ARCHY 491 A: Introduction to Paleoethnobotany Lab

Syllabus overview

ARCHY 459A

Introduction to Paleoethnobotany: Lab.                                          

Instructor: Dr. Jade d'Alpoim Guedes jguedes@uw.edu

TA: Jillyan Corrales corrales@uw.edu 

Lab meeting: Tuesday, Thursday 12:30-2:20 pm Denny 403

Seminar Meeting: Friday 12:30-2:20 pm Denny 403

Office hours: by appointment

Link to full course syllabus. 

Course Description:

Plants lie at the base of every food chain and are critical not only to humans but also other animals. Ancient plant remains constitute some of the most ubiquitous forms of ecofacts found on archaeological sites. They can inform us not only about what people ate in the past, but also how they managed their forests and selected wood and can allow us to reconstruct the past state of the environment in which domestic and wild animals grazed as well as when and how plants were domesticated and what changes happened to plant morphology as they were domesticated. 

To enroll in this class you must concurrently enroll in Seminar Archy 485A

This course will provide you with the laboratory skills needed to analyze ancient plant remains found in archaeological site. We will focus primarily on macrobotanical remains, although we will minimally discuss pollen and phytolith data as well. This class, to be taken in conjunction with ARCHY 469B: Seminar, covers the laboratory skills that will teach you how to analyze paleoethnobotanical remains. You will be involved in hands-on microscope work and will collectively conduct an original analysis of an original assemblage from an archaeological site. In the past we have worked on data from Farmana in India, Harappa in Pakistan and from Khirbat-al-Jariya in Jordan and Tanginak Springs site in Alaska. Your final culmination of the course will be a poster report on the classes collective findings. This year we will analyze data from an archaeological site in Fife, WA through a collaboration with ESA (Environmental Science Associates). Through working on this material, you will learn how to extract, identify and present data on plant usage in archaeological sites. You will work in groups to produce posters focused on one aspect of plant use at the site we will analyze. Plant taxonomy is highly regionally specific, and this year, this course will focus on the paleoethnobotany of the Pacific Northwest. This course presumes that you have some basic knowledge of the origins of agriculture and or traditional plant use in prehistory. Please note that this is a lab course and requires in person presence. This class also presumes some background in record keeping in archaeology. We will conduct labs twice a week to cover the vast numbers of plant families with which you will need to familiarize yourself to become a paleoethnobotanist and to be able to complete your final project.

Learning Outcomes:

After taking this course you will be able to:

1. Understand how to sample for and extract archaeobotanical remains in the field,
2. Correctly use a range of lab equipment including microscopy and digital imaging tools,
3. Sort and identify archaeobotanical remains from one region of the world,
4. Design and execute a research project focused on ancient plant remains,
5. Prepare archaeobotanical results/data for a poster presentation.

2.) Course Requirements:

You will be evaluated on your lab work and a final project that is the outcome of the botanical analysis conducted by the class in the lab sessions.

Important note! You will be expected to spend roughly 3-4 additional hours in the lab/working in a group each week outside of class hours to work on your final project.

Binder: You must purchase at least a 3-inch ring binder for this class and sketching paper for this binder. Ideally, this should consist of graph paper or at the very least purchase a piece of graph paper you can use for tracing as you should aim to draw your species to scale.  This binder will contain all your drawings of modern reference collection and archaeological seeds as well as photocopies of relevant identification material, reference collection material and articles. This binder will be your guide for any future analysis you carry out in the field.  Purchase dividers to organize your material by plant family. 

Grading:

1.) Labs (21%)

2.) Traditional plant use in the Pacific Northwest (9%)

3.) Final Project (70%)

i.) Labs:  In weeks 2-8, we will have a series of graded labs which will help you refine your identification skills and understanding of plant evolution. Please read your lab at home prior to the start of class on Tuesday/Thursday. Labs will be printed by the instructor and available in class. There will be a total of 7 labs which you will place in your binder. You are required to keep a notebook of all your labs, which includes your drawings of specimens, your lab sheets and your answers to lab questions that will be graded. Your lab notebook should be handed in on Thursday at the end of class for instructor feedback. You will be working in groups on these labs.

ii.) Traditional foods project: Each day over the course of the quarter 1-2 students will sign up to prepare an information sheet and briefly present the characteristics of one key plant that was important to the local diet.

iii.) Final Project: The bulk of your grade will be placed on the production of a poster on the archaeobotanical remains you have analyzed throughout the course of the semester. This quarter we will focus on analyzing remains from a medieval archaeological site in Western WA. Working in groups, you will collaborate to co-author a poster which focuses on one aspect of the collection we have analyzed. Your poster will describe how the seeds were identified and analyzed, summarize basic patterns and will include quantified interpretation of the data. Your grade for the final project will be broken down into a series of five different milestones. These milestones will walk you through the art of analyzing plant remains as well as reading lists, data analysis and poster production.

In order to complete the final project, you must sign up once or twice for office/lab hours where you can come into the lab as a group to work on samples. These will be scheduled on Tuesdays and Thursday from 9:00-11:30 am.  If you are unable to attend either outside class lab time, please talk to the instructor before enrolling in this class.

Course Policies

We will use an absolute grading scale and will not grade on a curve. The following grading scale will be used:

Percent = Grade

95 = 4.0 88 = 3.3 81 = 2.6 74 = 1.9 67 = 1.2

94 = 3.9 87 = 3.2 80 = 2.5 73 = 1.8 66 = 1.1

93 = 3.8 86 = 3.1 79 = 2.4 72 = 1.7 65 = 1.0

92 = 3.7 85 = 3.0 78 = 2.3 71 = 1.6 64 = 0.9

91 = 3.6 84 = 2.9 77 = 2.2 70 = 1.5 63 = 0.8

90 = 3.5 83 = 2.8 76 = 2.1 69 = 1.4 60-62 = 0.7

89 = 3.4 82 = 2.7 75 = 2.0 68 = 1.3 <60 = 0.0

Course Schedule:

Course Schedule: