We are pleased to announce that the research papers from the 2018 and 2019 IMAA workshops are now available online. They will be published soon in a Special Issue for Environmental Archaeology.

Editorial: “Integrated Microscopy Approaches in Archaeobotany 2: Proceedings of the 2018 and 2019 Workshops, University of Reading, UK”

Rowena Y. Banerjea, Marta Portillo, Catherine Barnett & Paul Flintoft

“Seeing Shit’: Assessing the Visibility of Dung Tempering in Ancient Pottery Using an Experimental Approach”

Silvia Amicone, Lionello F. Morandi  & Shira Gur-Arieh

“Hidden Husbandry: Disentangling a Disturbed Profile at Beckery Chapel, a Medieval Ecclesiastical Site Near Glastonbury (UK)”

Rowena Y. Banerjea, Lionello F. Morandi, Kevin Williams & Richard Brunning

“Power Centres and Marginal Landscapes: Tracking Pre- and Post-Conquest (Late Iron Age and Medieval) Land-Use in the Cēsis Castle Hinterland, Central Latvia”

Alex Brown & Aleks Pluskowski

“Auto-Fluorescent Phytoliths: A New Method for Detecting Heating and Fire”

Yannick Devos, Martin J. Hodson & Luc Vrydaghs

“Wood in Pre-Columbian Funerary Rituals: A Case Study from El Caño (Panama, AD 880–1020)”

María Martín-Seijo, Joeri Kaal,Carlos Mayo Torné  & Julia Mayo Torné

“The Taphonomy of Plant and Livestock Dung Microfossils: An Ethnoarchaeological and Experimental Approach”

Marta Portillo, Kate Dudgeon, Georgia Allistone, Kamal Raeuf Aziz & Wendy Matthews

“Changing Plant-based Subsistence Practices among Early and Middle Holocene Communities in Eastern Maghreb”

Marta Portillo, Jacob Morales, Yolanda Carrión Marco, Nabiha Aouadi, Giulio Lucarini, Lotfi Belhouchet, Alfredo Coppa & Leonor Peña-Chocarro

Four of the eight papers shortlisted for the Don Brothwell Prize were included in the first IMAA Special Issue. The Don Brothwell prize is awarded by the Association for Environmental Archaeology to the best paper in Environmental Archaeology each year. Congratulations to all the authors who were shortlisted and to the Chinese  team who went on to win the prize!

The papers from the IMAA Special Issue are:

Feeding the Crusades: Archaeobotany, Animal Husbandry and Livestock Alimentation on the Baltic Frontier

R. Y. Banerjea, M. Badura, A. Brown, L. F. Morandi, M. Marcinkowski, H. Valk, K. Ismail-Meyer, A. Pluskowski

Early Animal Management Strategies during the Neolithic of the Konya Plain, Central Anatolia: Integrating Micromorphological and Microfossil Evidence

Aroa García-Suárez ,Marta Portillo & Wendy Matthews

Advances in Morphometrics in Archaeobotany

M. Portillo, T. B. Ball, M. Wallace, C. Murphy, S. Pérez-Díaz, M. Ruiz-Alonso, F. J. Aceituno & J. A.  López-Sáez

Variable Ovicaprid Diet and Faecal Spherulite Production at Amara West, Sudan

Matthew Dalton and Phillipa Ryan

We have decided not hold the IMAA 2021 in its usual slot in February/March due to the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic. Instead we are drawing up plans to hold the workshop later in the year, possibly in October 2021 and we look forward to being able to welcome you to Reading.

Hello all!

The social media hashtags for the workshop are #imaaworkshop and #imaa2020

All spaces are taken for the IMAA 2020 workshop. Thank you to everyone who registered and we are looking forward to welcoming you to Reading, hearing about your projects and looking at samples. We will be in touch soon with further details.

Thank you to everyone who has submitted abstracts. The call for papers is now closed. We’ve had an overwhelming response and will have a packed and exciting programme for the 2020 workshop. More details about registration will be advertised soon. We’re looking forward to welcoming all the participants to Reading!

THE DEADLINE FOR ABSTRACTS is extended to 15th NOVEMBER 2019

Please submit abstracts (250 words max) by email to imaaworkshop@gmail.com with the subject heading ‘2020 abstract’ and please specify your preference for a paper or poster presentation.

The themes for oral and poster presentations are:

• Agricultural revolutions and crop developments
• Archaeobotany of unusual materials
• New methodological innovations and developments in archaeobotany
• Plants, pests and parasites
• Reference collections in archaeobotany

Spaces at the workshop are limited to 45 participants and priority will be given to those people who are presenting research and bringing samples to observe in the microscopy sessions. There is no participation fee to attend the workshop.

The next IMAA workshop will take place at in the School of Archaeology, Geography and Environmental Science, University of Reading, UK, on 15^th and 16^th February 2020. The workshop has been celebrated annually since 2016 and aims to bring together specialists in geoarchaeology, NPPs, palynology, plant macroremains, and phytoliths who are working in universities, major heritage organisations, and commercial archaeology companies in order to share research and skills. The event is a 2 day workshop, which includes oral presentations, poster sessions and microscope sessions.

We are pleased to announce the call for abstracts for oral and poster presentations on the following themes:

• Agricultural revolutions and crop developments
• Archaeobotany of unusual materials
• New methodological innovations and developments in archaeobotany
• Plants, pests and parasites
• Reference collections in archaeobotany

DEADLINE FOR ABSTRACTS 11th  NOVEMBER 2019

Submit abstracts by email to imaaworkshop@gmail.com with the subject heading ‘2020 abstract’ and please specify your preference for a paper or poster presentation.

Click here for more information.

The 2020 workshop on Integrated Microscopy Approaches in Archaeobotany will take place on 15th – 16th February at the School of Archaeology, Geography and Environmental Science, University of Reading, UK. More details to follow soon!