Maney Publishing

Review
Author(s): Susan E. Allen
Review by: Susan E. Allen
Source: Journal of Field Archaeology, Vol. 31, No. 2 (Summer, 2006), pp. 209-212
Published by: Maney Publishing
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/40024960
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209

Book Reviews

Plants and People in Late Neolithic and

Early Bronze Age Northern Greece: An
Archaeobotanical Investigation
soultana maria valamoti. 186 pages, black and
white photographs, maps, tables, bibliography,index.
Oxford, England: Archaeopress,2004. 35.00 paper.
ISBN 1-84171-616-2.
Reviewed by Susan E. Allen, Department of Anthropology, University of Cincinnati, Cincinnati, OH
45221-0380.
In Plants and Peoplein Late Neolithic and Early Bronze
Age Northern Greece,Soultana Maria Valamoti presents a
thorough synthesis of current understandings of agriculture in Late Neolithic and Early Bronze Age Greece from
the mid-sixth to the third millennium B.C. (ca. 5400-2500
B.C.).Analysis of archaeobotanicaldata from four Late Neolithic (LN) and Early Bronze Age (EBA) sites in northern
Greece demonstrates the potential of such data for contributing to broad questions about the past, particularly
those involving changes in settlement patterns and socioeconomic organization. Valamoti devotes particular attention to three important concerns in archaeobotanical research:the identification of archaeobotanicalcorrelatesfor
different types of plant husbandry practices, the taphonomy of assemblagesof archaeologicalplant remains, and the
application of correspondence analysis as a means of disentangling depositional factors and preservation biases. Although the heavily empirical archaeobotanicalanalysis and
interpretation to be found in the volume may seem narrowly focused to non-specialists, Valamoti succeeds in
placing the work within the broader context of the importance of agriculture and plant husbandry to the investiga-

tion of changes in settlement patterns and socioeconomic

organization during the shift from the Late Neolithic to
the Early Bronze Age in the Aegean. Most notable among
the apparentsettlement shifts is the tendency for EBA populations to operate within a setting of largersite territories
and a more pronounced site hierarchy (Andreou, Fotiadis
and Kotsakis 1996, 1999). Several authors suggest that
this shift is related to intensification of agriculturalproduction, an overall diversification of crops, localized specialization in certain crops, and the development of centralized storage and redistribution (e.g., Renfrew 1972;
Halstead and O'Shea 1982; Halstead 1992, 1994, 2000),
the introduction of the plow (Pullen 1992; Halstead
1995), or the development of specialized pastoralism(Halstead 1996). These hypotheses regarding a link between
changes in settlement patterns and land use at the LN to
EBA transition, however, have not previously been well examined with relevant data, particularly archaeobotanical
assemblages. Examining these various models with appropriate data is the primary contribution of the volume under review.
In addition, this book reflects two key trends in Aegean
archaeology. The first of these is the increasingly widespread application of archaeobotanicalsampling as a routine procedure during excavation and its integration into
broadermodels of social and economic change. The second
of these is the long-overdue shift away from those "core"
geographic and temporal foci of research within Aegean
prehistory,namely southern Greece and the EarlyNeolithic and Late Bronze Age. Since existing models of agricultural change and its relationship to economy and landscape
are predicated largely upon data from southern Greece,
due to the greater intensity of palaeoethnobotanical research there (Hansen 1988, Halstead 1994: 204-5), and
disproportionate attention has been focused on the initial
transition to agricultureand to the Late Bronze Age palace

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210

BookReviews

economies, Valamoti's study makes an important contribution toward closing these geographic and temporal research gaps. This is of particular importance for understanding the development of social complexity in the region, since the seeds of this process are undoubtedly to be
found in economic changes that occur much earlier and
might be visible in changing land use, landholding, and
storage practices.
Valamoti begins the book with a brief overview in
Chapter 1 of previous research on Neolithic and Bronze
Age agriculturein Greece and of the broader implications
of archaeobotanical studies for understanding changing
settlement patterns and social organization. This chapter
sets the stage for her principal argument, that Ca
rigorous
examination of prehistoric agriculture,based on archaeobotanical data, is needed in order to highlight aspects of past
agriculturalsystems in northern Greece and thus enhance
our understandingof settlement organization and change"
[p. 2]. A summarytable of results from other Neolithic and
Bronze Age projects in northern Greece, provided as an illustration of the paucity of data for the region, is especially useful. Chapter 2 provides a concise overview of the
principal physiographic features of Greek Thrace and
Macedonia, as well as their climate and vegetation. The regional palaeoenvironmentalevidence, including a summary of the availablepollen data, is also presented. Chapter 3,
"Neolithic and Bronze Age Settlement in Northern
Greece,"provides background information on current archaeological knowledge of settlement and subsistence patterns in the study region and situates them within Greece
as a whole. This chapter emphasizes the relationship between settlement patterns and existing models of agriculture and, to this end, provides a brief outline of the three
primary models of plant and animal exploitation for the
Aegean: diversification, specialization, and intensification
[p. 13], including their possible relationship to extended
sites and tell sites.
Chapter 4, "The Sites under Study,55
provides more detailed information about the five sites in the study: the extended sites of Makriyalosand Arkadikos and the tell sites
of Dikili Tash, Makri, and Mandalo. Information on the
depositional contexts of the archaeobotanicalsamples included in the analysisis also presented. Chapter 5 discusses in detail the methods of sampling, processing, analytical
subsampling, sorting, identification, quantification, and
statisticalanalysisthat were applied at each site. Although
specialist readers will appreciate the thoroughness of the
discussion of methodological concerns and decisions, it
would have been more helpful to place the explanation of
the different sampling and recovery methods used at each
site together with the discussion of their assemblages in

Chapter 7. Chapter 5 also includes a complete listing of the

identified plant taxa and characteristicsused in their identification, but these are not accompanied by illustrationsor
photographs, which would have been particularlywelcome
in several cases.
Chapter6 discusses interpretiveissues in archaeobotany.
Most importantly,there is a thorough discussion of taphonomic considerations important to the quantification and
interpretation of plant remains. The archaeobotanicalcorrelates of various plant husbandry practices and modes of
agriculturalland-use, the methods for investigating them,
and the study of dung are also discussed. The data from
Makri, Arkadikos,Makriyalos, and Dikili Tash are presented in Chapter 7, along with potential interpretations of
their significance based primarily upon correspondence
analysisof sample composition and the spatial distribution
of taxa and plant parts. A summary of the separatelypublished results from Mandalo (Valamoti and Jones 2003) is
included. The application of spatial analysis to the assemblages is to be commended, as such studies remain rarein
archaeobotanicalanalyses (e.g., Hastorf 1991; Jones et al.
1986). Chapter 8 provides a synthesis of prehistoric
palaeoethnobotany in northern Greece organized by plant
type (crops, fruit and nuts, fiber crops, and medicinal
plants), various aspects of agriculturalproduction (seasonality, crop rotation, manuring, and weeding), and animal
husbandry, as understood from plant remains recovered
from animal dung. The concluding Chapter 9 discusses the
integration of the archaeobotanical data and interpretations of the agriculturalsystem into the evaluation of settlement patterns, land use, and the prehistoric economy,
particularlyin the examination of two prevalent topics in
the literaturefor these periods: the meaning, if any, of the
simultaneous presence in northern Greece of both extended sites and tell sites, and the question of whether or not
agriculturaldiversification or specialization was the norm
during the LN and EBA.
This is without question an important and useful contribution to the existing literature on early agriculture in
the se Balkansand a clear illustration of the importance of
archaeobotanicaldata for our ability to understand spatial
and social dynamics in prehistory. One of the most compelling results of the study is that it highlights differences
among the five sites. Rather than suggesting an overallpattern of "northern Greek55agricultureand plant husbandry,
to NeolithValamoti posits "a variety of options available55
ic and Bronze Age farmers and emphasizes the process of
deliberate selection of different strategies at the various
sites [pp. 132-133]. In addition, the careful attention to
taphonomic processes, the use of correspondence analysis
to examine the spatial distribution of plant remains across

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Journal of Field Archneology/Vol. 31, 2006

surfaces, and the use of autecological approaches (e.g.,

Charles, Jones, and Hodgson 1997; Bogaard et al. 1999,
2001; Jones et al. 1999; Jones, Bogaard, and Charles
2000; Bogaard 2004) to examine agricultural practices
contribute to what is an excellent model. It is this careful
attention to understanding the origin of each assemblage
that enables her to conclude that "each site has a slightly
different story to tell'5[p. 133] about the nature of plant
and animal husbandry.
There are several areas where the volume might have
been improved, however. Most notable among these is the
organization of the book. While seemingly well-organized,
in practice it is rather disjointed and would have profited
from additional editing and integration of the information
found in disparate chapters. For example, rather than including information about the sites, their environmental
settings, the nature of their deposits, the contexts of the
samples, or differences in sampling and excavation methods with the discussion of the assemblages in Chapters 7
and 8, this information is to be found only in Chapter 4.
This makes it difficult to consider differences between the
sites while reviewing their archaeobotanical assemblages
and their interpretation, particularly after reading intervening Chapter 5 on methodology and Chapter 6 on
taphonomy. More basic is the absence of a clear discussion
of chronology or a chart that presents date ranges for deposits at the five sites in relation to the phasing of the LN
and EBA for northern Greece as a whole. This information
is instead presented piecemeal, startingwith Chapter2 [pp.
11, 12, 17, 19-21]. An additional concern is the paucity of
discussion of the contexts in general. This lack of contextual information is especially problematic for those deposits from which dung remains were recovered, and the
lack is compounded by the absence of information on the
comparativedensity of wood charcoalto seeds and chaff in
deposits that were interpreted as burned dung (Miller and
Smart 1984). Although this omission may result from the
trend toward the partitioning of the analysisof wood charcoal and other plant remains into the domains of multiple
specialists, the relative presence or absence of wood charcoal seems an important consideration for the interpretation of this materialas dung, particularlyin a heavily forested environmental setting [pp. 8-9]. The author'sconsideration of dung as a source of plant fuel [pp. 56-57] is
nonetheless to be applauded, however. The absence of illustrations and photographs is puzzling, particularly for
difficult-to-identify items such as the "New Type Glume
Wheat,"Juncus sp. fruits, and members of the Cyperaceae
(sedge) family. Similarly, the putative dung remains and
other important finds, such as the "earliest evidence for
wine production" from Dikili Tash, predicatedon the pres-

211

ence of "must"in storage contexts, certainlywarrantillustration. The thorough discussion of identification characteristics for the "New Type Glume Wheat"previously identified by Jones, Valamoti, and Charles (2000) is, however,
quite useful. Finally, readersmay wish that the palaeoenvironmental data and differencesin site settings had been reintegrated into the discussion of the plant husbandry
regimes in question, or that the trends noted in the data
had been set within the context of the se Balkans as a
whole. Despite these concerns, the tenacity with which information has been squeezed from these sites has resulted
in the availability of a much-needed complement to the
southern Greek data on agricultureand land-use for these
periods, and makes this an important volume for anyone
interested in these issues. The thorough examinationof potential taphonomic biases and the evaluation of multiple
explanatory hypotheses for each of the assemblages illustrates the need for integration of archaeobotanicaldata into the discussion of land-use.

Andreou, Stelios, MichaelFotiades,and KostaKotsakis

1996 "Review of Aegean Prehistory V: The Neolithic and
BronzeAge of Northern Greece,"AmericanJournalofAr100: 537-597.
chaeology
1999 "Addendum:1996-1999," in TraceyCullen, ed., Aegean
A Review.Boston: ArchaeologicalInstitute of
Prehistory:
America,320-328.
Bogaard,Amy
2004

Neolithic Farming in Central Europe. An Archaeobotanical

Study of CropHusbandry Practices.London: Routledge.

Bogaard,Amy, CarolPalmer,GlynisJones, and MichaelCharles

1999 "AFIBSApproachto the Use of WeedEcology for the ArchaeobotanicalRecognition of Crop rotation Regimes,"
Journal ofArchaeologicalScience26: 1121-1224.

Bogaard,Amy, GlynisJones,MichaelCharles,andJohn G. Hodgson

200 1 "On the ArchaeobotanicalInferenceof Crop Sowing Time

Using the FIBS Method," Journal of Archaeological Science

28: 1171-1183.

Charles,Michael,GlynisJones, and John G. Hodgson

1997 "FIBS in Archaeobotany: Functional Interpretationof
Weed Florasin Relation to HusbandryPractices,"
Journal
ofArchaeologicalScience24: 1151-1161.

Halstead,Paul
1992 "Agriculturein the BronzeAge Aegean.Towardsa Model
of PalatialEconomy"in BeritWells,ed.,Agriculturein Ancient Greece.Stockholm: Swedish Institute at Athens,
105-117.
1994 "TheNorth-South Divide: RegionalPathsto SocialComplexityin PrehistoricGreece,"in C. Mathersand S. Stoddart, eds., Development and Decline in the Mediterranean
BronzeAge. SheffieldArchaeologicalMonographs 8. Sheffield:

J. R. Collis Publications,195-219.
1995 "Ploughand Power:the Economic and SocialSignificance

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All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

212

BookReviews

of Cultivation with the Ox-drawnArd in the MediterBulletinon SumerianAgriculture8: 11-22.

ranean,"
1996 "Pastoralismor Household Herding? Problems of Scale
and Specializationin Early Greek Animal Husbandry,"
28: 20-42.
WorldArchaeology
2000 "LandUse in PostglacialGreece:CulturalCausesand EnvironmentalEffects,"in PaulHalsteadand CharlesFrederick, eds., Landscapeand Land Use in PostglacialGreece,
Sheffield:SheffieldAcademicPress, 110-128.
Halstead,Paul,and John O'Shea
1982 "AFriendin Need is a FriendIndeed: Social Storage and
the Origins of Social Ranking" in Colin Renfrew and
Stephen Shennan, eds., Ranking,Resource,and Exchange.
Cambridge:CambridgeUniversityPress,92-99.
Hansen, JulieM.
in the PrehistoricAegean:Data versusSpecu1988 "Agriculture
lation"AmericanJournalofArchaeology
92: 39-52.
A.
Christine
Hastorf,
in JoanM. Gero
1991 "Gender,Space,and Food in Prehistory,"
and Margaret Conkey, eds., EngenderingArchaeology:
Oxford:Blackwell,132-159.
Womenand Prehistory.
and
MichaelCharles
Jones, Glynis,Amy Bogaard,
2000 "Distinguishingthe Effectsof AgriculturalPracticesRelating to Fertilityand Disturbance:A FunctionalEcological
SciApproachin Archzcobotany"JournalofArchaeological
ence27: 1073-1084.
Jones, Glynis,SoultanaValamoti,and MichaelCharles
2000 "EarlyCrop Diversity:a 'New' GlumeWheatfrom Northern Greece," VegetationHistory and Archaeobotany9:
133-146.
Jones, Glynis,MichaelCharles,Sue Colledge, and PaulHalstead
1995 "Towardsthe ArchaeobotanicalRecognition of Winter-cerealIrrigation:an Investigationof Modern Weed Ecology
in Northern Spain,"in Helmut Kroll and R. Pasternak,
eds., Res Archaeobotanicae-9th SymposiumIWGP. Kiel:
49-68.
Oetker-Voges-Verlag,
Jones, Glynis,KennethWardle,PaulHalstead,and Diana Wardle
1986 "Crop Storage at Assiros,"ScientificAmerican 254 (3):
96-103.
Jones, Glynis, Amy Bogaard,Paul Halstead, Michael Charles,and
Helen Smith
1999 "IdentifyingCrop Husbandryon the Basis of Weed Floras,"Annual of theBritishSchoolat Athens94: 167-189.
Miller,Naomi F., andTristineL. Smart
1984 "IntentionalBurning of Dung as Fuel: A Mechanismfor
the Incorporationof CharredSeeds into the Archaeological Record,"JournalofEthnobiology
4: 15-28.
Pullen,Daniel
1992 "Ox and Plow in the EarlyBronzeAge Aegean,"American
96: 45-54.
JournalofArchaeology
Renfrew,Colin
and theAegeanin
1972 TheEmergence
of Civilisation.TheCyclades
the ThirdMillenniumB.C. London: Methuen.
Valamoti,SoultanaM., and GlynisJones
2003 "Plant Diversity and Storage at Mandalo, Macedonia,
Greece: ArchaeobotanicalEvidence from the Final Neolithic and EarlyBronzeAge,"Annual of theBritishSchool
at Athens98: 1-35

Entering America: Northeast Asia and

Beringia Before the Last Glacial Maximum
D. b. madsen, editor, vi + 486 pages, blackand white
illustrations,references,index. Salt LakeCity:University of Utah Press, 2004. $50.00 cloth. ISBN 0-87480786-7.

The Settlement of the American Continents:

A Multidisciplinary Approach to Human
Biogeography
C. MICHAEL BARTON, G. A. CLARK,D. R. YESSNER, and

G.A. pearson, editors.280 pages, 51 figures,23 tables,

endnotes, bibliography,index. Tucson: University of
Arizona Press, 2004. $75.00 cloth. ISBN 0-81652323-1.
Reviewed by BruceA. Bradley,Departmentof Archaeology, Universityof Exeter,ExeterEX4 4QE, U. K.
The recentspateof books, articles,and documentaries
concerningthe origin of people in the New Worldis not
surprisingconsideringthe wealth of new theoreticalapof new datasources,the increase
proaches,the acceleration
in multi-disciplinary
research,and most importantly,the
erosionof the Clovis-Firsthypothesis.Thesetwo booksare
examplesof how far we have come in our willingnessto
confront this thorny topic. Although these books share
manyapproaches(indeed,both containsimilararticlesby
TheodoreShurron genetic studies)they are differentin
their stated goals. Over 10 years ago, Gamblereviewed
threebooksrelatedto EarlyAmericanstudiesandsuggest..a dramaticre-thinkingis needed.. ." (1994: 246)
ed thatC
to the exclusionof
andimploresus to stop "..concentrating
on
artifact
else
types and the proceparticular
everything
dures of taxonomy and typology..." (1994: 245). Althoughtaxonomyandtypologycontinueasresearchmethods, thesevolumesshowhow the studyof EarlyAmericans
has expandedin scope and scale.Much of this changehas
been drivenby the desireto find out how the Americas
cameto be inhabited.
EnteringAmericadefinesits basicpremise,presentsrelevanttopics that stickto the goal, and drawsappropriate
conclusionsdirectlyrelatedto the premise.The questionis
whetheror not there is evidence,director indirect,that
people arrivedin the New WorldfromNortheastAsiabefore the last glacialmaximum (LGM, ca. 20,000 years
ago). I commendMadsenfor takinga focusedapproachto
this issue and pullingtogetherrelevantstudies.The book
has sectionsdevotedto environmentalstudiesandmodels

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