Yes, I totally believe that we need a 'Do-you-mind-if-I-ask-you-a-quick-question?' period at AEA (or other) meetings. We often do come across something which we do not know and nobody around us does....!!So yes interdisciplinary question time would be a solution. Moreover, I believe we do need to make a list of the most common pesky 'seed'-like items with their explanations. At one time in Greece, someone had sorted small rounded 'seed-like' items and thought they were legumes. When I asked a geologist, I was told they were sphaerulites....nearly totally round, black but had reddish centres...When broken they looked like they had iron in them.
Anaya
-----Original Message-----
From: The archaeobotany mailing list [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Don O'Meara
Sent: Saturday, May 14, 2011 12:38 AM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: mineralised 'mystery objects' photograph
I don't think they're hammer scale. Spheroidal hammer slag does float, but is (in my experience) a dark grey/black and more definately spherical. That's not to say this material is not formed from a high temperature process. I've come across small (usually spheroid) slag like items in flots before and have suggested they might be from naturally occuring minerals in the soil being heat affected by fire (a smaller version of what might happen in a furnace). Material I'm working on from near Hull (on very heavy clays, not sure of the soil type might affect their frequency) has thrown up occasional mystery items which leave me stumped.
This thread has opened a Pandora's box regarding what we do when items outside out specialism appear under the microscope. At a recent meeting of environmental archaeology post-grads I heard the same problems from entomologists and malacologists who found pesky seeds in their samples but didn't know if they were important or not. I'm sure we've all come across small snail shells in our samples and don't know what to do with them. I wonder is there some scope for an interdisciplinary 'Do-you-mind-if-I-ask-you-a-quick-question?' period at AEA (or other) meetings?
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