Abstract
The fire that partly destroyed a 4th millennium BCE building at Shahi Tump in the Kech Valley of south-western Pakistan is responsible for the exceptional preservation by carbonisation of a net found on the burnt floor as a heap of entangled cords and knots. Macro- and microscopic observation has allowed a reconstruction of the techniques used to manufacture the net from a two-strand plied cord. The comparison of the phytoliths extracted from the archaeological net to those from a modern reference collection suggests the use of fibres that originate from the leaves of a local palm species: the desert palm or Nannorrhops ritchieana (Griff.) Aitch. Besides the technical and archaeobotanical aspects of the study, the paper discussed past and present uses of the desert palm in the arid regions of the Middle East as well as the possible utilisation (fishing, carrying etc.) of the protohistoric net.
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Notes
The monocotyledons constitute a class of flowering plants (Angiosperms) characterised by several morphological criteria, among them the presence of parallel venation of the leaves. Several economically important plant families belong to the monocotyledons for example the grasses (Poaceae) and the palms (Arecaceae).
The observation of these silica particles is best in a mounting with a refractive index different from that of silica. Silica having a refractive index (n) between 1.41 and 1.47, it is preferable to use a mounting solution with a different refractive index, such as Canada balsam (n = 1.54) (Parry and Smithson 1958; Locquin and Langeron 1978; Prychid et al. 2004).
The stegmatas are the cells associated with fibres and in which phytoliths form.
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Thomas, R., Tengberg, M., Moulhérat, C. et al. Analysis of a protohistoric net from Shahi Tump, Baluchistan (Pakistan). Archaeol Anthropol Sci 4, 15–23 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12520-011-0078-8
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12520-011-0078-8