Hi Marijke and all,

I have found:

Parthian rice (the earliest I know of in the Near East; 1st century AD) at Susa, Iran:

Miller, Naomi F. 

1981 Plant Remains from Ville Royale II, Susa. Cahiers de la Délégation Archéologique Française en Iran 12: 137-142. [Download pdf]

Islamic era rice (a few grains and a few glume fragments) and a few cotton seeds at Gordion, Turkey (dated 13th-14th century AD): 
Miller, Naomi F.
in press   Botanical Aspects of Environment and Economy at Gordion, Turkey. University of Pennsylvania Museum, Philadelphia.
 
[that monograph is scheduled to appear in 2010]

[I have put several of my more obscure botanical reports on line...http://www.sas.upenn.edu/~nmiller0/ and go to 'self-promotion' and then 'publications list']. I hope to be adding a few more in the coming weeks.]

That's it for now. Naomi

On Sep 14, 2009, at 10:18 AM, Van Der Veen, Prof M. wrote:

Dear all
 
I am in the process of writing up Quseir al-Qadim (Egypt) plant remains, where I have found a number of so-called summer crops, which have been the focus of debates about the Early Islamic agricultural revolution in the Near East (Watson 1983). I would be very interested to hear from you if you have found any of the following crops in North Africa, East Africa, the Arabian Peninsula, the Near East, esp. when dating to the period c. AD1 – 1500.
 
The species I am interested in are:
Sorghum bicolor, sorghum
Pennisetum glaucum, pearl millet, bulrush millet
Saccharum officinarum, sugar-cane
Oryza sativa, rice
Gossypium sp., cotton (old world)
Citrus species
Musa spp., banana
Solanum melongena, aubergine
Colocasia esculenta, taro
Citrullus vulgaris, watermelon
Cynara cardunculus/scolymus, artichoke
Spinacia oleracea, spinach
Mangifera indica, mango
Cocos nucifera, coconut
 
If you have archaeobotanical records of any of these, would you send me a reference and, if possible, an offprint or xerox.
 
Many thanks,
 
Marijke
 
-----
Professor Marijke van der Veen, MA, PhD, FSA
School of Archaeology & Ancient History
University of Leicester
University Road
Leicester LE1 7RH
England

-------------------------------------

Naomi F. Miller

Research Project Manager, Near East Section

University of Pennsylvania Museum

3260 South Street

Philadelphia, PA 19104

--------------------------------------

tel: 215.898.4075; FAX: 215.898.0657

http://www.sas.upenn.edu/~nmiller0/