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It is not unusual to find many seeds of ruderals in archaeobotanical samples here in the USA, such as you have found. Since they are seeds of disturbed ground, also called pioneer plants, and taxa such as Chenopodium and Polygonum produce hundreds of seeds, I interpret them as being deposited in the seed bank of old agricultural fields, but not necessarily in ancient fields. They will naturally move downward and be distributed by the action of invertebrates as they move around in the soils. Ants and other invertebrates are ever present in soils and I find heads and other insect body parts which I believe occur naturally since the insects are commonly found in the same soils. If feature soils are collected in levels, you will often find that the number of seeds diminishes with depth. Tonya Largy, M.A. Archaeobotany Consultant Wayland, Massachusetts USA Roman Hovsepyan wrote: > Dear Llorenç Picornell, > > I also found such a concentration of plants (Chenopodium, Amaranthus, > Salsola, Anchusa, Polygonum, etc.) seeds for many times. In my cases, > they are mostly collected by insects or rodents. I suppose about that > by contemporary presence and activity of those animals at the site and > by findings of remnants of those animals in the places of > concentration of those seeds (i.e. ants heads, mice bones, etc.). But > i also do not reject possibility that those seeds storages are made by > ancient insects and rodents who lived in the site with man in the > past. It is more probable when you find those concentrations in > comparably deeper layers. > > With regards, > Roman > Roman Hovsepyan, PhD in Biology > Research Scientist, Institute of Archaeology and Ethnography NAS RA > Address: 15 Charents str., 0025, Yerevan, Armenia > Tel.: (+374) 55 55 05 29 /mobile/ > E-mail: [log in to unmask] > > ------------------------------------------------------------------------ > *From:* Llorenç Picornell Gelabert <[log in to unmask]> > *To:* [log in to unmask] > *Sent:* Tuesday, July 12, 2011 2:49 PM > *Subject:* ruderal uncarbonized seeds in archaeological layer > > Dear collegues, > We have rcently carried out a seed study in an Iron Age archaeological > site in Mallorca (Balearic Islands, Spain), in a Mediterranean > environment. > In one of the analyzed archeological layers, a large assemblage of > uncarbonised seeds has been recovered, with a lerge number of > uncarbonised seeds of Chenopodium cf. muralis, Fumana cf. officinalis, > Mercurialis annua and Beta sp. All these taxa could correspond to a > ruderal plant community. > In this studied sedimentological layer, evidences of human occupation > are obvious as the sediments contain pottery, bones, charcoal... > However, this layer corresponds to an open air structure of the main > building. > Our question concerns the taphonomy of this seed asemblage as we are > considering the hypoythesis of a human influence but we want to > evaluate the possible influence of the insect activity, such as ants, > in the formation of this seed assemblages in soils. > We would apreciate any information, publications, personal experiences > and suggestions about the composition and taphonomy of this kind of > assemblage to confirm or discart this possibility. > > Thank you in advance for your interest and collaboration, > Best wishes, > Llorenç Picornell > Santiago Riera > Giovanna Bosi > >