Recent Discoveries and Results

2008

• Emotional news for lovers of a dry white wine. The blissful Hippocrene was composed from wild grapes from the sixth millennium BC in the lands of its natural habitat. But, as the author shows, the cultivation, domestication and selective breeding of the grape following in the Late Neolithic to Early Bronze Age was aimed primarily at the enjoyment of its sweetness. Sweeter than Wine? The Use of the Grape in Early Western Asia. Antiquity 82:937-946.

2006

• The serendipitous discovery that the default shape of a mudball is biconical inspired research into spindle whorls. It turned out that all things being equal, center-weighted spindle whorls are most suited fibers that need more twist; linen fibers need a lot of twist, and the crimped, scaly fibers of sheep wool need relatively little twist. Early west Asian ceramic spindle whorls are normally biconical. It may be no coincidence, therefore, that our first evidence for spindle whorls roughly coincides with our first evidence for spun fibers, i.e., flax! ("Serendipity: Secrets of the Mudballs," by Naomi F. Miller, Kimberly E. Leaman, and Julie Unruh. Expedition 48(3):40-41. Don't miss Mudball: The Movie!

• Plant remains from three sites in the Kur River Basin spanning the late seventh to mid fifth millennium B.C. suggest that the post-Pleistocene advance of the oak forest had not yet reached that area. ("Some Plant Remains from the 2004 Excavations of Tall-e Mushki, Tall-e Jari A and B, an Tall-e Bakun A and B," by Naomi F. Miller and Masoumeh Kimiaie, in The Origins of State Organizations in Prehistoric Highland Fars, âSouthern Iran. Excavations at Tall-e Bakun) [pdf on-line]

2004

• Human impact on the vegetation of west Asia can be traced with the earliest archaeobotanical records to those of the Iron Age. Local deforestation is reflected in changes in proportions of dominant tree taxa as well as increasing seed:charcoal raios (reflecting increases in dung fuel use relative to wood). Although long- and short-term climate fluctuations undoubtedly occurred, their impact on vegetation was negligible compared to human impact. ("Long-term Vegetation Changes in the Near East," in The Archaeology of Global Change)

2003

• Archaeological survey and excavation suggest that during much of the third millennium (between the Banesh [Proto-Elamite] and Kaftari [Elamite] periods), permanent settlements virtually disappeared in Fars province, Iran. Analysis of pottery and stratigraphy at Malyan, one of the few sites with both Banesh and Kaftari period deposits, suggests that the site may have been occupied by a small permanent population who had a ceramic tradition that eventually evolved into the mature Kaftari style; i.e., the Malyan Kaftari occupation is just a continuation, perhaps with some new influences, of the earlier Banesh tradition. ("The Banesh-Kaftari Interface. The View from Operation H5, Malyan," by Naomi F. Miller and William M. Sumner, Iran 41:7-19)

• The people who lived at Anau North ('Chalcolithic deposits, fifth and fourth millennia BC) settled in a landscape dominated by tugai vegetation (lots of Tamarix). Fields were probably cleared along the stream (a precursor of the Anau Su), perhaps interspersed with tugai thickets, and herds grazed on nearby steppe. The two main crops, six-row barley (Hordeum vulgare supsp. vulgare) and bread wheat (Triticum aestivum), almost undoubtedly were irrigated, perhaps by simple gravity flow. Human activities had only a negligible impact on the vegetation in the period considered here. Over time, however, fields may have expanded at the expense of pasture and tugai in the immediate vicinity of the settlement. ("The Use of Plants at Anau North," in A Central Asian Village at the Dawn of Civilization. Excavations at Anau, Turkmenistan, 2003)