Phytoliths—amorphous opal silica bodies that form in living plant tissues—are assumed to be stable components of a soil matrix, minimally impacted by normal physical forces. This stability enables archaeologists to access an archive of prior vegetative landscapes when discrete horizons are recovered. However, there is a small chance of phytoliths moving in a laboratory setting via aeolian forces, especially after they have been isolated from other materials such as clay, organics, and carbonates, and when multiple samples are being processed simultaneously. As a result, an assessment of contamination risk on sample extraction is necessary for interpreting the results of phytolith analyses. We designed a study to test the potential for contamination on slides in two different locations of the phytolith laboratory. The results of our study inform how we can improve on phytolith processing protocols and analyses to reduce the potential effect of cross-contamination between samples.
Using measurements from archaeological achenes of the extinct North American cultigen marshelder (Iva annua var. macrocarpa [S.F. Blake] R.C. Jackson), we quantitatively explore patterns of variation of fruit length and width across mid-continental North America. Linear regression shows that while achene length and width increase significantly over time (length: p-value<0.0001, b=-126.04, r2=0.1037, width: p-value<0.0001, b=-230.85, r2=0.0964), overall, regions tend to show more variation. A high incidence of phenotypic variation among domesticated marshelder as measured by coefficient of variation may be a result of introgression with wild stands. An ANOVA Tukey post-hoc analysis of archaeological site samples resulted in homogeneous subsets which correspond to region with some overlap, interpreted as a cline. These results and the low numbers of wild-sized achenes in archaeological marshelder samples of eastern Kentucky support human introduction of domesticated marshelder into this region. Marshelder in the archaeological record reflects the long-standing mixed economies of hunting-gathering and agriculture used by indigenous communities of eastern North America.
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