Dear Marianne and all,
Xanthium is a ruderal weed in synanthropic and riverine areas ("Stromtalpflanze" in
German). It occurs regularely (but very rare, about 1 in 100 000) in huge archaeobotanical
materials, from the Neolithic to modern times.
Mid of the 20th century, there was a time when it was said to be of American origin.
It is not true, it's an Old World species.
The fruits are quite big, so many of the records are parts of these fruits, easy to determine
because of the typical spiny surface of the fruit.
I found Xanthium recently in the Neolithic settlement Okoliste on the banks of river Bosna
near Sarajevo.
Xanthium is a rare but wide spread ruderal weed.
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Am 17 Feb 2009 um 11:35 hat Marianne Kohler-Schneider geschrieben:
Dear colleagues!
We have recently made a find of charred Iron Age Xanthium strumarium, which possibly
originates from a purely agrarian/ruderal context far from any riverine habitat. We would like
to know wheather anybody in Europe has similar records where a fluviatile provenience can
be excluded.
This point would be interesting because Brinkkemper and Kuijper (1993) suggest contra
Opravil (1983) that Xanthium strumarium has left ist original habitats along rivers only since
the Middle Ages and has become a ruderal/segetal plant only thereafter. All the early
archaeobotanical records of which I know could come from fields and ruderal sites as well
as from nearby rivershores (e.g. Dalnoki and Jacomet 2002).
Kind regards,
Marianne
ao. Univ. Prof. Dr. Marianne Kohler-Schneider
Archäobotanik, Institut für Botanik
Department für Integrative Biologie
Universität für Bodenkultur Wien
Gregor Mendel-Strasse 33
A-1180 Wien
Tel.: 0043-1-47654-3160
Fax: 0043-1-47654-3180
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http://www.boku.ac.at/botanik/archaeo/
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Dr. Helmut Kroll
Institut für Ur- und Frühgeschichte der Universität, 24098 Kiel
Tel. 0431 880-3654; - 2338; Fax -7300
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