Plants in Archaeology

Описание: For this show, CT State Archaeologist Sarah Sportman and FOSA President Scott Brady were joined by Dr. William Farley, who is an Assistant Professor at Southern CT State University and who specializes in Paleobotany, and Krista Dozel, PhD candidate at the University of CT (and who was 1 of 2 recipients of the first Cooke Scholarships in 2019).

William's main interest is in Native New England during the Colonial period (1600-1675), while Krista's is in Paleoindian and Archaic Archaeology and Paleoenvironmental Reconstruction. Work in the Colonial period involves much use of core samples, from which plant samples are extracted using water floatation and filters, to separate the plant material. Paleoindian sampling is often done with microscopic plant remains, which must often be chemically separated from the materials they're found in. Both, however, are attempts to track both cultural and environmental evolutionary trends, be they for European-Native contact or the much longer periods preceding Contact. Particularly for the latter, phytoliths (residues of minerals absorbed by a plant, such as silica, calcium, and opal, which provide clues to the environment in which the plant lived.

To learn more about FOSA, please visit our website - https://www.fosa-ct.org/