Miller, Naomi F
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Publication Godin Tepe, Iran: Plant Remains from Period V, the Late Fourth Millennium B.C.(1990-08-16) Miller, Naomi FPlant remains from the Citadel Mound at Godin Tepe that date to the late 4th millennium B.C. were analyzed. The main crops represented are: lentil (Lens culinaris), bread/hard wheat (Triticum aestivum or T. durum), emmer (T. dicoccum) and barley (Hordeum vulgare), at least some of which is the 6-row type. Comparisons with contemporary sites in Turkey and Iran give some support to the view of the excavators that the residents of the Citadel Mound may well have come from the lowlands.Publication Review of Plants and Humans in the Near East and the Caucasus: Ancient and Traditional Uses of Plants as Food and Medicine, a Diachronic Ethnobotanical Review (2 vols)(2014-01-01) Miller, Naomi FReview of Plants and Humans in the Near East and the Caucasus: Ancient and Traditional Uses of Plants as Food and Medicine, a Diachronic Ethnobotanical Review (2 vols). Vol. 1: The Landscapes. The Plants: Ferns and Gymnosperms. Vol. 2: The Plants: Angiosperms. Diego Rivera Núñez, Gonzalo Matilla Séiquer, Concepción Obón, Francisco Alcaraz Ariza. 2011. Ediciones de la Unverisdad de Murcia. Pp. 1056. EUR 23.76 (paperback). ISBN 978-84-15463-07-08 (2 vols.), 978-84-15463-05-4 (vol. 1), 978-84-15463-06-1 (vol. 2).Publication An Archaeobotanical Perspective on Environment, Plant Use, Agriculture, and Interregional Contact in South and Western Iran(2011-01-01) Miller, Naomi FPlant remains from archaeological sites reflect many aspects of the relationship between people, plants, and the environment in which they lived. Plant macroremains—seeds and wood that are visible without a microscope—can address a wide range of questions. The most basic include what crops were grown? What was used for fuel? Do any of the plants come from distant lands? Examples from fourth and third millennium deposits at Farukhabad, Sharafabad, Godin, and Malyan show that within the basic agricultural assemblage of wheat and barley shared by all sites, Sharafabad and Godin have stronger evidence of irrigation, lentil and flax, and Farukhabad appears to be more oriented toward pastoral production than the other sites. This article provides an introduction to archaeobotany using examples drawn from several fourth and third millennium sites in southern and western Iran. Human impact on the vegetation in Khuzestan and Fars appears to have been minimal at this time. A few unexpected finds (a date pit from cold-country/Sardsir Malyan suggests trade and rice at Parthian Susa may be evidence of a new crop that had long been cultivated in the Indus valley.Publication What Mean These Seeds: A Comparative Approach to Archaeological Seed Analysis(1989) Miller, Naomi FSince uncharred seeds recovered from archaeological deposits may be modern intrusions, researchers must evaluate each uncharred seed assemblage before assigning archaeological significance to it. When depositional circumstances are established, seed remains can yield primary data about diet, farming practices, and the spread of imported cultigens. Three uncharred seed assemblages are evaluated—one from Morven (Princeton, New Jersey) and two from the Calvert site (Annapolis, Maryland). The Morven seeds are modern. Seeds from a dry crawl space at the Calvert site probably date to the late 18th century, but rodent disturbance could have introduced more recent materials. Waterlogged seeds from a sealed 18th century well most securely reflect 18th century debris.Publication Symbols of Fertility and Abundance in the Royal Cemetery at Ur, Iraq(2013-01-01) Miller, Naomi FFertility and abundance are important themes of ancient Mesopotamian texts and images. The goddess Inanna and her consort Dumuzi personify these ideas in texts of the second millennium B.C.E. Excavated by Leonard Woolley in the 1920s, the Royal Cemetery at Ur dates to the mid third millennium B.C.E. Among the tombs, that of Queen Puabi yielded many ornaments of gold, carnelian, and lapis. Some of the pendants realistically depict identifiable animals. Others are more stylized depictions of clusters of apples, dates, and date inflorescences. Apples and dates are both associated with the goddess Inanna, who is associated with love and fertility. Twisted wire pendants in the same group of objects are not so readily identified. I propose here that the twisted wire pendants in the Puabi assemblage may literally represent rope, symbolically reference sheep, and narratively evoke the flocks of the shepherd Dumuzi. Pairing symbols of Inanna and Dumuzi evokes life in a place of death.Publication Serendipity: Secrets of the Mudballs(2006-11-01) Miller, Naomi F; Leaman, Kimberly E; Unruh, JulieA surprising amount of archaeological discovery consists simply of connecting the disparate bits of information that an average archaeologist holds in her mind. Such a connection occurred recently at the Museum’s research project in Gordion, Turkey, leading us to a new insight into ancient textile production.Publication Publication Reconciling Nature and Culture After "Naissance des Divinités, Naissance de l’Agriculture"(2011-05-10) Miller, Naomi FIn Naissance des divinités, Naissance de l’agriculture, Jacques Cauvin proposes that agriculture could not have begun without a prior sudden mental transformation, and that the Near East case is exceptional. His emphasis on the primacy of ideas leads him to devalue the influence that foragers have on their environment, and to erroneously assume that agriculture represented a “control” over nature that was qualitatively new. It is clear that ancient people had a deep understanding of their physical, biotic, and sociocultural environments, and societies that succeeded worked within the constraints imposed by all those domains.Publication Intentional Burning of Dung as Fuel: A Mechanism for the Incorporstion of Charred Seeds Into the Archaeological Record(1984-05-01) Miller, Naomi F; Smart, Tristine LAn important concern of paleoethnobotanists is accounting for the presence and charring of seeds recovered archeologically. The possibility that seeds can be brought to a site incorporated in animal dung and charred when that dung is burned as fuel is considered. Researchers have shown that animal dung can contain seeds. Ethnoarcheological data from the rural village of Malyan, Iran demonstrate that seeds can be charred when dung is burned as fuel and can be recovered from deposits analogous to those commonly encountered archeologically. A description of the residue from burning dung, based on an examination of modern samples from Black Mesa, Arizona, is provided. Four conditions for determining whether the use of dung fuel might account for the presence of a charred seed assemblage are presented. Finally, two specific archeological examples are discussed in which this interpretation seems plausible for some portions of the charred seed assemblage: the archeological site of Malyan, a third millennium B.C. urban center in southern Iran, and the Tierra Blanca site, a Late Prehistoric habitation site in the Texas panhandle.Publication Clearing Land for Farmland and Fuel in the Ancient Near East(1990) Miller, Naomi F