H. H. Lamb's latest book on the earth's changing climate is a carefully crafted work covering four areas: the physical basis of climate and climate change, the methods of climate reconstruction, the history of climate since the height of the last glaciation, and the impact of climate on human affairs. The book will be of particular interest to three groups. Atmospheric scientists interested in the long history of climate behavior (but perhaps overwhelmed by Lamb's all-encompassing work on the topic, Climate: Past, Present and Future, vol. II, Methuen, New York), will find Climate History and the Modern World to be a good titration of the fuller work. Scientists in other fields, including social scientists grappling with issues of climate-society interaction, will find the book a good entree into the field. Finally, Lamb himself suggests that the book will be useful to resource managers and other decision makers trying to avoid negative climate impacts. With this last audience in mind, no doubt, Lamb has chosen a style that eschews extensive footnoting and references (though sufficient citations are included to lead to further information). This works quite well and seems reasonable in view of his carefully documented previous writings.

Climate History and the Modern World

Phytolith Analysis: An Archaeological and Geological Perspective.

The origins of bread have long been associated with the emergence of agriculture and cereal domestication during the Neolithic in southwest Asia. In this study we analyze a total of 24 charred food remains from Shubayqa 1, a Natufian hunter-gatherer site located in northeastern Jordan and dated to 14.6–11.6 ka cal BP. Our finds provide empirical data to demonstrate that the preparation and consumption of bread-like products predated the emergence of agriculture by at least 4,000 years. The interdisciplinary analyses indicate the use of some of the “founder crops” of southwest Asian agriculture (e.g., Triticum boeoticum , wild einkorn) and root foods (e.g., Bolboschoenus glaucus , club-rush tubers) to produce flat bread-like products. The available archaeobotanical evidence for the Natufian period indicates that cereal exploitation was not common during this time, and it is most likely that cereal-based meals like bread become staples only when agriculture was firmly established.

/pdf/archaeobotanical-evidence-reveals-the-origins-of-bread-14-3wwpd5bf1b.pdf

Archaeobotanical evidence reveals the origins of bread 14,400 years ago in northeastern Jordan

The cucurbit vegetables, including cucumbers, melons and pumpkins, have been cultivated for thousands of years without fungicides. However, their seed germination stage is prone to be infected by soil-borne fungal and oomycete pathogens. Endophytes are symbionts that reside inside plant tissues including seeds. Seed endophytes are founders of the juvenile plant microbiome and can promote host defense at seed germination and later stages. We previously isolated 169 bacterial endophytes associated with seeds of diverse cultivated cucurbits. We hypothesized that these endophytes can antagonize major fungal and oomycete pathogens. Here we tested the endophytes for in vitro antagonism (dual culture assays) against important soil-borne pathogens (Rhizoctonia solani, Fusarium graminearum, Phytophthora capsici, Pythium aphanideratum). The endophytes were also assayed in planta (leaf disk and detached leaf bioassays) for antagonism against a foliar pathogen of global importance, Podosphaera fuliginea, the causative agent of cucurbit powdery mildew. The endophytes were further tested in vitro for secretion of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) known to induce plant defense. Extracellular ribonuclease activity was also tested, as a subset of pathogenesis-related (PR) proteins of plant hosts implicated in suppression of fungal pathogens, displays ribonuclease activity. An unexpected majority of the endophytes (70%, 118/169) exhibited antagonism to the five phytopathogens, of which 68% (50/73) of in vitro antagonists belong to the genera Bacillus and Paenibacillus. All Lactococcus and Pantoea endophytes exhibited anti-oomycete activity. However, amongst the most effective inoculants against Podosphaera fuliginea were Pediococcus and Pantoea endophytes. Interestingly, 67% (113/169) of endophytes emitted host defense inducing VOCs (acetoin/diacetyl) and 62% (104/169) secreted extracellular ribonucleases in vitro, respectively. These results show that seeds of cultivated cucurbits package microbes with significant disease-suppression potential. As seeds can act as vectors for genetic transmission of endophytes across host generations, it is interesting to hypothesize whether humans, when selecting seeds of healthy hosts, may have inadvertently selected for disease-suppressing seed endophytes. As the majority of pathogen-suppressing endophytes belong to Bacillus and Paenibacillus, and since Bacilli are widely used as commercial biocontrol agents of vegetables, we propose that these agents are mimicking the ecological niche established by their endophytic cousins.

/pdf/bacterial-seed-endophytes-of-domesticated-cucurbits-1vr6gijnt7.pdf

Bacterial Seed Endophytes of Domesticated Cucurbits Antagonize Fungal and Oomycete Pathogens Including Powdery Mildew.

Morphometric analysis of phytoliths: recommendations towards standardization from the International Committee for Phytolith Morphometrics

Macro- and micro-archaeobotanical study of a vessel content from a Late Neolithic structured deposition from southeastern Hungary

In 2000, remains of an unknown Triticum species—later named ‘new glume wheat’ (NGW)—were identified in the archaeobotanical material of Neolithic and Bronze Age Greek sites. The presence of NGW was later reported from several other locations across Europe, from the seventh to the first millennium cal. b.c. During the systematic archaeobotanical survey of the multiperiod site of Hodmezővasarhely–Kopancs I., Olasz-tanya (5310–2936 cal. b.c.) more than 2,000 cereal remains were recovered. During the morphological analyses, ten spikelet forks showed the distinctive traits of NGW, therefore morphometric analyses were conducted on the remains to reinforce the morphological identification. The results suggest that both approaches—morphological and morphometric—should be applied in parallel to securely separate the NGW remains from Triticum turgidum L. ssp. dicoccum (Schrank) Thell. (emmer) and T. monococcum L. ssp. monococcum (einkorn). All NGW glume bases were recovered from Late Copper Age features (3338–3264 cal. b.c.) of the settlement, which represent the Baden culture of the Great Hungarian Plain. Similarly to other Baden culture sites of the Carpathian Basin einkorn and emmer dominated the crop production of the settlement. The ratio of the NGW remains within the cereal assemblage was measured to be 0.48 %, which suggests that NGW did not have the status of a regular crop; still it may have been part of the accompanying weed flora of the cereal fields during the fourth millennium in the south-eastern Great Hungarian Plain landscape.

Evidence of ‘new glume wheat’ from the Late Neolithic (Copper Age) of south-eastern Hungary (4th millennium cal. b.c. )

Everyday life in past human societies and the use of specific activity areas within settlements can be explored through the study of the remains of material culture as well as through the application of soil and plant remains analyses. This paper presents the results of complex archaeobotanical and geoarchaeological analyses conducted on 33 samples from a Roman period (1st century ad) semi-subterranean building excavated at the site of Győr-Menfőcsanak, western Hungary. The aim of this methodological experiment was to try to identify the inner space use of the building with the help of macro- and micro-archaeobotanical and geoarchaeological data. Samples from cultural sediment layers were collected in accordance with a total horizontal sampling strategy using a grid of 50 × 50 cm quadrats. The identified micro- and macrofossils found in the samples from the activity layer imply that a large amount of plant material connected to cereals (stem, leaf, glume, spike fragment, cereal grain fragment, etc.) was either processed or deposited inside the building. The overall interpretation of the distribution patterns projected on the inner space and the spatial evaluation of the data have enabled us to put forward hypotheses regarding the use of the building. Significant differences were detected within the interior space of the feature, which reflect a well-defined selectivity in internal space usage and distinction in activity areas.

Activity area analysis of a Roman period semi-subterranean building by means of integrated archaeobotanical and geoarchaeological data

Caryopsis and spikelet fork remains of Dasypyrum villosum (L.) Coss. & Durieu ex P. Candargy have been recovered from a Hallstatt period archaeobotanical assemblage (ca. 900/800–450 cal. bc) in western Hungary (Carpathian basin). The presence of D. villosum has not been reported previously from any Hungarian archaeological sites, however there are accounts of its possible occurrence from the Neolithic, the Bronze and Iron Age in northern Serbia. The exact identification of the species has been hindered by its morphological similarity to wild rye and wheat species, as well as to Secale cereale L. and Triticum timopheevii Zhuk. ssp. timopheevii. D. villosum has been found growing at seven locations in Hungary during the past 100 years. Most of these occurrences do not exist today, and the species is not considered indigenous to the present Hungarian flora. The new finds of this species from an Iron Age feature dated to 702–696 cal. bc in western Hungary leave doubts as to whether it is indigenous or not, and should encourage archaeobotanists to consider the possibility of the occurrence of this species on other sites.

The first archaeobotanical evidence of Dasypyrum villosum in Hungary: an archaeophyte weed or a native grass?

/pdf/the-archaeobotanical-assessment-of-grave-samples-from-the-1xg0fysy9y.pdf

Árpád Kenéz

Papers

Macro- and micro-archaeobotanical study of a vessel content from a Late Neolithic structured deposition from southeastern Hungary

Evidence of ‘new glume wheat’ from the Late Neolithic (Copper Age) of south-eastern Hungary (4th millennium cal. b.c. )

Activity area analysis of a Roman period semi-subterranean building by means of integrated archaeobotanical and geoarchaeological data

The first archaeobotanical evidence of Dasypyrum villosum in Hungary: an archaeophyte weed or a native grass?

The Archaeobotanical Assessment of Grave Samples from the Avar Age Cemetery of Nuštar (Eastern Croatia)