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A new way of seeing pulses: preliminary results of geometric morphometric analyses of Iron Age seeds from the site of La Font de la Canya (Barcelona, Spain)

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Abstract

This study applied size and shape analyses through traditional and geometric morphometrics to quantify the differences between three taxa: Lathyrus sativus (grass pea), Lens culinaris (lentil) and Vicia faba (broad bean). This analysis represents a pilot study in view of a wider future application of this technique to identify the role of legumes throughout the Western Mediterranean in the Bronze and Iron Ages. Here, we quantify the morphological differences of seed species from the site of La Font de la Canya (Catalonia, Spain), an Iron Age (625–150 bc) centre of storage and trade which delivered a vast assemblage of cereal, fruit and legume remains. Our results reveal that seed outline analyses have a greater potential of prediction than length measurements. The combination of the two, however, leads to even more precise predictions. Moreover, the quantitative differences between the lentils of the different samples confirm the potential of these analyses to further identify intra-species morphotypes.

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Acknowledgements

This study was by funded by the Projects HAR2016-78277-R and PID2019-110022GB-I00 of the “Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad” (Spain) and SGR2017-1714 of the “Generalitat de Catalunya” (Catalonia, Spain) belonging to the University of Lleida. The original English draft of this paper was reviewed by T. J. Anderson. The Font de la Canya site is part of the project “El canvi sociocultural a la Cessetània oriental durant la protohistòria i l’època romana republicana” of the University of Barcelona.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. GIP, 3DPatrimoni, Departament d’Història, Fac. de Lletres, INDEST, Universitat de Lleida, Pl. Victor Siurana, 1, 25003, Lleida, Catalonia, Spain

    Miguel Tarongi & Natàlia Alonso

  2. ISEM - UMR 5554, Université Montpellier C/C 065, CNRS, EPHE, IRD, Place Eugène Bataillon, 34095, Montpellier Cedex 05, France

    Vincent Bonhomme, Allowen Evin, Sarah Ivorra & Laurent Bouby

  3. ArqueoVitis Sccl, Camí de Sant Pere d’Avinyó, s/n 08973 Avinyonet del Penedès, Barcelona, Spain

    Dani López

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  1. Miguel Tarongi
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Tarongi, M., Bonhomme, V., Evin, A. et al. A new way of seeing pulses: preliminary results of geometric morphometric analyses of Iron Age seeds from the site of La Font de la Canya (Barcelona, Spain). Veget Hist Archaeobot 30, 77–87 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00334-020-00801-2

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