Dear Simone,
Unfortunately olive variability is such in cultivars and wild that the size
of the pips do overlap sometimes/often...In several countries you have the
varaity which is best suited for olive oil and this often happens to be of
the small size..."lianes" as we call them in Greece. The size of the olive
says nothing about its oil content...sometimes it is just more water!! In
the past I tried to measure the pip of all Greek varieties and also pips of
wild olives and I found that the only division that made sense was to group
them as small, medium and large...and the wild coincided with the small but
sometimes with the smaller of the medium.....So....I believe there is no
point to go that way....We need another tool! So it is best to just mention
that you have 2 pips of probably 2 varieties (often the thickness or
otherwise of the pip wall is another indicator...)and give some measurements
of the the 2 pips....The presence of several varieties on a site -depending
on the period of the site- might give you some indication of whether in the
area there was a large bank of perhaps wild olives or if cultivated that
they cultivated more than one variety and thus had olives for various
uses...Do not forget that even the wild olive has oil to be extracted and we
have indications that this was best for perfume industries which were oil
based... Just a few thoughts...
Anaya
-----Original Message-----
From: The archaeobotany mailing list [mailto:[log in to unmask]]
On Behalf Of Simone Riehl
Sent: Wednesday, November 26, 2008 5:09 PM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: seed size variability in olive
Dear all,
we have 2 olive stones from a toumb context in a Syrian site, which
differ considerably in size.
I would be interested in general in seed size variability of the
species and in "within-plant variability".
Can anyone recommend publications with raw data on olive seed lengths?
Thanks.
Simone
--
Simone Riehl (Dr. rer. nat., M.A., Archaeobotanist)
Institute for Prehistory and Quaternary Ecology
Ruemelinstrasse 23
D-72070 Tuebingen
Germany
Tel. / Fax +49 (0)7071 2978915 / 295717
http://www.urgeschichte.uni-tuebingen.de/index.php?id=132
http://www.cuminum.de/archaeobotany/
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