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Digital Atlas of Economic Plants in Archaeology

The third part of the Digital Plant Atlas, which will appear in February 2012, presents illustrations of subfossil remains of plants with economic value. These plant remains mainly derive from excavations in the Old World (Europe, Western Asia and North Africa) that the Deutsches Archäologisches Institut (DAI, Berlin) and the Groningen Institute of Archaeology (GIA) have conducted or participated in.

Plant material is usually very perishable, but can nevertheless be preserved in archaeological sites if the biological decay of the material is blocked. Many plant remains are discovered during excavations in carbonized form, where despite having been in contact with fire, they have not been completely reduced to ash. Extremely dry climatic conditions, like those in Egypt, can also preserve plant material in a completely dessicated condition. Most of the economically valuable plants illustrated here have beencarbonized or desiccated. So this atlas links up very well with the Digital Atlas of Economic Plants.

Like the other atlasses, this atlas will appear as a combination of a book and a website.

The book

Just as in part two of the series, this part will not only include illustrations of seeds and fruits, but also of other plant parts. The resulting variety in seed and fruit forms will be illustrated by examples from different excavations. To support their identification and determination, also pictures of recent plants and relevant plant parts  have been included.

The website

To supplement the photographs, the website will also include morphometric measurements of the subfossil seeds and fruits. These measurements can be compared with own measurements of the plant taxa in question.

Newsletter

If you would like to be kept informed of the publication of this atlas, please register for the mailing list of the Digital Plant Atlas.

Extra information

A sample chapter at a low resolution (PDF, 72 dpi, 5 MB).

All images of plant parts on this page and in the banner can be enlarged by clicking on them.

Summary

Title: Digital Atlas of Economic Plants in Archaeology
Authors: R. Neef, R.T.J. Cappers & R.M. Bekker
Year of publication: 2011
Design: 760 pages, hardcover, full colour, size 21 x 29.7 cm (A4)
Plant families: 56
Plant species (Taxa) 191
Photographs: 773  photographs of subfossil plant parts, 1137 photographs of recent plants and plant parts 
Languages: English and 15 indices (scientific plant name, pharmaceutical plant name, English, German, French, Dutch, Spanish, Arab, Arab in transliteration, Turkish, Chinese, Pinyin (Chinese in transliteration), Hindi, Sanskrit, and Malayalam)
Price:   € 215.-,  incl. 6% VAT. 
Purchase of the book grants access to the protected parts of the websites of the project
Free download: A sample chapter of the atlas