Hi Many,
The only British records of P. milicaeum I know of - but that's not to say
there aren't others - are the one from Roman London by George Willcox
(Willcox G H. 1978. Seeds from the late 2nd century pit F28. 411-4, and
Table 5. In: Dennis G. 1978. 1-7 St Thomas Street. 291-422. In: Southwark
Excavations 1972-72. London, Middlesex and Surrey Archaeol. Socs. Joint
Publication 1.), plus one for a post-medieval specimen from a site in Hull,
amongst material examined originally by Dorian Williams (Williams D. 1977.
The plant macrofossil contents of medieval Pits at Sewer Lane, Hull. 18-32.
In: Armstrong P. 1977. Excavations in Sewer Lane, Hull 1974. East Riding
Archaeol. 3. Hull Old Town Report Series 1.) and then re-examined by me. I
always suspected it was a recent contaminant, so would not make too much of
it...
I'd be pleased to hear of other records, to add to the ABCD.
Allan
--
Dr Allan Hall, English Heritage Senior Research Fellow, Department of
Archaeology, University of York, The King's Manor, York YO1 7EP, UK
+44 1904 434950 (fax 433902)
http://www.york.ac.uk/depts/arch/staff/Hall.htm
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-----Original Message-----
From: The archaeobotany mailing list [mailto:[log in to unmask]]
On Behalf Of Mandy Jay
Sent: 16 June 2008 09:50
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Panicum miliaceum in prehistoric UK
I'm working on carbon isotope shifts in late prehistoric skeletal material
(late Neolithic through to Iron Age) from both Britain & the Continent.
Millet, as a C4 plant, is a suspect for some of what I'm seeing on the
western European mainland & I've seen literature which supports the presence
of Panicum miliaceum in increasing amounts over the period I'm looking at.
But I've never seen any reference to its presence in the UK.
I'm increasingly wondering why it isn't there - surely if it's around in
small quantities in Germany, Austria, Switzerland & Denmark (for instance)
as early as the Neolithic and increasing in quantities through to the Iron
Age, it would have got to Britain somehow, at least by the Iron Age, even if
only on a bird & a breeze? I'm not necessarily so concerned about the idea
of it as a domesticated crop, only as a presence, perhaps just as a 'weed'
that could get included in the diet of domesticated herbivores.
Does anyone have any information/literature references/comments?
Mandy Jay
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