Fyrirlestraröð Félags fornleifafræðinga: Dawn Elise Mooney

Dawn Elise Mooney frá háskólanum í Stavanger flytur annan fyrirlestur misserisins í fyrirlestraröð Félags fornleifafræðinga. Erindið nefnist „Plant blindness in archaeology: challenges and ways forward“. Haldið í stofu 202 í Odda, miðvikudaginn 22. janúar kl. 12-13. Verið öll velkomin.

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Um fyrirlesturinn

The importance of plants to human life cannot be underestimated. At the base of all food chains, all of the energy that we consume ultimately came from plants. Furthermore, in the past plants were used for heat, light, shelter, tools, medicines, textiles, cordage, resins, dyes and pigments, ornaments and decoration, and ritual elements. However, studies of plant remains in archaeology are often less visible than those of inorganic artefacts, or even of animal bones. This talk uses the concept of plant blindness – the idea that humans have evolved to pay little attention to plants – to explore why plants are often undervalued in our interpretations of the past. Using examples from Icelandic and Norwegian archaeology, I will examine why reconstructing past human-plant interactions is perceived as difficult, and how changing the way we think about archaeological plant remains can expand our knowledge. Lastly, I will discuss the potential of microbotanical analyses, for example starch grains and phytoliths, in gaining new knowledge about past plant use.