Cultivation, Plant

Recovery of Archaeological Plant Remains

To study plant cultivation and plant domestication, archaeologists must be able to recover plant remains from archaeological sites. A technique known as flotation is generally used to recover archaeological plant remains. Flotation, or water separation, uses moving water to separate light organic materials, such as seeds and charcoal, from archaeological soils. Most flotation machines include a large tank with a spout that pours water into a fine mesh strainer. A large tub with a screened bottom fits inside the tank. The screen, which is often made of window screening, is used to catch heavier artifacts, such as stone tools and pottery shards. When a measured sample of archaeological soil is poured into the flotation machine, the light [Page 622]organic materials floats to the top of the tank. Moving water carries this material down the spout and into the fine mesh strainer. The resulting material is known as the light fraction and generally includes small fragments of carbonized seeds, other plant parts, and wood charcoal. The plant remains recovered through flotation are usually studied by specialists known as archaeobotanists.

Archaeological and Ethnographic Examples of Plant Cultivation

One of the best-known archaeological examples of plant cultivation comes from the site of Netiv Hagdud in the West Bank. The site originally covered about 1.5 hectares and has been dated to between9,900 and 9,600 uncorrected radiocarbon years BP. Three seasons of excavation at Netiv Hagdud, under the direction of Ofer Bar-Yosef and Avi Gopher, produced the remains of several small oval houses with stone foundations, as well as storage pits. The stone tools and other artifacts from Netiv Hagdud indicate that it was occupied during the Prepottery Neolithic.

The excavations at Netiv Hagdud also yielded over 17,000 charred seed and fruit remains, including the remains of cereals, legumes, and wild fruits. Barley was by far the most common cereal recovered from Netiv Hagdud, making up about 90% of the remains of grasses. However, the barley remains from Netiv Hagdud were morphologically wild. Based on the large quantities of barley remains that were recovered, the excavators of the site have suggested that Netiv Hagdud's economy was based on the systematic cultivation of wild barley. In this case, plant cultivation represents an intermediate point between the plant-gathering economies of the Late Pleistocene and true plant domestication. Morphologically domesticated barley has been recovered from many later Neolithic sites in the Near East, and domesticated barley and wheat became the dominant cereal grains throughout later Near Eastern prehistory.

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