Plant use from the grinding stones’ viewpoint: Phytolith analyses from Aeneolithic Monjukli Depe, Turkmenistan

Abstract

Abstract:Recent archaeological examinations include an increasing amount of natural science analyses. They are often carried out by external specialists and their results are often accepted by archaeologists without question. This may lead to incomplete integration of the results into an archaeological context. One of those methods, increasingly employed in the field of archaeology, is phytolith analysis. Phytoliths, microscopic silica bodies from genera-specific plant cells, allow searching for traces of plant material in archaeological contexts where methods based on macroscopic analysis have reached their limits. This paper combines natural science approaches with archaeological data by examining the social life of artefacts via phytolith analyses that can provide data to precisely determine the interpretation and variety of grinding stones, which are often misinterpreted. In this pilot study, the analyses confirmed the macroscopic observations for grinding plant material in some cases, but also opened new areas of study such as mineral-related activities, possible use of wooden implements and the connection between the different archaeological and botanical information. The analysed objects are grinding stones from Monjukli Depe, a small village in modern southern Turkmenistan that was occupied in the Neolithic and Aeneolithic periods. The site was excavated in the 1960s by Soviet archaeologists and restudied since 2010 by a team from the Free University Berlin.

First results of plant processing on ground stone tools: phytolith evidence and GC-MS from archaic Messapian settlements - San Vito dei Normanni and Cavallino (Puglia, Italy)

“…The target of 200 phytoliths per slide was reached for all the samples, thus leading to a decisive increase in the density of micro residues, with a peak of 4,600,000 phytoliths/1g sediment and an average of 1,120,000 phytoliths/1g. These values are in line with those reported in the literature for other known settlements, especially in Levant [14]. It should be emphasised, however, that the preservation conditions of the phytoliths are not very different from those identified in Cavallino, and both silica dissolution and mechanical disaggregation can be observed.…”

Introduction. Leave no stone unturned: Perspectives on ground stone artefact research

“…One such trend that was reflected in the papers presented during the 1 st AGSTR meeting at the University of Haifa, and visible in this JLS issue, is an increase in the number of papers dealing with ground stone quarries, production, and design (e. Gluhak et al 2016;Reniere et al 2016). Efforts to understand the functions of stone items continue through increasingly sophisticated functional use-wear analyses (e.g., Hamon 2008;Risch 2008;Verbaas & van Gijn 2008;Delgado-Raack et al 2009;Bofill 2012;Adams 2014;Asryan et al 2014;Adams 2015; Delgado-Rack & Risch 2016;Groman-Yaroslavski et al 2016;Hamon 2016) and residue studies (e.g., Yohe II et al 1991;Hard et al 1996;Fullagar & Field 1997;Veth et al 1997;Piperno & Holst 1998;Perry 2004;Aranguren et al 2007;Barton 2007;Fullagar et al 2008;Buonasera 2016;Öğüt 2016). In addition to functional and sourcing analyses, studies dealing with the role of the object in day-to-day activities, and in ritual and their symbolic dimensions, are gaining traction (e.g., Rosenberg & Nadel 2014, Rowan 1998Duwe 2016;Nadel & Rosenberg 2016).…”