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Crop husbandry activities and wild plant gathering, use and consumption at the EPPNB Tell Qarassa North (south Syria)

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Abstract

The Early Pre-Pottery Neolithic B (EPPNB) in southwest Asia is a fundamental period in research on the origins of domesticated plants. However, there are few archaeobotanical data with which to characterise the plant-based subsistence and crop husbandry activities during this time, which hinders the understanding of the factors that triggered the appearance of plant domestication. In this paper, analyses of non-woody plant macro-remains provide new insights into subsistence activities such as crop cultivation (husbandry activities and storage) and plant use (wild plant gathering and food preparation) during the EPPNB at Tell Qarassa North (south Syria). We make comparisons between Tell Qarassa North and the evidence at earlier and later periods as to how plants were used, and highlight similarities and differences in the practices attested, as well as describing some of the consequences that these plant-related activities may have had in terms of labour and social organization during EPPNB.

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Acknowledgments

This paper is based on Amaia Arranz-Otaegui’s PhD thesis and is dedicated to Lydia Zapata, one of the PhD supervisors, who provided great support and encouragement throughout. The research was conducted during Amaia Arranz-Otaegui’s postgraduate study at the University of the Basque Country with the financial support of the Basque Government (Pre-doctoral Grant Number: BFI.09.249) and the UPV/EHU: Research Group IT622-13/UFI 11-09. The Qarassa project was funded by the Spanish Institute of Cultural Heritage (Ministry of Culture); the Ministry of Science and Innovation, R+D Projects: BHA2003-09685-CO2-01, HUM2007-66128-C02-01, HUM2007-66128-C02-02 and HAR2013-47480-P; and the Government of Catalonia, EXCAVA Programme. We would like to thank the two anonymous reviewers for their valuable comments, which have greatly improved the text. We are also grateful to Leilani Lucas and Tobias Richter for their suggestions.

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  1. Department of Cross-Cultural and Regional Studies, University of Copenhagen, Karen Blixens Vej 4, 2300, Copenhagen, Denmark

    Amaia Arranz-Otaegui

  2. Institute of Archaeology, University College London, 31-34 Gordon Square, London, WC1H 0PY, UK

    Sue Colledge

  3. Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas, Instituto Milá y Fontanals, c/Egipciaques 15, 08001, Barcelona, Spain

    Juan José Ibañez

  4. Department of Geography, Prehistory and Archaeology, University of the Basque Country – Euskal Herriko Unibertsitatea, Francisco Tomás y Valiente s/n, 01006, Vitoria-Gasteiz, Spain

    Lydia Zapata

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  1. Amaia Arranz-Otaegui
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Correspondence to Amaia Arranz-Otaegui.

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Arranz-Otaegui, A., Colledge, S., Ibañez, J.J. et al. Crop husbandry activities and wild plant gathering, use and consumption at the EPPNB Tell Qarassa North (south Syria). Veget Hist Archaeobot 25, 629–645 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00334-016-0564-0

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