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June 25, 2010 Friday 5:19 PM EST
CONTENTS OF WORLD'S OLDEST LEATHER SHOE MAY YIELD CLUES TO ANCIENT AGRICULTURE
WATERBURY, Conn., June 24 -- The University of Connecticut issued the
following news release:
The discovery of the world's oldest known leather shoe set the
archaeological world and the public abuzz. But what really excites
UConn archaeologist Alexia Smith is not the shoe itself but its
contents.
Smith, an assistant professor in the anthropology department in the
College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, is part of a multi-national team
that recently announced the discovery of a 5,500 year-old shoe at the
excavation site of Areni-1 in Armenia.
The shoe, made of cowhide and perfectly preserved, is an
archaeological marvel because of its age - it dates back to around
3500 B.C. - and its pristine condition. It is stuffed with grass,
perhaps to maintain its shape or to prepare it for storage. And that's
what interests Smith. What a casual observer might see as simply a
handful of grass is for her an intriguing puzzle waiting to be solved.
The shoe contains Poaceae, a family of grasses that includes the
staple food grains and cereal crops grown throughout the world. Smith
is a archaeoethnobotanist, whose primary research interest is the
recovery and identification of ancient plant remains. She uses this
evidence to determine the effects of climate change on food production
in Bronze and Iron Age settlements in the Near East.
"Once the shoe is conserved," she says, "the grass will be removed and
I'll conduct a full analysis. By identifying the grasses, I'll
hopefully be able to reconstruct the specific types of vegetation in
existence at the time it was worn."
Typically, plant remains are preserved through carbonization, and
certain species do not survive the process. But because the floor of
the cave at Areni-1 was covered by a thick layer of sheep dung, the
artifacts left behind were effectively desiccated, leaving both the
shoe and its contents in superb condition for analysis.
Animal bones found at the site point to a society in which cows,
sheep, and goats were domesticated. The presence of additional
artifacts suggests the existence of a range of household activities,
such as cooking over stone hearths and the grinding of grains for
human consumption.
What especially intrigues Smith is evidence that the inhabitants of
the cave heavily exploited tree fruits. "This was a real surprise to
us," she says, "because so few are found at other sites."
In addition to her work at the Areni-1 site, she is working at the
Tell Leilan project in Syria. This is one of the largest
archaeological sites in that country and was one of the most important
cities in northern Mesopotamia during the second and third millennia
B.C.
Work at that site also focuses on the relationship between humans and
their natural and social environment. Located in the Fertile Crescent,
Syria was one of the areas where hunter-gatherers settled and complex
societies based on formal agricultural principles were developed. This
included not only the propagation of grain crops, such as wheat,
barley, and flax, but also trees such as fig and olive.
The realization that fruit trees were an important component of the
agricultural landscape in Armenia, outside the Fertile Crescent and at
a transitional time between the Neolithic and Bronze Ages (the
Chalcolithic period), adds to the intrigue at the Areni-1 excavation,
because so little is known about their process of domestication.
Currently all evidence points to the Caucasus as the most likely
region of origin.
"Very little is known about food production during the Chalcolithic
period in this region," says Smith, "so any new information is truly
exciting."
From: A. Papazian
June 25, 2010 Friday 5:19 PM EST
CONTENTS OF WORLD'S OLDEST LEATHER SHOE MAY YIELD CLUES TO ANCIENT AGRICULTURE
WATERBURY, Conn., June 24 -- The University of Connecticut issued the
following news release:
The discovery of the world's oldest known leather shoe set the
archaeological world and the public abuzz. But what really excites
UConn archaeologist Alexia Smith is not the shoe itself but its
contents.
Smith, an assistant professor in the anthropology department in the
College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, is part of a multi-national team
that recently announced the discovery of a 5,500 year-old shoe at the
excavation site of Areni-1 in Armenia.
The shoe, made of cowhide and perfectly preserved, is an
archaeological marvel because of its age - it dates back to around
3500 B.C. - and its pristine condition. It is stuffed with grass,
perhaps to maintain its shape or to prepare it for storage. And that's
what interests Smith. What a casual observer might see as simply a
handful of grass is for her an intriguing puzzle waiting to be solved.
The shoe contains Poaceae, a family of grasses that includes the
staple food grains and cereal crops grown throughout the world. Smith
is a archaeoethnobotanist, whose primary research interest is the
recovery and identification of ancient plant remains. She uses this
evidence to determine the effects of climate change on food production
in Bronze and Iron Age settlements in the Near East.
"Once the shoe is conserved," she says, "the grass will be removed and
I'll conduct a full analysis. By identifying the grasses, I'll
hopefully be able to reconstruct the specific types of vegetation in
existence at the time it was worn."
Typically, plant remains are preserved through carbonization, and
certain species do not survive the process. But because the floor of
the cave at Areni-1 was covered by a thick layer of sheep dung, the
artifacts left behind were effectively desiccated, leaving both the
shoe and its contents in superb condition for analysis.
Animal bones found at the site point to a society in which cows,
sheep, and goats were domesticated. The presence of additional
artifacts suggests the existence of a range of household activities,
such as cooking over stone hearths and the grinding of grains for
human consumption.
What especially intrigues Smith is evidence that the inhabitants of
the cave heavily exploited tree fruits. "This was a real surprise to
us," she says, "because so few are found at other sites."
In addition to her work at the Areni-1 site, she is working at the
Tell Leilan project in Syria. This is one of the largest
archaeological sites in that country and was one of the most important
cities in northern Mesopotamia during the second and third millennia
B.C.
Work at that site also focuses on the relationship between humans and
their natural and social environment. Located in the Fertile Crescent,
Syria was one of the areas where hunter-gatherers settled and complex
societies based on formal agricultural principles were developed. This
included not only the propagation of grain crops, such as wheat,
barley, and flax, but also trees such as fig and olive.
The realization that fruit trees were an important component of the
agricultural landscape in Armenia, outside the Fertile Crescent and at
a transitional time between the Neolithic and Bronze Ages (the
Chalcolithic period), adds to the intrigue at the Areni-1 excavation,
because so little is known about their process of domestication.
Currently all evidence points to the Caucasus as the most likely
region of origin.
"Very little is known about food production during the Chalcolithic
period in this region," says Smith, "so any new information is truly
exciting."
From: A. Papazian