of the relationship between native people and their biophysical environment in the Woodland Period People regularly use plants for a wide range of utilitarian, spiritual, pharmacological, and dietary purposes throughout the world. Scholarly understanding of the nature of these uses in prehistory is particularly limited by the poor preservation of plant resources in the archaeological record. In the last two decades, researchers in the South Pacific and in Central and South America have developed microscopic starch grain analysis, a technique for overcoming the limitations of poorly preserved plant material. Messner’s analysis is based on extensive reviews of the literature on early historic, prehistoric native plant use, and the collation of all available archaeobotanical data, a review of which also guided the author in selecting contemporary botanical specimens to identify and in interpreting starch residues recovered from ancient plant-processing technologies. The evidence presented here sheds light on many local ecological and cultural developments as ancient people shifted their subsistence focus from estuarine to riverine settings. These archaeobotanical datasets, Messner argues, illuminate both the conscious and unintentional translocal movement of ideas and ecologies throughout the Eastern Woodlands.
Author:
Publisher: BoD – Books on Demand
ISBN: 1838801154
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 166
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Book Description
This book is about the chemical properties of starch. The book is a rich compendium driven by the desire to address the unmet needs of biomedical scientists to respond adequately to the controversy on the chemical properties and attendant reactivity of starch. It is a collective endeavor by a group of editors and authors with a wealth of experience and expertise on starch to aggregate the influence of qualitative and quantitative morphological, chemical, and genetic properties of starch on its functionalities, use, applications, and health benefits. The chemical properties of starch are conferred by the presence, amount and/or quality of amylose and amylopectin molecules, granule structure, and the nature and amounts of the lipid and protein molecules. The implication of this is comprehensively dealt with in this book.
Author: John M. Marston
Publisher: University Press of Colorado
ISBN: 1607323168
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 573
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Book Description
Paleoethnobotany, the study of archaeological plant remains, is poised at the intersection of the study of the past and concerns of the present, including agricultural decision making, biodiversity, and global environmental change, and has much to offer to archaeology, anthropology, and the interdisciplinary study of human relationships with the natural world. Method and Theory in Paleoethnobotany demonstrates those connections and highlights the increasing relevance of the study of past human-plant interactions for understanding the present and future. A diverse and highly regarded group of scholars reference a broad array of literature from around the world as they cover their areas of expertise in the practice and theory of paleoethnobotany—starch grain analysis, stable isotope analysis, ancient DNA, digital data management, and ecological and postprocessual theory. The only comprehensive edited volume focusing on method and theory to appear in the last twenty-five years, Method and Theory in Paleoethnobotany addresses the new areas of inquiry that have become central to contemporary archaeological debates, as well as the current state of theoretical, methodological, and empirical work in paleoethnobotany.
Author: John R.N. Taylor
Publisher: Woodhead Publishing
ISBN: 0081008910
Category : Technology & Engineering
Languages : en
Pages : 358
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Book Description
Gluten-Free Ancient Grains: Cereals, Pseudocereals and Legumes covers grains that are not related to wheat. This includes sorghum, the major millets - pearl, foxtail, proso and finger millet, as well as teff, the major pseudocereals - quinoa, amaranth and buckwheat, and emerging legume grains - lupin, cowpea, Bambara groundnut and marama beans. These are all characterized as gluten-free grains. The book provides key information on the sustainable production of these grains. Ancient grains are characterized by their ability to produce a crop under harsh environmental conditions where the major cereals are not-sustainable or even fail. In order to meet growing food demand, and with water resources becoming scarce, this is a highly valuable quality. Chapters review the major grains, analyzing their production and manufacture processes and detailing their impact on long-term good health. Of interest to many people and organizations in the food production chain, this book will be of significant value to agricultural scientists, food company innovation and R&D managers, academic and food company nutritionists and dietitians and governmental and non-governmental health ministries and research institutes. Provides a comprehensive overview of non-wheat grains Reviews the manufacture and sustainable production of these grains, detailing their abilities to grow in harsh conditions Analyzes the nutritional value of ancient grains and their health-promoting qualities
Author: Shujun Wang
Publisher: Springer Nature
ISBN: 9811506221
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 177
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Book Description
The book summarizes the latest research on starch structures and how these structures occur during food processing and storage. Discussing the origins, multi-scale granule structures and functional properties of starch as well as starch digestion, it focuses on the relationship between starch structure and functionality, the phase transition mechanism, the molecular disassembly and self-assembly of starch during food processing and storage and their effects on starch digestion. As such, the book provides a comprehensive overview of starch structure and functionality for researchers and postgraduate students in the field of food chemistry, carbohydrate polymers, polymer chemistry, food ingredients and food processing as well as human nutrition and health..
Author: Andrew S. Fairbairn
Publisher: ANU E Press
ISBN: 1921536497
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 274
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Book Description
Archaeological Science meetings will have a personality of their own depending on the focus of the host archaeological fraternity itself. The 8th Australasian Archaeometry meeting follows this pattern but underlying the regional emphasis is the continuing concern for the processes of change in the landscape that simultaneously effect and illuminate the archaeological record. These are universal themes for any archaeological research with the increasing employment of science-based studies proving to be a key to understanding the place of humans as subjects and agents of change over time. This collection of refereed papers covers the thematic fields of geoarchaeology, archaeobotany, materials analysis and chronometry, with particular emphasis on the first two. The editors Andrew Fairbairn, Sue O'Connor and Ben Marwick outline the special value of these contributions in the introduction. The international nature of archaeological science will mean that the advances set out in these papers will find a receptive audience among many archaeologists elsewhere. There is no doubt that the story that Australasian archaeology has to tell has been copiously enriched by incorporating a widening net of advanced science-based studies. This has brought attention to the nature of the environment as a human artefact, a fact now more widely appreciated, and archaeology deals with these artefacts, among others, in this way in this publication.