The Partnerships In Research Program has been developed to enchourage cutting edge archaeobotanical and Quaternary paleoecological research through assistance in research design development, sampling strategy refinement, and budget assistance to qualifying entities.

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Partnership in Research Program

Paleo Research Institute, Inc. announces its new program – Partnership in Research. This program offers a discount for services when Paleo Research Institute staff participates in developing a sampling strategy to answer questions posed by the client’s research design and the archaeologist then implements the sampling strategy. Generally, these sampling strategies are more intensive than “normal” sampling strategies employed by field archaeologists. They maximize the data return from individual projects, rather than merely repeating the same sampling designs, resulting in recovering the same, partial data set and attempting to interpret it.

For the past approximately 35 years contract archaeology has contributed to the growing body of knowledge inherited from academic programs. During this same interval academic programs and field schools have varied widely, many continuing with their “tried and true” sampling designs. Generally speaking, contract archaeology has had more opportunity and more funding to pursue research questions than most academic programs and field schools. During this 35 year period advances have been made in both research and sampling designs. For people working in the field for at least 20 of those 35 years, many of the research designs are becoming repetitive. We’d like to change that.

During the same 35 years the field of archaeobotany has grown substantially. At the beginning of this period macrofloral analysis was accepted, but not particularly common. Palynology on sediments from archaeological sites was rare and phytolith analysis was generally not attempted. Now macrofloral analysis is generally accepted as essential and pollen and phytolith analyses are accepted regionally, but not nationally. Attempts to extract pollen from sediments in the eastern half of the North American continent have met with only intermittent success. Early failures in extraction resulted in the generally accepted excuse that pollen was not preserved. Advances in pollen extraction methods have met with deaf ears and not been widely accepted. Instead, researchers in the eastern part of the continent prefer to attempt to substitute phytolith analysis. Although pollen and phytolith analyses are complimentary, one does not substitute for the other. Phytoliths are no more “stable” in the sediments than pollen. Once deposited the same factors affect pollen and phytoliths with respect to mobility. Different agents affect preservation. Oxidation is a problem with pollen, but it is a severe problem primarily in sediments that are orange or yellow in color (visible evidence of oxidation). Sediments that are brown should be tested for pollen. Phytoliths are subject to dissolution in wet, alkaline sediments and under other conditions. Evidence of partial dissolution is noted as pitting on the surface of phytoliths and in records that are comprised primarily of buliforms, elongates, and other large phytoliths. The absence of short cells and small forms is usually related to dissolution.

Sampling strategies must, of necessity, reflect research questions. Because extraction methods have improved over the past several decades, sampling strategies should be modified to acknowledge our superior lab skills. This approach has rarely been taken.

Stratigraphic sampling is possible at very fine intervals – for instance 1 cm intervals. We find that 2 cm intervals are practical and attainable in most sediments. We formally recommend a sampling strategy of 2 cm intervals as the “normal” vertical interval for paleoenvironmental reconstructions. In the past, archaeologists have sought resolution at 200-500 year intervals for their stratigraphic, paleoenvironmental reconstructions. Human life spans were (and still are) considerably shorter than that. If we are to use paleoenvironmental to reconstruct past vegetation communities and climates and interpret past landscapes on a scale relevant to human decisions of the past, we must abandon previous methods and embrace the new paradigm of sampling to reflect time scales of decades, which should provide information relevant to understanding people and their decisions.

We took an excellent, close-interval stratigraphic pollen record from KibRidge-Yampa Paleoindian Site in northwestern Colorado and combined several of the samples mathematically to simulate coarser sampling strategies. We found a significant loss of data and a loss of confidence in the interpretation of the paleoenvironment. Imagine processing bulk radiocarbon dates for your site. Most archaeologists run multiple bulk dates to establish a pattern then can “believe” in. The same holds true for stratigraphic pollen records. One excellent, close-interval stratigraphic pollen record from an area provides an excellent paleoenvironmental record and need not be repeated for each site that has the same time intervals. Currently coarser intervals are being sampled at each individual archaeological site, providing a partial paleoenvironmental record that is so averaged over time that the details of paleoenvironmental change are lost. For researchers committed to working in an area or region, we recommend investing in analysis of a single, close-interval stratigraphic pollen column for the area. Then, as new depositional units become obvious, additional stratigraphic pollen analysis can be added to this detailed data base.

Floors – Sampling floors as a single, composite sample, provides only the most meager interpretation of plants that people processed. In a study of a pithouse floor, samples were collected from quarter-meter grid squares (yes, expensive). Analysis of these samples yielded evidence of at least 20 plants that were processed, stored, or used in the structure. Our mathematical construct of combining samples to create the pollen record from the originally recommended 13 samples, dropped recovery of pollen evidence of economically important plants to 10. When we combined the samples further to yield 6 samples, we dropped the number of economic plants represented in the pollen record to 6. When we combined all of the samples into a single sample, we were left with a very meager 5 plants identified as economically important (see table below). So, for people wanting the proverbial “laundry list” of the plants that people used, obtaining that list does not appear to be possible from a single, composite sample collected from a structure floor. Although grid square sampling might seem to be an extreme measure to take to obtain subsistence information, it produces results far above those obtained through lesser sampling designs. Information obtained from examining floor samples is excellent for building a picture of local paleo cuisine (see below).

Paleo Cuisine – Yes, there is a signature of regional cuisines in the archaeobotanic record. Visit “Chez Paleo” for our “Monthly Menu”. After examining archaeobotanic records for more than 30 years, it’s time to put our results to better use than merely listing the plants utilized. Therefore, we have taken our concept of “Tasting the Past”, presented as symposia at regional meetings (Plains Conference and Great Basin Conference so far) into our very own, virtual restaurant “Chez Paleo”. While under construction now, we will feature “menus” drawn from our past symposia, then will branch out into discussing regional cuisines as we find them represented in regions represented in our various samples. Watch for photos of our cooking experiments! Create your own taste tests.