Bioarchaeology

Phylogenetics

History of evolution of a species in regards to the lines they follow within the family tree.

Classification

System that arranges organisms into groups due to similar characteristics.

Taxonomy

Identification and naming of organisms. Practice and science of classifying organisms. Universal.

Aristotle's Taxonomic System

One of the first taxonomic systems invented. Classified by plants and animals. Plants based on the size/type of the stem. Animals based on where they lived. Quite archaic, but some overlap with modern systems.

Scala Naturae/Ladder of Nature

Aristotle's animal groups framework. Man at the top with plants below.

Theofrastos

Father of plant science and student of Aristotle. Believed plants were complex, disagreeing with Aristotle.

Early Methodists in Plant Taxonomy

Andreas Caesalpino (classified by fruits and seeds) and John Ray (classified monocots and dicots). Both created the Natural Systems of Classification.

Scientific Naming

Naming of organisms that reflects their taxonomic position. Advanced by Augustus Quirinus Rivinus and Joseph Pitton de Tournefort.

Carolus Linnaeus

Introduced universally accepted conventions for scientific names still used today.

Levels of Nomenclature

Kingdom, phylum, subphylum, class, order, family, genus, and species. The further down, the more specific the organism is.

Family Names

Animals end in -idae. Plants end in -aceae. Not written in italics.

Species Name

Genus name is capitalised, species name is not. Authority is normal. When in print, write genus and species in italics. When by hand write genus and species underlined.

Phylogeny

History of evolution of a species or group. Especially about lines of descent.

Niche vs Habitat

Habitat is the place where an organism lives. Niche is how/what organism exploits.

Plant's Importance

Plants are primary producers because they photosynthesize (turning light, carbon dioxide, and water, into oxygen and glucose/energy) and are the beginning of food chains.

C3 vs C4 Plants

C3 are temperate/cool plants and they are more prevalent (85%). C4 plants are tropical and are less prevalent (15%).

Seed or Not Plants

Angiosperms/flowering plants (separated into monocots and dicots based on number of leaves during germination) and gymnosperms (cone-producing) are spermatophytes/seed producing. Pteridophytes (ferns), bryophytes (mosses), and algae.

Flower structure

Non-fertile (sepals and receptacle) and fertile parts (stamens and carpels, male and female respectively).

Sexual Strategy of Plants

Hermaphrodite (male and female parts on same flower), monoecious (male and female on same plant different flowers), and dioecious (male and female plants).

Life Strategies

Annual (once per year), biennial (every two years), and perennial (constant flowering).

Ecological Stability

Influenced by abiotic and biotic factors. Abiotic factors are things like climate and geology. Biotic factors are other organisms that share the habitat. Biogeochemical cycles, like the carbon cycle, also affect ecosystem stability. However biogeochemical cycles usually keep ecosystems in stability when nothing interferes with them.

Ecosystem Stability Cycle

Balanced state comes after climax/main disturbance which is then followed by succession stages which is the slow progression from grass to shrub to forest.

Ecosystem Crisis

State of instability, lack of quality, or unfavourable conditions in an ecosystem. Caused by changing abiotic factors, increased predation, or over population. Varies in severity and area of impact.

Factors Affecting Plant/Animal Distribution

Food sources and availability, increased predation, competition, and species distribution.

Archaeozoology Definition

Analysis of animal remains from archaeological sites with an archaeological context. Includes Tools. Has similar methods to palaeontology, but includes the human aspect in analysis.

Sampling Techniques for Animal Bones

Large bones are removed by eyes, small bones are found when passing through sieve. 0.5-1 mm is where good small bones are found. Floatation is occasionally used for certain small bones, but not always. Both dry sieving and wet sieving used, but wet sieving better for bones.

Sampling Strategies for Animal Bones

Three types. Ideally absolutely everything from all contexts collected. While theoretically possible, not realistically possible. Usually most contexts and most samples but not all are removed. Sometimes few contexts and samples are taken usually due to the aim of excavation.

Taphonomy

How does animal and plant remains end up where they do. Processes and modifications occurring since animal death until the excavation. Sometimes includes excavation techniques. Includes ideas like how an animal died, for what reason, and how it was used. Also includes environmental occurences.

Sullegic and Diagenetic Processes

Diagenesis refers to chemical and environmental processes in the soil post-deposition prior to excavation. Sullegic processes refers to excavation, sampling, storage, and curation. Basically all the stuff modern people did to the bones.

Palynology

Study of pollen. In this context dealing with environmental reconstruction from pollen and spores. Proxy for environment.

Plant Macrofossil Study

Either carpological or vegetative remains. Carpological being seeds, fruits, and plant sexual material. Vegetative being flowers, stems, wood etc. These are visible to the naked eye and often use a microscope to analyse morphology of features. Proxy for environment.

Seed

Small embryonic plant closed in seed coat with some food. Packed with genes that get the plant growing. Angiosperms and gymnosperms (flowering and cone plants) have seed. Genetic material decomposes so only morphology of the seed coat (testa) remains for analysis.

Charred Preservation

Seed is altered by heat. Organic material carbonises but morphology might remain. On occasion it is too damaged to be observed. Abundant, but only certain parts of the plant are preserved. Not flowers.

Waterlogged Preservation

Preserved in an environment that removes oxygen and therefore microbes, meaning good preservation. Morphological features especially are well-conserved. Everything is preserved well underwater so the best case scenario.

Mineralised Preservation

Organic component is preserved. Morphological features are sometimes but not often preserved, meaning identification level is lower. Organic components are replaced by calcium, magnesium, or phosphate. Does not occur often, but occurs in cesspits.

Desiccated Preservation

No water and low humidity. Seeds are very well preserved, even to the level of molecular analysis occasionally, but very rare. High identification level, but scarcity of environments allowing such a thing to occur.

Impressions Preservation

Result of pressing seeds or plant parts against pottery for example, but can also result in some natural situation. Only morphology remains, and only an imprint of that making identification level dependent on the material imprinted on. Very rare.

Freezing Preservation

Very good preservation of both morphological and organic features. Rare preservation since the environment that it occurs in is rare, and also happens to not often have things to preserve.

Sampling vs Sampling Strategy

Sampling is just the techniques that are used to collect samples while sampling strategy is the application and why/how techniques are applied. Sampling strategy actually requires thought and creative thinking. Different things/questions/aims require different sampling strategies.

Sampling from Sections

First step is cleaning the exposed face and recording the sediments. Then monolith tins or sealed sample bags are used to get samples for lab work.

Sampling Peat/Bogs

Corers are used to extract samples from the ground. Russian corer or Hiller corer.

Sampling Lake Sediments

Coring is also used, but different corers are used. Mackereth, or piston corers are used with the samples being frozen for preservation.

Processing and Preparation of Samples

Depends largely on the nature of sediments/soil that botanical remains are found in. For waterlogged material floatation and wet sieving used mostly.

Floatation

Relies on floating large amounts of soil or sediment in liquid which will allow the separation between organic and inorganic material which allows organic material like seed to be taken off and moves elsewhere. A downside is that occasionally some denser organic material with higher specific gravity is lost, which can be fixed by using a liquid with higher specific gravity.

Wet Sieving

Sample is subdivided and then soaked in water before being passed through increasingly small sieves. The mesh goes down to 150 micrometres. Then, plant material is removed from the mesh and identified.

Identification

Can be determined with morphology or molecular buildup of the fossil. Usually dealing with morphology since molecular stuff decomposes. Often species level can not be achieved. Keys, atlas, or references can be used, but largely it is experience which helps identify a sample.

Data Presentation of Plant Macrofossils

Raw data is difficult to understand therefore you must present it better to aid in understanding the information and conclusions that one desires to be drawn from the information. Diagrams using depth can be zoned in order to separate sediment strata based on plant macrofossils found within.

LIst Presentation

Quite intuitive. Shows either the presence/absence of a plant species, or shows the quantities of plant macrofossils of a certain species found.

% Remains Against Depth

Shows the % of total seeds found depending on depth and separated into species. Not often used because of tendency to over represent and under represent some plant taxa. Problem of what to include in the sum total seed percentage.

Remains by Volume by Depth

Pretty self-explanatory. Shows the number of plant macrofossil remains per unit volume against the depth. Only issue is the time-consuming nature of the graph

Uniformitarianism

Belief that natural processes today are the same as those in the past. This means that ecological tolerances of taxa today are equivalent to those in the past. Beyond around 2.7 million years ago the differences become too great for uniformitarianism to apply.

Taxonomic Identification

Uses taxonomic identification to either specifically (species level identification) get environmental data. Also looks for outliers in the sample such as exotic or extinct taxa to show more environmental info especially looking at plant movements through the area.

Taphonomic Identification

Largely the processes responsible for the fossil assemblages we see. Important to look at the production rate of seeds since it can affect the representation of a species in modern fossil assemblage

Plant Macrofosslis and Palaeoenvironmental Reconstruction

The nature of plant macrofossils as a fossil that does not travel far and is easily identifiable means that they are good proxy for precise environmental reconstruction. Fills in the gap of certain plants which have easily-decomposable pollen. Certain plants which only existed in a location for short periods of time can also be used to date sediments.

Plant Macrofosslis and Palaeoenvironmental Reconstruction Disadvantages

Because they do not travel far, only good for local reconstruction, not regional. Produced in smaller quantities than say pollen, meaning more sediment needs to be processed. Furthermore quantities of a taxa can fluctuate drastically through the vertical layers of a sample.

Plant Macrofossil Analysis added to

other kinds of archaeological analysis in order to gain insight on farming, ethnobotany (studying how humans exploit and use plants in their area), and paleo economy. Interdisciplinary nature is used in order to create a better picture.

Phytoliths

Rigid microscopic structure in most plants. Most common is the silicon phytolith but there are many which vary depending on the plant. Grasses, crops, and trees are the ones that largely produce phytoliths. Study is relatively new, so it is difficult to get species-specific identification. Often found in human contexts (human calculus and cooking utensils) and found where other plant material decomposes.

Diatoms

Aquatic unicellular plants with silicate cell wall. Sampled and tested similar to pollen/spores. Most common phytoplankton there is.

Plant Starches

Starch links with human diet especially when found on the tooth calculus.

Pollen grain production

They are produced by seed-bearing plants or spermatophytes. In angiosperms this is in the anther while in gymnosperms this is in the male cone. Exists to protect the male gametophyte/genetic material as it travels to female plants.

Pollen grains

Reproductive structures which are capable of developing a new individual. Cryptograms (lower plants like ferns and mosses) produce spores. They are adapted for dispersal and surviving harsh conditions for long periods of time.

Pollen/Spore Pro for Environemtnal Reconstruction

So useful because pollen/spores produced in large quantities, resistant to degradation, are preserved without air and acidic environments, are relatively easy to retrieve, and can identify plants. This in turn means that environmental reconstruction is available as well as age determination of sediments.

Pollen Sample Storage

Depends on the origin of the sample. For waterlogged samples it is best to store them near freezing at around 1º-3º

Pollen Sample Preparation

Mix of chemical and physical methods used to extract pollen from sediment samples. Removing of humic and organic material around the spores is the main goal as well as preparation for microscope analysis by mounting it in a substance with a refractive index

Exine

Outer shell of pollen which is usually the only surviving material. Very resistant to acids and bases.

How Pollen is Identified

Morphological features such as the size of grain, the apertures (pores/pori and furrows/colpi), the shape (especially multi-cellular grains without pores/furrows), and the surface of the grain (whether smooth, ridged, or otherwise).

Percentage/Relative Pollen Diagram

Pollen/spore types expressed as a percentage of a total pollen sum. Issues arise when deciding what to include and exclude from the sum. Some downsides are that the interdependent nature of pollen percentages results in skewing or overrepresentation of certain taxa. Such overrepresentation can be confused for ecological change.

Removal of Taxa from Pollen Diagrams

Certain pollen taxa can be excluded because they are overrepresented in the data set. Removing all aquatic taxa results in a land pollen diagram while removing everything but tree pollen creates an arboreal pollen diagram.

Absolute Pollen Diagrams

Shows the concentration of pollen taxa as opposed to percentage. Takes the amount of pollen per unit volume of sediment. Pollen concentration is calculated in many methods, but usually exotic pollen is added to calculate the unknown pollen concentration variable. Some issues come with changing deposition rates of sediment affecting concentration.

Pollen Influx Diagram

Concentration/absolute pollen diagram with chronology added to combat issue of changing deposition rate of sediment. Pollen/spore grains per surface area per unit time.

Pollen Zonation

Divisions of data into pollen units which make understanding large data sets easier. Can be made subjectively or numerically by multivariate methods. Tool to help interpretation. Can be local (usually just one pollen diagram) or regional (usually when combining two or more pollen diagrams).

Pollen Data Interpretation

Depends on understanding taphonomic processes which got pollen from the plant to the site you sampled. Understanding sediment action as well can help create a better picture of how pollen has become part of this fossil assemblage.

Pollen Deposition Occurrences

Aerated zones closer to top of soil can decay some pollen. In lower anaerobic zones decomposition still occurs from decomposers. Water movement takes place as well as pollen movement.

Discrepancies in Pollen Data Interpretation

Pollen deposition is high in comparison to the actual amount of plants that would occur. Some plants produce more pollen and are over-represented in taxa. The opposite is true as well. Pollen preservation varies amongst taxa, affecting data appearance. Hiatus in stratigraphy also occurs.

Pollen Dispersal Models

Some models, such as those by Tauber for peat, bogs, and lakes, were created to help understand the process. These include components that affect distribution like Ct, Cc, Cr, Cl, and Cw (trunk space, pollen production, rain, gravity, and secondary respectively).

Pollination Strategies

Self-pollination (plant has both male and female so can pollinate itself and therefore produces really little pollen and does not spread), entomophilous (animal pollination so some pollen but not many), and anemophilous (wind pollination so more pollen spread for higher chance of pollination).

Pollen dispersal

Depends on pollen and environment, but a general curve for amount of pollen and distance from source can be graphed. Generally looks like a negative exponential graph which lessens as distance increases. Some pollen travels up to 300 km, but not many.

Biomolecular Archaeology

Study of organic molecules or mixtures of organic and inorganic. Used to identify objects and whether modification such as burning has occurred.

Molecule

Small component of a substance that still retains all the properties of that object consisting of two or more atoms. Can be organic or inorganic.

Organic Molecules

Molecule with carbon-hydrogen (occasionally nitrogen or sulphur too) bonds. Shows an invisible record which might reveal uses of archaeological tools. Identified using microscopy (morphology), mass spectrometry (measuring weight of molecules), spectroscopy (measuring molecular response to light energy. Also combined occasionally with microscopy), and sequencing but only for DNA.

Five Main Kinds of Organic Molecules

Lipids, nucleic acids, carbohydrates, proteins, and refractory biopolymers (listed with increasing weight). All except the biopolymers are easily biodegradable.

Lipids

Oils, fats, and resins. Not water-soluble. Built up of carbon-hydrogen-oxygen. Lots of structures and shapes makes it highly diagnostic. Identified by weight usually in mass spectrometry. Used to show how long humans have drunk milk.

Nucleic Acids

A part of RNA/DNA. Polymers of nucleotides composed of phosphate backbone, pentose sugar, and an organic base with nitrogen base. Used to look at population history and individual history. Sometimes can be found in sediments themselves. Identified by colour tagging, but degrades easily.

Systematics

Scientific study of the kinds and diversity of organisms and relationships among them

Andreas Caesalpino (1519 - 1603)

Italian naturalist that classified plants according to their fruits and seeds

binomial nomenclature

Classification system in which each species is assigned a two-part scientific name. Eg Homo sapiens

cladistic taxonomy or cladism

taxa arranged in an evolutionary tree

Male part of a flower

Stamens (anther, filament)

female part of a flower

Pistil(carpel(stigma, style, ovary))

Biostratinomy

everything that happens to an organism between death and burial

soil conditions that favor bone survival

neutral pH, low oxygen content, transition metals like Pb, Cu, Ag, the sediment being fine-textured or waterlogged (don't want movement of water), constant temperature. Keep everything calm

Structure of Archaeozoological research

Fieldwork > Assesment > Analysis > Archive

How to label bones

Avoid butchery marks, pathologies, and unfused surfaces

Archaeozoological description methods

Taxonomy, Taphonomy, osteometry, comparitive osteology, Age & sex estimation,

Common taphonomical processes

Fragmentation patterns, scavenger activity, anthropic marks

Anatomical and taxonomical identification methods

what material, what element/bone, what fragment, what taxa

Population identification

what age, sex, etc

Taphonomical identification

what deposit, what function

environmental identification

what environment

ethnological/cutural identification

what purpose