Saturday 15th February 2020
08.30-9.00 Registration
09.00-09.15 Welcome from Professor Martin Bell
Oral presentations: Agricultural revolutions and crop developments
Chair Cathie Barnett
09.15-09.30 Elaine Lin, Australian National University, Australia
‘Tropical wetland agriculture and the emergence of the earliest rectilinear ditch networks at Kuk Swamp, Papua New Guinea’
09.30-09.45 Josie Handley, University of Reading, UK
‘Agricultural Development in the Face of Climatic Change in the Peruvian Andes’
09.45-10.00 Ivan Krivokorin, University of Reading, UK
‘Ancient hydrotechnical structures of MSU Zvenigorod Biological Station and their influence on the surrounding wetland vegetation’
10.00-10.15 Pille Tomson, Estonian University of Life Sciences, Estonia
‘Diagnostic features of bog pastures: case study from Southern Estonia’
10.15-10.30 Questions
Oral presentations: Plants, pests and parasites
Chair Rowena Banerjea
10.30-10.45 Ruth Pelling, Historic England, UK
‘An experimental approach to recognising Sitophilis granarius (granary weevil) damage in charred cereals’
10.45-11.00 Sabina Ghislandi, Independent
‘Graves under the microscope: presence and role of organic components’
11.00-11.10 Questions
Coffee break 11.10-11.20
Oral presentations: Reference collections in archaeobotany
Chair Paul Flintoft
11.20-11.35 Rowena Banerjea, University of Reading, UK
‘Archaeological micromorphology thin-sections as reference material: compiling, archiving and curating collections’
11.35-11.50 Marta Portillo, Department of Archaeology and Anthropology, Archaeology of Social Dynamics (2017SGR 995), Spanish National Research Council (CSIC), Spain; Autonomous University of Barcelona, Spain; University of Reading, UK
‘Integrated plant and dung microfossil evidence from modern reference materials from Mediterranean island ecosystems: Menorca, Balearic Islands’
11.50-12.05 Dan Miles, Historic England
‘Standards, Controlled Vocabularies and Reference Collections – all the fun at the fair!’
12.05-12.20 Alastair Culham, Reading University Herbarium, School of Biological Sciences, University of Reading, UK
‘A Short Introduction to the Percival Wheat Collection’
12.20-12.30 Questions
12.35-13.30 Lunch & visit to the herbarium (sign up, 20 max)
Poster session
13.30-15.00 Microscopy session in G08, Allen lab: Plants, pests and parasites
(Chaired by Rowena Banerjea, University of Reading, UK, and Lionello Morandi, University of Tübingen, Germany)
Talk by Lionello Morandi, University of Tübingen
‘Parasitology as a tool to refine interpretations of animal husbandry: taphonomic and morphological considerations’
14.30-15.00 Fluorescence microscopy discussion
Sign up only (max 4), Archaeology microscope room (lead by Wendy Matthews, University of Reading)
Coffee available in Sorby Room 15.00-17.00
15.30-17.00 Microscopy session in G08, Allen lab: Crop remains and features of agriculture in soils and sediments microscopy
(Chaired by Rowena Banerjea, Charlotte Diffey and Josie Handley, University of Reading)
Talk by Petra Dark, University of Reading, on cereal pollen identification
16.30-17.00 Fluorescence microscopy discussion
Sign up only (max 4), Archaeology microscope room (lead by Wendy Matthews, University of Reading)
17.00 Drinks reception in the Archaeology Atrium
Poster session
The drinks reception is sponsored by the Association for Environmental Archaeology
19.00 Workshop meal
Please note that the meal is at participants own expense (£20 per person). The meal will take place at our local Indian restaurant, The Sizzling Spice.
Sunday 16th February 2020
09.30-09.45 Registration
Oral presentations: Archaeobotany of unusual materials
Chair Lionello Morandi
09.45-10.00 Renée Enevold, Moesgaard Museum, Aarhus, Denmark
‘Pollen analysis of sediment and textile from an Iron Age grave’
10.00-10.15 Niccolo Mazzucco, Institució Milà i Fontanals, Spanish National Research Council (CSIC), Spain
‘Ungluing the phytoliths: an experimental and archaeological case study from harvesting tools’
Oral presentations: New methodological innovations and developments in archaeobotany
Chair Lionello Morandi
10.15-10.30 Aleese Barron, Australian National University, Australia
‘Applications of MicroCT Imaging Archaeobotanical Investigations’
10.30-10.45 Lara Gonzalez Carretero, Dept. of Scientific Research, The British Museum, UK
‘Archaeobotany of foodcrusts: methods for the identification of plant macroremains in hunter-gatherer early pottery vessels from North-East Europe’
10.45-11.05 Questions
Coffee break 11.05-11.20
Oral presentations: New methodological innovations and developments in archaeobotany
Chair Marta Portillo
11.20-11.35 Dan Young, Quaternary Scientific, University of Reading, UK
‘Cryptic refugia at the ice front in Britain? Evidence of alder (Alnus glutinosa [L.] Gaertn.) in the Vale of Mowbray, North Yorkshire, UK’
11.35-11.50 Matt Canti, Historic England, UK
‘Why can’t we reproduce vitrification in charcoal? Experimental work and observations’
11.50-12.05 Don O’Meara, Historic England, UK
‘Left behind; monitoring the efficiency of the flotation method’
12.05-12.20 Martin Hodson, Oxford Brookes University, UK
‘Do phytoliths become auto-fluorescent upon heating?’
12.20-12.35 Luc Vrydaghs, International Committee for Phytolith Taxonomy (ICPT)/Maritime Cultures Research Institute (MARI) – VUB, Belgium
‘International Code for Phytolith Nomenclature (ICPN) 2.0’
12.35-13.00 Questions
13.00-13.45 Lunch break
Poster session
13.45-14.30 Microscopy session in G08, Allen lab: Archaeobotany of unusual materials
(Chaired by Lionello Morandi, University of Tübingen)
14.00-14.30 Fluorescence microscopy discussion
Sign up only (max 4), Archaeology microscope room (lead by Wendy Matthews, University of Reading)
14.30-15.15 Microscopy session in G08, Allen lab: Bioturbation for archaeobotany
(Chaired by Rowena Banerjea, University of Reading and Yannick Devos, Maritime Cultures Research Institute (MARI) – VUB, Belgium)
Coffee available in Sorby Room 15.00-16.00
15.15-16.30 Microscopy session in G06 Charcoal and Wood macroremains
(Chaired by Paul Flintoft, University of Reading)
15.15-16.30 Microscopy free time in G08
15.30-16.30 Round table discussion on phytolith extraction methods
(Chair Martin Hodson, Oxford Brookes University, UK)
16.30 Workshop ends
