Koerper Grapes, grain, and olive oil became known to scholars as the ‘Mediterranean Triad’ for their key role in diet in the region (Sarpaki, 1992). In north-eastern Africa and Arabia, cotton was likely a perennial shrub or tree, and the oasis environment seems to constitute an effective agrosystems to host this new tropical crop (Bouchaud et al. Charlène Bouchaud and Vladimir Dabrowski (AASPE-UMR 7209, MNHN-CNRS) organised this meeting with fi, For language convenience, we use the term “Old World” to refer to Asia, Africa and Europe, in contr, sp.) W State-of-the-art and current research, http://journals.openedition.org/ethnoecologie/docannexe/image/4501/img-1.jpg, http://journals.openedition.org/ethnoecologie/docannexe/image/4501/img-2.jpg, http://journals.openedition.org/ethnoecologie/docannexe/image/4501/img-3.jpg, http://journals.openedition.org/ethnoecologie/docannexe/image/4501/img-4.jpg, http://journals.openedition.org/ethnoecologie/docannexe/image/4501/img-5.jpg, http://journals.openedition.org/ethnoecologie/docannexe/image/4501/img-6.jpg, http://journals.openedition.org/ethnoecologie/docannexe/image/4501/img-7.jpg, http://journals.openedition.org/ethnoecologie/docannexe/image/4501/img-8.jpg, http://journals.openedition.org/ethnoecologie/docannexe/image/4501/img-9.jpg, http://journals.openedition.org/ethnoecologie/docannexe/image/4501/img-10.jpg, http://journals.openedition.org/ethnoecologie/docannexe/image/4501/img-11.jpg, http://journals.openedition.org/ethnoecologie/docannexe/image/4501/img-12.jpg, licence Creative Commons Attribution - Pas d'Utilisation Commerciale - Pas de Modification 4.0 International, De 1921 à 2000 : les numéros anciens sur Persée, Nos collègues ethnobiologistes dans le monde, Catalogue des 552 revues. This omission reflects rather that lentils and beans were not deemed worth recording by the palaces, which focused their attention on overseeing higher-value crops like wheat, barley, and saffron. . Each of these parameters can vary depending on textile traditions, and their combination forms a sort of “identity card” for the local production. As any textiles, cotton fabrics are defined by their spin direction, weave (type and density), and by technical and decorative details. Celebrating Demeter, goddess of fertility, and her daughter Persephone, initiates drank a beverage known as the kykeion at one stage during the ceremonies. If we add the frequency of their use to their great length of existence, we could expect to find textile remains on archaeological sites as frequently as we find potsherds (Wild 1988: 7). For a wider understanding of textile terminology and associated fields of research, see Michel & Nosch 2010 and Gaspa, Coton de l'Ancien Monde : domestication, culture, usages et échanges, La Poule. (cotton) and animal wool as non-pollen palynomorphs in the late Bronze Age burials of Saphar-Kharaba, southern Georgia. The continuation of our efforts will no doubt bring more results, deepening our understanding of cotton weaving techniques, widening our view of cotton use through the Old World, and unveiling interesting exchange and trading patterns. Vienna, Verein der Förderer der Sudanforschun : 33-60. L Funerary stela of Meroitic lady and her son (?) D’Hont O. & Turki I.Y. Nouvelles recherches sur l’archéologie du coton dans l’Ancien Monde : l’apport de l’interdisciplinarité, from harvesting to products and by-products uses, “Walking by, a man notices a shrub, which branches end with white flakes. . 2014 – Provenance studies of ancient textiles, a new method based on the strontium isotope system. The medieval period saw the expansion of cotton in the greater Mediterranean, and, most significantly, in Western Africa, where its traditional cultivation is still (barely) visible today. Taking the greater Mediterranean basin as an example (Letellier-Willemin, Shamir, Yvanez & Wozniak, this volume), it appears that cotton textiles share many of their characteristics with the woollen ones. Figure 7: Archaeological cotton seeds. Nicgorski It is worth mentioning a few further specific examples to illustrate the significant roles plants played in ancient economy and society and the extent to which desirable species travelled around the Mediterranean. Studying cotton, we are reconstructing the thread that linked agricultural practices to garment and, ultimately, technology to society, André Leroi-Gourhan was one of the first to propose a comprehensive view of the textile, Our main focus will be the arguably most valuable part of the plant: its fruit. . 10 First developed by prehistorians, this approach has had a great importance in the development of textile studies. She proposed, on the assumption that flax and cotton were native to different geographical regions, that twist direction could be used to identify the production centre of a yarn and hence a textile. A Download. . W 2016 – Fibres. Kvavadze E., Narimanishvili G. & Bitadze G. 2010 – Fibres of. Was it a local or a borrowed term? . In our opinion, this approach is ill suited to cotton, as cotton fibres act similarly as short-staple wool. The origin of the plant was Cyrene, a Greek colony in north Africa, and trade in it led to great prosperity for the city. . 1866 – Ibn Al-‘Awwām. A hand-help microscope with low magnification (such as a Dino-Lite with 20x – 220x magnification) can usefully supplement these preliminary observations and help in perceiving the diagnostic features of cotton fibres. , a very productive species native to Mesoamerica. Shortly after, the volume of relevant finds and documents (seeds, textiles and papyrological texts) soars, dating from the 1st-2nd c. CE onwards. To be relevant, textual analyses must start by the study and identification of cotton-related terminology21. In the first-century rubbish dumps, 94% of the cotton finds had Z-spun yarn, but only 6% S-spun. 19When the chronological and context parameters are clear, the remains of cotton plant found in archaeological situations are direct proof of the plant’s use. Garden paintings form a distinct genre within the wider corpus, and these frescoes cover entire walls in trees, shrubs, and flowers, complementing the real gardens often visible beyond the painted walls and creating an illusion of space. 16 For a modern ethnologic example, see Smolderen, this volume. 2011, 2018). : De Moor A., Fluck C. & Linscheid P. (Ed. Sarpaki P The palaeoethnobotanical approach. (Ed. Oxford University Press is a department of the University of Oxford. Moody Serpent seed, dual seed or two-seedline is a controversial [1] [2] The idea has also existed in several other non-racial contexts, and major proponents include Daniel Parker (1781–1844) [3] and William M. Branham (1909–65). The field represents an archaeological-palaeoecological approach to studying the palaeoenvironment through the methods of human palaeoecology. (Ed. Berenike may be a special case where it is relatively safe to treat spin direction as a guide to origin: lines of supply to the port were few and attenuated (Sidebotham 2011). MELETEMATA. & Fluck C. In : Fairbairn A. (Ed.) , to reconstruct the successive technical steps transforming the plant and its fibres into a range of sought-after products. This meeting focused on cultivated cottons in the Old World3, especially in the Indian subcontinent, south-west Asia, Africa and the Mediterranean (Gossypium herbaceum and Gossypium arboreum), while considering studies, methods and protocols developed for American cottons (Gossypium barbadense, Gossypium hirsutum). sp. Base Ring Ware juglet from Enkomi, Cyprus. However, to our knowledge, only the Babylonian Talmud (c. 500 CE) indicates the use of cotton seed oil, without specification regarding its function, (Decker 2009, see comment in Newman 1932), . Andersson Strand E. & Nosch M.-L. 2015 – Tools, Textiles and Contexts. Michel C. & Nosch M.-L. par analyses morphologique et morphométrique des graines. Las Chapatales (Sevilla), Spain, Figure 3: Pseudo-annual Gossypium herbaceum. Unfortunately, we do not have any clear evidence of their use in the past. It is in the context of ritual activity, therefore, that use of psychotropics in Classical Antiquity should be explored. Moreover, some species differed in life history over their geographical range. The oracle of Apollo at Delphi made pronouncements via a priestess who sat upon a tripod in a trance, the cause of which has been much debated. . Polypus and the poppy: two unusual rhyta from the Mycenaean cemetery at Mochlos. Bouchaud C. & Tallet G. in press – L’intégration du coton au sein des économies agraires antiques : un marqueur discret d’innovation. However, we assume that repetitive and high concentrations of broken cotton seeds could reflect one or several of these processes (Bouchaud et al. 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