University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology Papers
Document Type
Journal Article
Date of this Version
11-2002
Publication Source
Expedition
Volume
44
Issue
3
Start Page
5
Last Page
6
Abstract
When I was in Southern Iraq in the 1970s, I collected charred woods and seed plant remains from the ancient city of Anshan, today’s Malyan. Although charcoal was plentiful, there were not many compared with other sites in the Near East. But as with those other sites, the seeds I did find included a high proportion of wild and weedy types. Yet Malyan was the capital of an ancient agricultural civilization, where wheat and barley had been cultivated for thousands of years. Why were there so many seeds of wild, nonfood plants? Even the cultigens were hard to explain.
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Keywords
agriculture
Recommended Citation
Miller, N. F. (2002). Food, Fodder, or Fuel?: Harvesting the Secrets of Ancient Seeds. Expedition, 44 (3), 5-6. Retrieved from https://repository.upenn.edu/penn_museum_papers/39
Included in
Archaeological Anthropology Commons, Biological and Physical Anthropology Commons, Social and Cultural Anthropology Commons
Date Posted: 10 November 2016