The palaeoethnobotany of the West House Akrotiri, Thera : a case study
This study deals with the archaeobotany of the West House, a Late Bronze Age house at Akrotiri, on the island of Thera, Cyclades, Greece. The island is also known as Santorini. Due to a volcanic eruption (c.1600 B.C.) which covered the whole town with ash, the settlement site of Akrotiri, has been preserved in its pristine state. This enables us to find all the storage contexts within the West house in an ash-sealed state, with absolute certainty of contemporaneity of contexts, structures and material culture. This thesis examines the results of archaeological contexts for botanical data, to provide information on agriculture, crop processing and storage. Preservation of seeds was in the form of charred, silicified, and mineralized material. Our spectrum of crops has increased with the addition of two species: cf.Lathyrus clymenum and Lupinus cf.albus, thus increasing the number of cultivated pulses known from the Late Bronze Age Aegean. Crops were cf. Lathyrus clymenum (a new find as a L.B.A. crop), Lens culinaris, Pisum sativum, Hordeum vulgare, H.distichum, Triticum monococcum. Other important crops included Ficus carica, Vitis vinifera and Olea europaea. A third group of possible crop plants included Lathyrus
Sarpaki, Anaya Anastasia
Archaeobotany of Greece
The palaeoethnobotany of the West House Akrotiri, Thera : a case study. This study deals with the archaeobotany of the West House, a Late Bronze Age house at Akrotiri, on the island of Thera, Cyclades, Greece. The island is also known as Santorini. Due to a volcanic eruption (c.1600 B.C.) which covered the whole town with ash, the settlement site of Akrotiri, has been preserved in its pristine state. This enables us to find all the storage contexts within the West house in an ash-sealed state, with absolute certainty of contemporaneity of contexts, structures and material culture. This thesis examines the results of archaeological contexts for botanical data, to provide information on agriculture, crop processing and storage. Preservation of seeds was in the form of charred, silicified, and mineralized material. Our spectrum of crops has increased with the addition of two species: cf.Lathyrus clymenum and Lupinus cf.albus, thus increasing the number of cultivated pulses known from the Late Bronze Age Aegean. Crops were cf. Lathyrus clymenum (a new find as a L.B.A. crop), Lens culinaris, Pisum sativum, Hordeum vulgare, H.distichum, Triticum monococcum. Other important crops included Ficus carica, Vitis vinifera and Olea europaea. A third group of possible crop plants included Lathyrus
west house thera case_study study deal archaeobotany west house late_bronze_age house island thera cyclades greece island also_know due eruption cover whole town ash settlement_site preserve pristine state enables storage context_within west house ash state absolute certainty contemporaneity context structure material_culture examines archaeological contexts botanical data provide_information agriculture crop_processing storage preservation seed form char material spectrum crop increase addition two_specie thus increase_number cultivate pulse know late_bronze age aegean new lba crop lens important crop include third group possible crop plant include