1. Strontium isotope evidence for Pre-Islamic cotton cultivation in Arabia.
- Author
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Ryan, Saskia E., Douville, Eric, Dapoigny, Arnaud, Deschamps, Pierre, Battesti, Vincent, Guihou, Abel, Lebon, Matthieu, Rohmer, Jérome, Dabrowski, Vladimir, Prà, Patricia Dal, Nehmé, Laïla, Zazzo, Antoine, Bouchaud, Charlène, and Harlavan, Yehudit
- Subjects
STRONTIUM isotopes ,COTTON growing ,FARM produce ,TRADE routes ,AGROBIODIVERSITY - Abstract
With a view to understanding the dynamics of ancient trade and agrobiodiversity, archaeobotanical remains provide a means of tracing the trajectories of certain agricultural commodities. A prime example is cotton in Arabia, a plant that is nonnative but has been found in raw seed and processed textile form at Hegra and Dadan, in the region of al-'Ulā, north-western Saudi Arabia -- sites of critical importance given their role in the trans-Arabian trading routes during Antiquity. Here, we demonstrate that the measurement of strontium isotopes from pre-cleaned archaeological cotton is methodologically sound and is an informative addition to the study of ancient plant/textile provenance, in this case, putting forward evidence for local production of cotton in oasis agrosystems and possible external supply. The presence of locally-grown cotton at these sites from the late 1st c. BCE-mid 6th c. CE is significant as it demonstrates that cotton cultivation in Arabia was a Pre-Islamic socio-technical feat, while imported cotton highlights the dynamism of trade at that time. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
- Published
- 2023
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