Cereal Agriculture
Does your site contain any of these? --(Cut Phytolith)
Could people have been using one of these?
(Photo by Patricia Anderson)
Presesnce of cut phytoliths indicates use of threashing sledges (tribulum, trillo and various other names). These tools for cutting straw and threashing cereals are ancient, dating back to at least 8000 B.C. in the Near East. They were part of the tool kit that accompanied diffusion of argiculture involving cereal grains within the Old World and from the Old World to the New World.
Recovery of cut phytoliths can be used to identify ancient or historic use of bladed threshing sledges. Some ideas of types of samples to test:
- threshing floors
- adobe bricks, mud bricks, or places where adobe or mud was mixed
- storage (areas in rooms, structures), silos
- groundstone washes
- residue in vessels
- vessel washes
- hearths, kilns, ash
- animal dung, places where animal dung was used or stored
- animal enclosures
- places where animal feed was stored