Bonhomme, V., Forster, E., Wallace, M. orcid.org/0000-0002-2355-5565 et al. (3 more authors) (2017) Identification of inter- and intra-species variation in cereal grains through geometric morphometric analysis, and its resilience under experimental charring. Journal of Archaeological Science, 86. pp. 60-67. ISSN 0305-4403
Abstract
The application of morphometric analysis in archaeobotany has the potential to refine quantitatively identifications of ancient plant material recovered from archaeological sites, most commonly preserved through charring due to exposure to heat. This paper uses geometric morphometrics, first, to explore variation in grain shape between three domesticated cereal species, einkorn (Triticum monococcum), emmer (Triticum dicoccum) and barley (Hordeum vulgare), both before and after experimental charring at 230 and 260oC. Results demonstrate that outline analysis reliably reflects known variations in grain shape between species and differences due to charring observed in previous experimental work, and is capable of distinguishing the species, with near-perfect results, both before and after charring. Having established this, the same method was applied to different accessions of the same species, which indicated that three different grain morphotypes of einkorn and two, possibly three, of emmer could be identified in the uncharred material, and that at least two different morphotypes for each species could be distinguished even after charring at temperatures up to 260oC. This opens up the possibility of tracking evolutionary change in crops, both chronologically and geographically, through morphometric analysis.
Metadata
Item Type: | Article |
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Authors/Creators: |
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Copyright, Publisher and Additional Information: | © 2017 Published by Elsevier Ltd. This is an author produced version of a paper subsequently published in Journal of Archaeological Science. Uploaded in accordance with the publisher's self-archiving policy. Article available under the terms of the CC-BY-NC-ND licence (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/) |
Keywords: | Elliptical Fourier Transforms; archaeobotany; cereal grain; experimental charring; einkorn; emmer; barley |
Dates: |
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Institution: | The University of Sheffield |
Academic Units: | The University of Sheffield > Faculty of Arts and Humanities (Sheffield) > Department of Archaeology (Sheffield) |
Funding Information: | Funder Grant number EUROPEAN RESEARCH COUNCIL EOA - 269830 |
Depositing User: | Symplectic Sheffield |
Date Deposited: | 14 Sep 2017 12:03 |
Last Modified: | 14 Sep 2018 00:38 |
Published Version: | https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jas.2017.09.010 |
Status: | Published |
Publisher: | Elsevier |
Refereed: | Yes |
Identification Number: | 10.1016/j.jas.2017.09.010 |
Open Archives Initiative ID (OAI ID): | oai:eprints.whiterose.ac.uk:121065 |