Palaeoethnobotany = Archaeobotany, methods and achievements

Abstract

Archaeobotany (palaeoethnobotany) is a science that studies fossil plant remains and, as a result of their analysis, establishes the time and place of origin of cultivated plants and their further distribution. Obtaining information is closely related to archaeological research. The results of archaeobotanical research are of interest to historians, botanists, ethnographers, anthropologists, agronomists, chemists, and linguists. Since the identification of random fossils, archaeobotany has come a long way in a relatively short period of time and has made many achievements along the way. Archaeobotany is directly related to social problems. After all, agricultural activity is the interaction of man with the environment in the process of formation of new plant communities (cultivated plants and weeds), deforestation, the emergence of new landscapes. Ukraine together with Moldova is the first region on the territory of the Eastern European plain, which found itself on the path of Neolithic farmers of Middle Eastern origin, who came here through the Balkans from the Middle East and brought with them the range of the first domesticated plants combined with traditional cultivation. Based on the study of archaeobotanical materials picture of the appearance and distribution of these cultivated plants in Ukraine is reproduced. The change in the composition of the most widely used edible plants, especially cereals: wheat, barley, rye, oats, millet, as well as legumes: peas, lentils and industrial crops – flax, hemp for thousands of years, in different chronological periods, starting from the appearance of the first Asia Minor agricultural tribes to the Middle Ages. In recent years archaeobotanists have been studying not only traditional fossil charred grains and seeds and their imprints, but also studying charred fragments of parenchyma, charcoals, and phytoliths. The chemical composition of plant origin, which is studied using a mass spectrometer, is taken into account, and studies of stable isotopes and the composition of ancient DNA are carried out. Genetic markers are used to determine the condition of fossil plants and animals, whether they are cultivated or wild, as well as to address the time and place of origin of domesticated plants and animals. Each of these studies requires modern technical equipment and special knowledge.