Taphonomy of plant micro-remains in environmental archaeology

The analysis of plant micro-remains, such as starch granules, phytoliths, and pollen, is now well established among the suite of analytical tools employed by environmental archaeologists to document past human-plant interactions. These micro-remains can occur as residues on pots and other plant-processing tools, in sediments from agricultural features or on-site activity areas, or trapped in dental calculus, food remains, coprolites, and stomach contents. Accurate archaeological reconstructions rely on a firm understanding of the taphonomic processes affecting plant microfossil assemblages at all stages of their depositional history. Broadly speaking, there have been two main areas of archaeological enquiry in this direction. The first examines how plant micro-remains are deposited in the archaeological record through cultural and natural processes, and the second examines how they survive archaeological time periods in their burial environment, including the possibility of postdepositional movement. Common to both is the need to understand the potential biases in the deposition, preservation, and recovery of micro-remains, depending on variables such as the plant part from which they originate (e.g., seeds, tubers, leaves, etc.), the method by which they are processed, altered, or transformed prior to deposition, the nature of the burial context and local microenvironmental conditions, and the post-excavation methods employed during analysis