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This paper compares various ‘earthen’ construction materials and building techniques from three Middle Bronze Age tell (multi-layered settlement) sites in Hungary: Százhalombatta-Földvár, Kakucs-Turján (Vatya material culture) and Borsodivánka-Marhajárás-Nagyhalom (Otomani-Füzesabony Cultural Circle (OFCC)). It employs microscopic analyses – archaeological soil micromorphology and phytolith analysis within thin sections – to examine floor, wall and fire installation materials at a high resolution. The term ‘earthen construction materials’ is used in archaeology extensively to refer to anything from soils to sediments that sometimes lack proper classification or terminology. Through a closer look at the types of materials used at the three analysed sites, we describe more clearly what comprises ‘earthen’ construction materials. Using this data, we then employ a chaîne opératoire approach to think through various stages in the sourcing and preparation of building materials. In analysing this, the paper makes visible the decisions by Bronze Age builders and discusses their possible reasons, which include environmental conditions and socially learned practices. Further, by comparing three contemporary sites within a micro-landscape, our analysis highlights that even small variations in the environment and therefore the available raw materials impact building materials and techniques, and that different groups of people can make different decisions even when facing similar environments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Százhalombatta-Földvár Bronze Age tell settlement is one of the most extensively studied sites of Hungary. Interdisciplinary approach is one of the key factors in understanding the past here. Therefore, a range of natural scientific methods are applied, including thin section soil micromorphology and phytolith analysis. The high resolution of these techniques is used to add details that are impossible via traditional archaeological means. In this paper, we aim to look at decision-making in choices of construction materials. A Middle Bronze Age house (ID 3147), belonging to the so-called Vatya Culture, was sampled to investigate the used materials, the building techniques and space use. Earthen floors, clay floor, wall and hearth material are under the microscope for a better understanding of Bronze Age construction and everyday life. Micro fragments are traced to investigate space use and activities inside the house. It is also our intention to further test the conjoint application of the abovementioned methods to add data and encourage work between the experts of the two fields as there is only a handful of such studies available. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Accurate evaluation of the preservation state of fossil phytoliths in glacial lake sediments is important, as these microfossils are often used in paleoecological and archaeological studies. The characteristic phytolith type of the Norway spruce (Picea abies [L.] Karst.) needle is a potential keystone in paleoecological studies. In this laboratory study, we investigated dissolution of Picea abies blocky type phytoliths, to simulate dissolution processes in sediments and soils and create reference material to compare with fossil phytoliths. Intact needles, needle ash, diatomite and silica gel were treated with Britton–Robinson buffer solutions at pH values from 2 to 12 for 22 days. Silicon was measured by microwave plasma atomic emission spectrometry. Treatment effects were evaluated on longitudinal cuts of needles under a stereomicroscope and on phytolith assemblages from needles using a light microscope. Surfaces of treated phytoliths were investigated by scanning electron microscope and elemental analysis of phytoliths was determined by energy dispersive X-ray fluorescence. Dissolution of silicon in spruce needles was inhibited between pH 8.0 and 11.1. Needle tissue protects phytoliths from erosion processes at this alkaline pH range. Most dissolved silicon appeared to originate from the phytolith surfaces and the silica matrix of the apoplast in the tissues, with less from complete dissolution of phytoliths. Our experiment suggests that extraneous metal elements are incorporated into the silica structure during the dissolution process. Thus, higher element content is an effect of partial dissolution rather than a cause of dissolution. Ultrastructure of the surface of Picea-blocky type phytoliths, namely disappearance of the globular structure, may be useful to assess the intensity of destructive processes in sediments. Our experimental treatments indicate that characteristic Picea-blocky phytoliths in needles can be well-preserved, depending on circumstances in sediments. Further micro-analytical measurements will make these needles promising tools for paleoenvironmental reconstructions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Phytoliths—also known as plant opals—are preserved in soils and sediments and have taxonomical relevance, therefore phytoliths can be fingerprints of the vegetation of the period from which they originated. Comparative phytolith studies are essential for finding phytolith morphotypes with taxonomic relevance. These are used to build reference collections for future palaeoecological and archaeobotanical studies. Biogenic silica extracted from the leaves of six woody species commonly occurring in temperate climate plant communities was examined using light and scanning electron microscope methods (Deciduous broad-leaved species: Corylus avellana, Fagus sylvatica, Quercus robur. Coniferous species: Abies alba, Picea abies, Pinus sylvestris). The element content of phytoliths was analysed by SEM EDX and the phytolith taxonomic diagnostic potential of element content was tested by discriminant analysis. An inventory of phytolith types with their anatomical origin was provided and type-frequencies were assessed. Three species have been systematically screened here for the first time in detail (C. avellana, F. sylvatica, Q. robur). This is the first time that a characteristic cubical phytolith morphotype ("Picea—blocky type") originating from transfusion tissue was described as a distinct layer encompassing the central cylinder of the needle. High concentrations of aluminium and magnesium in phytoliths are associated with two of three conifer species. A. alba and P. sylvestris could be differentiated statistically on the basis of elemental content. Our findings open up the possibility to identify these taxa based on their phytoliths and it is anticipated that this could be a useful tool for phytolith identification originating from soils and sediments as well. Moreover, Picea—blocky type allows comparative, in situ studies (amongst others isotopic) to provide the possibility of finding further measurable proxies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Bottle gourd ( Lagenaria siceraria (Molina) Standl.) is accepted as typical 'New World' cultivated economic plant. Currently, two subspecies are known: L. siceraria ((Molina) Standl.) ssp. siceraria has an African origin, whilst ssp. asiatica is recognized to be originating from Asian territories. It only seldom appears in European archaeological contexts, however finds from the Roman period appear sporadically. Part of a Late Middle Age (14th-15th century) settlement was excavated near the town of Pócspetri (SE Hungary) and one of the refuse pits contained waterlogged remains of several dozen dicot leaves and small sized branches (e.g. Populus sp.). In addition an entire dog skeleton and an apparently 10 cm by 7 cm bottle gourd pericarp fragment were also found in a well-preserved pot. This fortunate recovery accounts for the first evidence of bottle gourd in the archaeobotanical record of Hungary and Eastern Europe. Due to its favourable preservation not only precise morphological analysis could be undertaken, but ancient DNA (aDNA) extraction, PCR amplification and sequencing were used to identify more closely its possible origin and taxonomic relations. Different diagnostic phytolith morphotypes of the pericarp were matched to reference material phytolith assemblages. The macro-archaeobotanical record of the feature reflects the botanical elements of the natural environment of this medieval site and places the unique bottle gourd find in context. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Morphometric analysis has proven to be an effective tool for distinguishing among phytolith assemblages produced by closely related plant taxa. Elongate dendritic epidermal phytoliths are produced in the inflorescence bracts of many cereal species. Under light microscopy, these articulated dendritic phytoliths produce wave patterns between the margins of the cells that are reported to have taxonomic significance. In this study we explore morphometric variance among the lobes of the wave patterns formed by the articulated dendritic phytoliths within selected species of cereals as a first step towards understanding the variance between species. We found that there is often significant variance in dendritic wave lobes among different accessions of a species, among the different types of inflorescence bracts of the species (glumes, lemmas and paleae), and among each bract type's location on the inflorescence (upper, middle and lower third of inflorescence spike or panicle). We observed that shape morphometries are typically more reliable and require a smaller sample size for statistical confidence than size morphometries. We further observed that adequate samples sizes for analysis of several shape morphometries of articulated dendritic wave lobes are considerably smaller than those reported to be required for analysis of the same morphometries of individual or isolated dendritic phytoliths. To gain a preliminary sense whether there is potential for discriminating between taxa in light of the significant variance within species, we compared our data to archaeological material from the historical center of Brussels. We demonstrate that while there is considerable variance in the morphometries among accessions, bract types and inflorescence locations within each species, there may yet be potential for discriminating between cereal species in archaeological samples by the morphometries of their dendritic phytolith wave lobes. We present one possible paradigm for conducting such analysis on archaeological material. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Everyday life in past human societies and the use of specific activity areas within settlements can be explored through the study of the remains of material culture as well as through the application of soil and plant remains analyses. This paper presents the results of complex archaeobotanical and geoarchaeological analyses conducted on 33 samples from a Roman period (1st century ad) semi-subterranean building excavated at the site of Győr-Ménfőcsanak, western Hungary. The aim of this methodological experiment was to try to identify the inner space use of the building with the help of macro- and micro-archaeobotanical and geoarchaeological data. Samples from cultural sediment layers were collected in accordance with a total horizontal sampling strategy using a grid of 50 × 50 cm quadrats. The identified micro- and macrofossils found in the samples from the activity layer imply that a large amount of plant material connected to cereals (stem, leaf, glume, spike fragment, cereal grain fragment, etc.) was either processed or deposited inside the building. The overall interpretation of the distribution patterns projected on the inner space and the spatial evaluation of the data have enabled us to put forward hypotheses regarding the use of the building. Significant differences were detected within the interior space of the feature, which reflect a well-defined selectivity in internal space usage and distinction in activity areas. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Caryopsis and spikelet fork remains of Dasypyrum villosum (L.) Coss. & Durieu ex P. Candargy have been recovered from a Hallstatt period archaeobotanical assemblage (ca. 900/800-450 cal. bc) in western Hungary (Carpathian basin). The presence of D. villosum has not been reported previously from any Hungarian archaeological sites, however there are accounts of its possible occurrence from the Neolithic, the Bronze and Iron Age in northern Serbia. The exact identification of the species has been hindered by its morphological similarity to wild rye and wheat species, as well as to Secale cereale L. and Triticum timopheevii Zhuk. ssp. timopheevii. D. villosum has been found growing at seven locations in Hungary during the past 100 years. Most of these occurrences do not exist today, and the species is not considered indigenous to the present Hungarian flora. The new finds of this species from an Iron Age feature dated to 702-696 cal. bc in western Hungary leave doubts as to whether it is indigenous or not, and should encourage archaeobotanists to consider the possibility of the occurrence of this species on other sites. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In 2000, remains of an unknown Triticum species-later named 'new glume wheat' (NGW)-were identified in the archaeobotanical material of Neolithic and Bronze Age Greek sites. The presence of NGW was later reported from several other locations across Europe, from the seventh to the first millennium cal. b.c. During the systematic archaeobotanical survey of the multiperiod site of Hódmezővásárhely-Kopáncs I., Olasz-tanya (5310-2936 cal. b.c.) more than 2,000 cereal remains were recovered. During the morphological analyses, ten spikelet forks showed the distinctive traits of NGW, therefore morphometric analyses were conducted on the remains to reinforce the morphological identification. The results suggest that both approaches-morphological and morphometric-should be applied in parallel to securely separate the NGW remains from Triticum turgidum L. ssp. dicoccum (Schrank) Thell. (emmer) and T. monococcum L. ssp. monococcum (einkorn). All NGW glume bases were recovered from Late Copper Age features (3338-3264 cal. b.c.) of the settlement, which represent the Baden culture of the Great Hungarian Plain. Similarly to other Baden culture sites of the Carpathian Basin einkorn and emmer dominated the crop production of the settlement. The ratio of the NGW remains within the cereal assemblage was measured to be 0.48 %, which suggests that NGW did not have the status of a regular crop; still it may have been part of the accompanying weed flora of the cereal fields during the fourth millennium in the south-eastern Great Hungarian Plain landscape. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]