Looking Beyond the Surface: Use of High Resolution X-Ray Computed Tomography on Archaeobotanical Remains

Murphy, Cindy; Fuller, D; Stevens, C. E.; Gregory, Taylor; Silva, F; Martello, Rita Dal; Song, Jung-Hup; Bodey, AJ; Rau, Christoph

doi:10.24916/iansa.2019.1.1

Cited by 5 publications

(3 citation statements)

References 27 publications

(61 reference statements)

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“…10). The thickness of the seed coat in soybean is usually taken as a diagnostic trait when distinguishing wild vs. domesticated specimens (e.g., Murphy et al 2019). One grain was well preserved enough to be measured, and it was 3.56-mm long, 2.35-mm wide, and 1.93-mm thick.…”

Section: Soybean and Adzuki Beanmentioning

confidence: 99%

Food production and agricultural systems on the southwestern frontier of the Han Empire: archaeobotanical remains from the 2016 excavation of Hebosuo, Yunnan

Yang

Jiang

Yao

et al. 2023

Archaeol Anthropol Sci

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Dian Basin in Yunnan province is an important center for both early agricultural production and centralized state formation. Settled agricultural villages are present in the province since at least the third millennium BC, and by the first millennium BC, the Dian Culture, a highly specialized bronze polity, flourished in the Dian Basin and surrounding area, until it was conquered by the Han in 109 BC. The increased deployment of flotation at recent archaeological excavations in Yunnan allowed the reconstruction of agricultural practices from the Neolithic to the early Bronze Age, documented at Baiyangcun, Haimenkou, and Xueshan among others. However, archaeobotanical evidence relating to the pivotal period right before and after the Han conquest have so far been lacking, with only limited written records about agricultural production in the Shiji by Sima Qian. Here we present for the first time direct archaeobotanical evidence relating to this transitional period as revealed by rich Han period deposits found during the 2016 excavation of Hebosuo, the largest Dian settlement investigated in Yunnan so far, dated by direct AMS on charred cereal grains and artefactual evidence as spanning from between 850 BC–220 AD. Following the Han conquest, the main components of the agricultural system did not undergo radical changes, but the weedy flora indicates a heavier reliance of wet-land rice systems, evidencing a higher level of water management or even irrigation practices, and the consequent intensification of the agricultural production. These findings on shifting agricultural regimes in Yunnan also contribute to current debates about the interplay between intensification, food risk, and ecology in times of political instability.

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Section: Soybean and Adzuki Beanmentioning

confidence: 99%

Food production and agricultural systems on the southwestern frontier of the Han Empire: archaeobotanical remains from the 2016 excavation of Hebosuo, Yunnan

Yang

Jiang

Yao

et al. 2023

Archaeol Anthropol Sci

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“…The μ-tomography allows to work on a small scale, ranging from sub-millimeters to a few centimeters, and with a spatial resolution of a few microns. These different techniques are more and more used for a wide range of CH material [40][41][42][43][44].…”

Section: Digitization and Data Processingmentioning

confidence: 99%

eXtended Reality for Cultural Heritage

Gaugne

Barreau

Lécuyer

et al. 2022

Handbook of Cultural Heritage Analysis

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3D data production techniques, although increasingly used by archaeologists and Cultural Heritage practitioners, are most often limited to the production of 2D or 3D images. Beyond the modes of visualization of these data, it is necessary to wonder about their possible interactions and uses. Virtual Reality, Augmented Reality, and Mixed Reality, collectively known as eXtended Reality, XR, or Cross Reality, make it possible to envisage natural and/or complex interactions with 3D digital environments. These are physical, tangible, or haptic (i.e., with effort feedback) interactions, which can be understood through different modalities or metaphors, associated with procedures or gestures. These interactions can be integrated by archaeologists in the "operating chain" of an operation (from the ground to the study phase), or be part of a functional reconstitution of the procedures and gestures of the past, in order to help understand an object, a site, or even a human activity. The different case studies presented in this chapter result from collaborations between archaeologists, historians, and computer scientists. They illustrate different interactions in 3D environments, whether they are operational (support for excavation processes) or functional (archaeological objects, human activities of the past).

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“…Since the first application of high‐resolution CT to study fossils (Beall et al, 1996), this technology has assisted many important studies in elaborating the radiation of the avian in the Cretaceous (Clarke et al, 2005), the details of jaw bone anatomy of the placoderm (Zhu et al, 2013), as well as the evolution of the mammalian middle ear (Wang, Meng et al, 2019) and the morphology of hominin teeth (Liu et al, 2013). Micro‐CT has also been applied to archaeobotanical studies, such as the discovery of seed coat thinning during domestication (Murphy et al, 2019; Murphy & Fuller, 2017), and rice domestication by analysing spikelet‐base assemblages within pottery sherds (Barron et al, 2020). To acquire more high‐resolution details of small fossil specimens, a specialized CT (micro‐CT) was developed (Wang, Wei et al, 2019).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Micro‐CT‐assisted determination of the shattering and non‐shattering phenotypes of charred rice spikelet bases from archaeological sites: a new methodological approach

Wang

Huan

et al. 2023

Archaeometry

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The selection of a non‐shattering phenotype is a pivotal change in the process of rice domestication. However, current research is heavily restricted by the preservation conditions of macro‐plant remains in early and middle Neolithic sites, as very limited well‐preserved rice spikelet bases could be retrieved. We present a non‐destructive method based on micro‐computed tomographic (CT) scanning, which could provide detailed visualization of the internal structures of charred spikelet bases and efficiently discriminate the shattering and non‐shattering phenotypes of rice spikelet bases according to the abundance of fusiform echinate phytoliths. It could be widely applied in different contexts, especially those poorly preserved specimens and tempers in pottery sherds, greatly improving our knowledge of rice domestication.

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Looking Beyond the Surface: Use of High Resolution X-Ray Computed Tomography on Archaeobotanical Remains

Cited by 5 publications

References 27 publications

Food production and agricultural systems on the southwestern frontier of the Han Empire: archaeobotanical remains from the 2016 excavation of Hebosuo, Yunnan

Food production and agricultural systems on the southwestern frontier of the Han Empire: archaeobotanical remains from the 2016 excavation of Hebosuo, Yunnan

eXtended Reality for Cultural Heritage

Micro‐CT‐assisted determination of the shattering and non‐shattering phenotypes of charred rice spikelet bases from archaeological sites: a new methodological approach

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