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Findings of archaeological textiles and fibres in Northern Iberia are extremely rare. The occurrence of a set of textile fragments, dated between the 14th and 16th centuries CE at the Pambre castle (Palas de Rei, Lugo, Spain) is exceptional. The original stone roof of the southeastern tower was intact. The dark, cold and moist conditions inside the tower favoured the preservation of a unique series of waterlogged textile remains. In addition, a set of pseudomorphs preserved by mineral replacement were recovered from the east edge of the north wing in the main hall of the castle. Fibres have been identified using optical and scanning electron microscopy (SEM), and they have been chemically characterised using Energy Dispersive X-Ray Spectroscopy (EDX). We also performed analytical pyrolysis-GC-MS (Py-GC-MS) and thermally assisted hydrolysis and methylation (THM-GC-MS) of the wool fabrics and pseudomorphs to assess their state of degradation and the presence of chemical markers associated to the use of these textile remains. High performance liquid chromatography with diode array detection (HPLC-DAD-MS) and ultra-high performance liquid chromatography coupled to high-resolution mass spectrometry (UHPLC-HRMS/MS) analysis were applied on wool fabrics to identify the chemical markers of dyes but without success. To expand the information related to raw material identification and the technical aspects of the fabrics, further evidence such as adherences identified as opal phytoliths, seeds, and insect remains associated to wool fabrics were examined. These findings offer a unique glimpse into the clothing dated to the end of the Medieval period, and its life-cycle. Wool scraps were probably part of at least two different garments, whereas the mineralised textiles probably formed part of at least two brigandines which were made of bast fibres, flax, or hemp. • The study offers a glimpse into clothing between the 14th and 16th centuries CE. • An interdisciplinary approach was designed to address textile biographies. • Wool fabrics were subjected to successive alterations that changed their morphology. • Metallic pseudomorphs belong to one or, more likely, several brigandines. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The existence of a fire event at the Iron Age hillfort of Nabás, which is located on the southern bank of the Ría de Vigo (Galicia, NW of the Iberian Peninsula), favoured an extraordinary preservation of carbonised plant remains and offered an unusual opportunity to focus our research on the study of the final episode of a house life-cycle. The archaeobotanical approach focused on perishable materials combining charcoal, with carpology and pollen analysis, in tandem with a taphonomic assessment. The charcoal assemblage includes charcoal without signs of working, and wooden manufactures although the former group was probably related to the roof and timber of the round-house. This interpretation is based on the size and concentration of charcoal fragments, as well as the short taxonomic list (deciduous and evergreen Quercus sp., Fabaceae, Corylus avellana, Rosaceae/Maloideae, Salix/Populus, Alnus sp., Frangula alnus, Betula sp., Phragmites/Arundo and Ulmus sp.), and the recurrence of biological alterations such as xylophages' galleries and hyphae. Aggregated grains and chaff of foxtail millet (Setaria italica) were found in several samples suggesting their storage, probably inside an organic container. Finally, pollen analysis offered clues about the uses of plants such as Ericaceae during the occupation phase of the round-house. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of this paper is to reflect on the role of firewood in Roman burial rites of cremation. The case study of Reza Vella (Ourense, Spain) provides valuable information about the uses and the role of plants in a funerary context in northwest Iberia. Archaeobotanical data from Roman cemeteries in this area are very scarce, but they provide valuable information on the funerary customs introduced by the Roman Empire to the provinces, and how this interaction could be reflected in the management of firewood. The structures related to cremation rites include primary and secondary contexts. Charcoal remains recovered inside the structures, of bustum type, are the remains of the fuel burned during the cremation of the corpses. In these primary contexts, the ubiquitous taxa were Quercus sp. deciduous, Fraxinus sp. and Pinus spp. Other taxa, such as Salix/Populus, Prunus sp. and Arbutus unedo, have also been identified in secondary burials. A combination of different factors probably determined their selection for cremation purposes, such as their availability in the environs of the necropolis, differential access to wood resources, their heat potential, technical aspects related to their exploitation and even conceptual aspects, such as their symbolic meaning. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper focuses on the relationship between human communities and wood resources in the Sabor valley (Trás-os-Montes region, northeast Portugal) during the Early and Middle Bronze Age. Charcoal from three archaeological sites—Terraço das Laranjeiras, Foz do Medal and Quinta de Crestelos—was analysed. As in other Early-Middle Bronze Age sites in Western Iberia, the majority of the samples were recovered from pits, which complicates charcoal debris interpretation. The charcoal analysis suggests that the formation processes of the archaeobotanical record involved both natural and anthropic factors. The charcoal assemblages studied showed that taxonomic variability was strongly conditioned by the number of fragments produced per feature. Hearths, pits and post-holes provided information about the consumption of wood resources, highlighting the importance of taxa such as Fraxinus sp. and Quercus spp. combined with shrubby species including small trees ( Juniperus sp., Arbutus unedo , Fabaceae, Cistus sp. and Erica spp.) and attesting the presence of Olea europaea within Middle Bronze Age contexts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article highlights the significance of well-preserved perishable organic materials, such as wood, plant fibers and skins, in studying past societies and understanding human adaptations, technology and ecological knowledge. It specifically examines the plant-based artifacts found in Cueva de los Murciélagos, providing insights into the evolution of plant-based technologies during the Early-Middle Holocene in Europe, shedding light on cultural traditions.

This paper focuses on the web of relationships established between Early and Middle Bronze Age communities and their environment in Northwest Iberia. Charcoal remains recovered from settlements and funerary sites in this area can inform a greater understanding of wood resource procurement and woodland management strategies adopted by these small-scale communities. Although charcoal analysis of contexts with chronologies ranging from 2200 to 1200 cal. BC is not commonly undertaken in this area, data from this period are of great importance because it represents a phase of major deforestation and landscape change. Wood resources were local and exploitation was conditioned by their availability in the environs of the sites. These communities established a clear preference for Quercus wood, combined recurrently with shrubby species of the Fabaceae family. This co-occurrence, previously observed in Middle and Late Bronze Age contexts, could extend back to the Early Bronze Age and even to the Late Neolithic. The presence of small trees and shrubs such as Rosaceae/Maloideae and Corylus avellana could be related with the open landscape that characterises this period, and with the existence of woodland management practices designed to prevent forest regeneration. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

More than 3500 individual pieces of waterlogged archaeobotanical remains were found in the excavation of the Roman healing spa of Aquae Flaviae (Chaves, Portugal), carried out between 2006 and 2013. Most of these were recovered in stratigraphic units sealed by the brick barrel vault collapse in last decade of the 4th century AD. The waterlogged material studied, included several types of archaeobotanical remains: timber used for construction (beams, poles, boards and wedges), wooden objects (combs, bowls and containers, corks, handles, spindle whorls, etc.) and macro carpological remains (seeds, fruits, pine scales and cones, etc.). The study of the wood assemblage was focused firstly on the identification of the material selected for woodworking and also on providing answers regarding the technical and technological features used in manufacturing these items. Regarding fruits and seeds, the analysis was oriented towards macro remains species identification. A selection of species for specific purposes was clearly identified both in timber pieces and in several types of objects as well as the carving of specific features in these pieces according to its function. Active management of wood resources could also be inferred. Furthermore, relevant information was gathered concerning the presence of Pinus pinea , Castanea sativa , Buxus sempervirens and several species of the Prunus family, which show great importance on a regional or supra regional levels. The first presence of cypress tree ( Cupressus sempervirens ) during Roman times in western Iberia was also identified. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Despite being a perishable material, wood can nonetheless show in its full complexity the materiality of daily life activities, identity construction, economic exploitation, and adaptation in colonial processes. The study of two sets of wood samples in well-defined archaeological colonial contexts from the site of Heping Dao, on the northern coast of Taiwan, has unveiled otherwise unknown aspects of native exchange, adoption of indigenous practices, and differences and similarities between early European colonialism and Japanese imperialism in Asia-Pacific. Despite the constraints of taxonomic identification in subtropical (and tropical) areas, the use of different coniferous wood types has been recorded: C upressaceae, cf. C hamaecyparis spp., cf. C ryptomeria japonica and cf. C unninghamia spp. The paper highlights the close relationship between wooden objects and diachronic historical processes and stresses the complexity of their study in colonial contexts, with implications toward the prehistoric period. • Long histories of wood and forest exploitation in Taiwan start to emerge. • Insights into European and Japanese colonialism and new inferences into the Taiwanese prehistory are obtained from the analysis of worked wood. • The archaeometrical study of wooden crafts offers new historical insights as well as a productive approach to the field of tropical wood analysis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This research aimed to determine the origin of organic residues from funerary contexts in the El Caño settlement (Gran Coclé area, Panamá, Central America) by means of multiple molecular probing techniques (GC-MS of organic solvent extracts and pyrolysis-GC-MS, THM-GC-MS and FTIR of solid samples). The samples include particles of precious resin figurines, fillings of golden objects, tomb sediments, plant exudates from extant plants (reference collection) and other reference materials (amber). The labdane diterpene fingerprints (eperuic, iso-ozic, copalic and kolavenic acids and derivatives) of the resin figurines, a resinous bead and several other samples, suggest that they were composed primarily of Hymenaea resin. Besides traditional interpretation approaches (visual comparison of chromatograms and relative proportions data), we used a novel OpenChrom® application that resolves complex pyrolysis chromatograms by screening data from archaeological samples for marker products defined on the basis of a reference collection (ChromIdent). ChromIdent confirmed the Hymenaea origin of many samples and also Burseraceae resin was identified in some samples, which is present as a minor ingredient in resin figurines (indicative of mixing practices) and as the dominant resin in tomb sediment that had been in contact with the corpses (indicating balsaming practices). The degree of polymerization of the Hymenaea resin was higher than for extant resin but diagenetic alteration (especially condensation of cyclic moieties) was much smaller than for amber, implying that the manufacturers used resin (or copal), not amber. These results were confirmed by FTIR, which allowed identification of non-fossil Hymenaea resin as the main constituent of one of the resin figurines. Several golden object infillings contained wax derivatives, probably beeswax, accompanied by various types of plant resin, which may well indicate the use of meliponines' cerumen for manufacturing (lost-wax casting). The findings highlight the potential of complementary molecular techniques to resolve questions on materials and manufacturing of archaeological artefacts, and the need for cross-comparison of molecular and ethnographic information in the study of archaeobotanical remains and the processes involved in their management. • El Caño burial treasures characterized on molecular level. • Resin figurines composed of labdanoid diterpenoids typical of Hymenaea resin. • Golden object infillings contain (bees)wax, indicative of lost-wax casting. • Multiple burseraceous and unidentified resins in body adhesives and tomb sediments. • Exemplifies value of applying multiple techniques targeting different fractions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Some of the earliest Western European macroremains of rye (Secale cereale) have been recently recovered in Northwest Iberia. However, the chronological and cultural contexts of these remains have not been yet exhaustively analysed. To address this gap of research, previous and unpublished assemblages have been reviewed and analysed through an analytical set of methods: biometry, radiocarbon dates and integrating the remains of rye in the broad archaeobotanical record of the region. Results show the earliest macroremains of rye in the Iberian Peninsula date to a period between the 3rd century and the first half of the 1st century BCE. Rye was usually found in assemblages dominated by spelt and other cereals, in whose fields it was likely acting as a weed. There is no record of rye for about the two following centuries, after which it is probably reintroduced, now as a crop. It is found in several sites from the 3rd-4th centuries CE onwards, suggesting it is a staple crop as in other regions in Europe. Significant differences in grain size are only recorded in a 10th-11th century settlement, suggesting few changes in grain morphometry before Medieval times. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]