carpology

Carpology is the study of plant remains recovered from archaeological contexts, especially seeds, fruits, nutshells, and other macrobotanical deposits. It seeks to identify plant taxa and to reconstruct past environments, diets, and agricultural practices. In many regions it is a core component of archaeobotany or paleoethnobotany.

Researchers identify plant remains by comparing them with modern reference collections and by examining morphological features such as seed shape, surface texture, and internal structures. They distinguish wild from domesticated taxa, infer cultivation and processing methods, and document patterns of plant use across sites and time periods.

Recovery and analysis combine field and laboratory techniques. Flotation is widely used to extract charred macroremains from soil, while microscopy and measurement support taxonomic identification and quantification. Results are integrated with contextual data to reconstruct agriculture, diets, and environment.

Applications include tracing the domestication of crops, the adoption of farming, and the spread of agriculture, as well as assessing seasonality, storage, and trade through plant remains. Carpology helps illuminate daily life, foodways, and landscape change in past societies.

Limitations include preservation bias, uneven survival of materials, and taxonomic challenges for fragmentary specimens. Interpretations rely on robust reference collections and cross-disciplinary evidence from pollen analysis, zooarchaeology, and broader archaeobotany.

Carpology is closely related to archaeobotany and paleoethnobotany, and it intersects with palynology and other archaeological sciences in building reconstructions of past human-plant interactions.