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Research interests
Professor Marijke van der Veen is an archaeologist specialising in the field of archaeobotany. Her particular research emphasis is the reconstruction of ancient agriculture and the archaeology of food, and concerns the meeting of biology and culture. Earlier research projects have concentrated on agricultural economies (e.g. Iron Age and Roman Britain; prehistoric and Roman North Africa), food supply to Roman quarry sites in Egypt (Mons Claudianus and Mons Porphyrites), and the role of luxury foods.
Current projects concern a study of the Roman and Islamic spice trade (through archaeobotanical data from Myos Hormos/Quseir al-Qadim, Red Sea coast, Egypt) and ‘Seeds of Change’ – the dispersal of newly introduced foods into NW Europe between c. AD 1-1500. The latter is the focus of a Leverhulme Trust Major Research Fellowship and a Research Fellowship at the Netherlands Institute for Advanced Studies (NIAS). Her research has been supported by grants from NERC, AHRC, the British Academy and the Leverhulme Trust.
Topics available for supervision
- Archaeology of Food (especially Roman and Medieval Britain and Europe)
- Ancient Agriculture (Britain, Europe, North Africa)
- Diet and Social Status
- Agricultural Economies
- Archaeobotany
- Environmental Archaeology
Research Projects
- Seeds of Change – Plant Food Introductions into NW Europe AD1-1500
- The Roman and Islamic Spice Trade
- Food Consumption in Roman Britain – Diversity and Change
- The Archaeology of Food
- The Food Supply to Mons Claudianus and Mons Porphyrites, Roman Quarry Sites in the Eastern Desert of Egypt
- Archaeobotanical Methodologies (Sampling, Quantification, Formation Processes)
- The Identification of Routine Practice
- Iron Age Agriculture in Britain
- Ancient Agriculture in the Arid Zone of North Africa
- The Exploitation of Plant Resources in Ancient Africa
1. Seeds of Change – Food Introductions into NW Europe AD1-1500
Funded by the Leverhulme Trust (Major Research Fellowship 2008-2011) and a Research Fellowship from the Netherlands Institute of Advanced Studies (NIAS, academic year 2011/12)
This projectc concentrates on a number of themes, including the process of agricultural innovation (why certain new crops/technologies become accepted in the new region and others not), the mechanisms of trade (the role of ports of trade), the interpretation of botanical remains recovered from archaeological excavations, and methodological aspects (accommodating very disperate datasets into quantitative analyses).
During the Roman and medieval periods some 50 new plant foods were introduced into north-west Europe. This project aims to improve our understanding of the significance of these introductions in terms of (a) changes in diet and food culture, (b) differential access to foods used to define and display social status and, (c) changes in food production/agriculture through the cultivation of new fruits, vegetables and herbs, i.e. the development of horticulture. The archaeological evidence for these changes will be analysed and interpreted, using as primary data the botanical remains recovered from excavations. The project aims to make these crucial scientific data accessible to archaeologists, historians and anthropologists with interests in the development of trade, agriculture, diet, gastronomy and social change in Roman and Medieval Europe.
The output of this project will be a major synthetic overview, bringing together published archaeobotanical data from c. 2000 excavations. The data will be placed in their historical context, highlighting how these food introductions had a lasting impact on European consumption patterns, society and regional food production. By operating at the large temporal and spatial scale, the project has the power to chart changes not visible otherwise.
The first results are published in:
2008 (Van der Veen, M.) Food as embodied material culture – diversity and change in plant food consumption in Roman Britain. Journal of Roman Archaeology 21: 83-110.
2008 (Van der Veen, M., Livarda, A. and Hill, A.) New food plants in Roman Britain – dispersal and social access. Environmental Archaeology 13 (1): 11-36. DOI 10.1179/174963108X279193
2008 (Livarda, A. and Van der Veen, M.) Social access and dispersal of condiments in North-West Europe from the Roman to the medieval period. Vegetation History and Archaeobotany 17 (suppl. 1): 201-209. DOI 10.1007/s00334-008-0168-4
2) The Roman and Islamic Spice Trade
Funded by NERC (the Natural Environment Research Council)
Just published!!
2011 (Van der Veen, M.) Consumption, Trade and Innovation: Exploring the Botanical Remains from the Roman and Islamic Ports at Quseir al-Qadim, Egypt. Frankfurt: Africa Magna Verlag. (Table of Contents).
Spices from the Far East represent a significant and lucrative commodity. The profits of the pepper trade, as well as cloves, cinnamon, cardamom and nutmeg, made Venice a key player in world trade during the 16th and 17th centuries. The first introduction of pepper into the Mediterranean world was during the Roman period when ports at the Red Sea coast of Egypt (Berenike and Myos Hormos) were used to transship goods obtained from India. One of these ports, Myos Hormos, now called Quseir al-Qadim, also flourished during the medieval Islamic (Ayubid/Mamluk) period. Little is known about the early history of this spice trade, other than sparse records in classical and early Islamic sources. Between 1999-2003 a five year project of survey and excavations was conducted at Myos Hormos/Quseir al-Qadim under the direction of Prof. D. Peacock and Dr. L. Blue (Southampton University) with permission of the Supreme Council for Antiquities in Egypt and with support from the Peder Sager Wallenberg Charitable Trust.
My contribution to the project has two aims: firstly the recovery and identification of plants which may represent the trade with India, Yemen, China and the Molluccas; secondly, an assessment of the changes in diet, foodways and agriculture that took place between the Roman (1st-3rd c. AD) and Islamic (12th-15th c. AD) occupation at the port. Preservation of the organics at this site is excellent, see photos.
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Black pepper corns (Islamic) |
Coconut |
Rice grains (Islamic) |
White lupin (Roman) |
Aubergine calyxes (Islamic) |
2011 (Van der Veen, M.) Consumption, Trade and Innovation: Exploring the Botanical Remains from the Roman and Islamic Ports at Quseir al-Qadim, Egypt. Frankfurt: Africa Magna Verlag.
2003 (Van der Veen, M.) Trade and diet at Roman and medieval Quseir al-Qadim, Egypt, a preliminary report. In K. Neumann, A. Butler and S. Kahlheber (eds.) Food, Fuel and Fields. Progress in African Archaeobotany. Cologne, Heinrich Barth Institut, pp. 207-212.
2004 (Van der Veen, M.) The merchants’ diet: food remains from Roman and medieval Quseir al-Qadim, Egypt. In P. Lunde and A. Porter (eds.) Trade and Travel in the Red Sea Region. Proceedings of the Red Sea Project I. Society for Arabian Studies Monograph 2. Oxford, British Archaeological Reports, International Series 1269: pp. 123-130.
2006 Peacock, D. and Blue, L. (eds). Myos Hormos – Quseir al-Qadim: Roman and Islamic Ports on the Red Sea. Volume 1 – Survey and Excavations 1999-2003. Oxford: Oxbow Books.
2007 (Van der Veen, M.) New evidence for the Roman spice trade and for diet in Egypt’s Eastern Desert. Journal of Roman Archaeology 20: 631-634.
3) Food Consumption in Roman Britain
Funded by the British Academy and the AHRC (Arts and Humanities Research Council)
The impact of the Roman presence on both British society and agriculture has been the subject of considerable debate. The changes observed have often been studied in terms of ‘Romanization’, a concept emphasizing conformity, and describing the hierarchical process of passing down supposedly superior Roman culture and technology to the people of a new province, using the simple opposition of Romans versus Britons. Yet, it is increasingly evident that the processes that took place resulted in more complex and varied identities than the term ‘Romanization’ conveys.
Because food is closely connected with the formation of social and cultural identities it can form an illuminating topic of study in the context of Roman Britain, and help identify the emergence of multiple identities. In this project the archaeobotanical evidence for food consumption in Roman Britain is reviewed, concentrating on non-staple plant foods (fruits, nuts, vegetables, herbs, spices, oil seeds, and wild food plants). The substantial archaeobotanical dataset (514 sites) has been analysed with the aim to identify who consumed which foods, what regional and/or social differentiation existed, and what changes occurred over time.
2008 (Van der Veen, M.) Food as embodied material culture – diversity and change in plant food consumption in Roman Britain. Journal of Roman Archaeology 21: 83-110.
2008 (Van der Veen, M., Livarda, A. and Hill, A.) New food plants in Roman Britain – dispersal and social access. Environmental Archaeology 13 (1): 11-36. DOI 10.1179/174963108X279193
2007 (Van der Veen, M., Livarda, A. and Hill, A.) The archaeobotany of Roman Britain – current state and identification of research priorities. Britannia 38: 181-210.
4) The Archaeology of Food
Food, by which I mean eating and drinking, is an incredibly important aspect of our everyday life. We must eat and drink in order to stay alive and we use food to create or enhance social relations. Food is very much part of our sense of self. There is a growing awareness amongst archaeologist of the value of studying the social, political, biological and economic context of food, and of seeing food as material culture. My recent work is increasingly focusing on issues of food supply, long-distance trade in foodstuffs, differentiation in social access to food, factors influencing agricultural change (innovation; development of horticulture) and foodways (what foods are eaten and how these are eaten).
Recent publications concerning these issues are:
2010 (Van der Veen, M.) (ed.) Agricultural Innovation. World Archaeology 42(1).
2010 (Van der Veen, M.) Agricultural Innovation: invention and adoption or change and adaptation? World Archaeology 42(1):
2008 (Van der Veen, M.) Food as embodied material culture – diversity and change in plant food consumption in Roman Britain. Journal of Roman Archaeology 21: 83-110.
2008 (Van der Veen, M., Livarda, A. and Hill, A.) New food plants in Roman Britain – dispersal and social access. Environmental Archaeology 13 (1): 11-36. DOI 10.1179/174963108X279193
2008 (Cox, A. and Van der Veen, M.) Changing foodways: watermelon (Citrullus lanatus) consumption in Roman and Islamic Quseir al-Qadim, Egypt. Vegetation History and Archaeobotany 17 (suppl. 1): 181-189. DOI 10.1007/s00334-008-0164-8
2008 (Livarda, A. and Van der Veen, M.) Social access and dispersal of condiments in North-West Europe from the Roman to the medieval period. Vegetation History and Archaeobotany 17 (suppl. 1): 201-209. DOI 10.1007/s00334-008-0168-4
2007 (Van der Veen, M.) Formation processes of desiccated and carbonised plant remains - the identification of routine practice. Journal of Archaeological Science 34: 968-990. DOI 10.1016/j.jas.2006.09.007
2007 (Van der Veen, M. and Tabinor, H.) Food, fodder and fuel at Mons Porphyrites: the botanical evidence. In V. A. Maxfield and D. P. S. Peacock (eds.) Survey and Excavation at Mons Porphyrites 1994-1998. Volume 2: The Excavations. London, Egypt Exploration Society, pp. 83-142. ISBN 978-0-85698-180-7
2007 (Van der Veen, M.) New evidence for the Roman spice trade and for diet in Egypt’s Eastern Desert. Journal of Roman Archaeology 20: 631-634.
2007 (Van der Veen, M.) Luxury food as an instrument of social change: feasting in Iron Age and early Roman Britain. In K. Twiss (ed.) The Archaeology of Food and Identity. Carbondale, Southern Illinois University, Center for Archaeological Investigations Occasional Paper No. 34, pp. 112-129. ISBN 9780881040916
2007 (Van der Veen, M. and Jones, G.) The production and consumption of cereals: a question of scale. In C. Haselgrove and T. Moore (eds.) The Later Iron Age of Britain and Beyond. Oxford, Oxbow, pp. 419-429. ISBN 9781842172520
2005 (Van der Veen, M.) Gardens and fields: the intensity and scale of food production. In M. van der Veen (ed.) Garden Agriculture. World Archaeology 37(2): 157-163. DOI 10.1080/004382405000130731
2005 (Van der Veen, M.) (editor) Garden Agriculture. World Archaeology 37(2).
2003 (Van der Veen, M.) When is food a luxury? In M. van der Veen (ed.) Luxury Foods. World Archaeology 34(3): 405-427. DOI 10.1080/0043824021000026422
2003 (Van der Veen, M.) (editor) Luxury Foods. World Archaeology 34(3).
2002 (Palmer, C. and Van der Veen, M.) Archaeobotany and the social context of food. Acta Palaeobotanica 42(2): 195-202.
5) The Food Supply to Mons Claudianus and Mons Porphyrites, Roman Quarry Sites in the Eastern Desert of Egypt
Funded by NERC (the Natural Environment Research Council) and the Leverhulme Trust
One of the key issues in the history of specialized technology is the question of how the specialized workforce acquired its food. Did they continue to produce their own food, were they paid in kind, or did they purchase it from others? The Roman quarry settlements in the Eastern Desert of Egypt offer a rare opportunity to study this issue in detail. The sites in question are clearly industrial, in being primarily concerned with the extraction of granite and porphyry for imperial building projects in Rome, while the extreme aridity in the Eastern Desert has ensured the excellent preservation of the food remains thrown away by the inhabitants of these sites (seeds, grains, pulses, fruits, nuts, vegetables, etc.) which has enabled a detailed reconstruction of the food supply.
At Mons Claudianus survey and excavations were carried out between 1987 and 1993 under the aegis of the Institut Français d’Archéologie Orientale du Caire with permission of the Egyptian Antiquities Organization, and directed by Professor J. Bingen (Brussels) with H. Cuvigny (Paris) as chef de chantier. At Mons Porphyrites survey and excavations took place between 1994 and 1998, under the aegis of the Egyptian Exploration Society with permission of the Supreme Council for Antiquities, and directed by Prof. D. Peacock (Southampton) and Prof. V. Maxfield (Exeter). My research was carried out with research grants from the Universities of Exeter and Leicester, The British Academy (FASA), the Natural Environment Research Council (GR9/03268), and a Leverhulme Trust Research Fellowship.
The results of the archaeobotanical analysis indicate that the workforce, despite being located in a remote part of the desert, had access to a healthy and well-balanced diet, comprising carbohydrates, protein, sugar, fats, minerals and vitamins, including luxuries as well as staples. Some of the foods were supplied in kind, but the workmen also received a salary with which purchases of further foods, luxuries and other goods could be made. Remarkably, some foods, i.e. vegetables, were locally grown, highlighting the value attached to fresh ‘greens’. The emperors clearly knew how to keep their workforce happy. The results provide new evidence for a highly developed food economy in Roman Egypt, able to support substantial non-agricultural communities. They also underline the importance of the stone and the extent to which the emperors were prepared to invest in bolstering their own prestige.
1998 (Van der Veen, M.) A life of luxury in the desert? The food and fodder supply to Mons Claudianus. Journal of Roman Archaeology 11: 101-116.
1998 (Van der Veen, M.) Gardens in the Desert. In O.E. Kaper (ed.) Life on the Fringe: Living in the Southern Egyptian Deserts during the Roman and early-Byzantine Periods. Leiden, CNWS, pp. 221-242.
1999 (Van der Veen, M.) The food and fodder supply to Roman quarry settlements in the Eastern Desert of Egypt. In M. van der Veen, M. (ed.) The Exploitation of Plant Resources in Ancient Africa. New York, Kluwer Academic/Plenum Press, pp. 171-183.
2001 (Van der Veen, M.) The Botanical Evidence. (Chapter 8) In V. A. Maxfield and D. P. S. Peacock (eds.) Survey and Excavations at Mons Claudianus 1987-1993. Volume 2: The Excavations: Part 1. Cairo, Institut Français d’Archéologie Orientale du Caire: Documents de Fouilles 43, 174-247. ISBN 2724702913.
2007 (Van der Veen, M. and Tabinor, H.) Food, fodder and fuel at Mons Porphyrites: the botanical evidence. In V. A. Maxfield and D. P. S. Peacock (eds.) Survey and Excavation at Mons Porphyrites 1994-1998. Volume 2: The Excavations. London, Egypt Exploration Society, pp. 83-142. ISBN 978-0-85698-180-7.
6) Archaeobotanical Methodologies (sampling, quantification, formation processes)
It is my firm belief that we need rigorous scientific approaches in order to advance our discipline. I have tried to make several contributions to the development of the discipline and the debate on methodological and theoretical aspects of archaeobotany. Key aspects concern:
sampling strategies in the field and in the laboratory – to make sure our data are representative of the human/plant interactions at each site/region of study;
quantification of our results – ensuring enough data are available to enable us to use statistical methods of analysis (without collecting/analysing more than necessary);
formation processes – understanding how our data came into existence to ensure that we are comparing like with like in regional studies, and to identify differences in a range of social and economic activities that were acted out at a particular site.
Publications:
1982 (Van der Veen, M. and Fieller, N.) Sampling Seeds. Journal of Archaeological Science 9, 287-298.
1984 (Van der Veen, M.) Sampling for seeds. In W. van Zeist and W. A. Casparie (eds) Plants and Ancient Man. Studies in Palaeoethnobotany. Rotterdam, A. A. Balkema Publishers, 193-199.
1985 (Van der Veen, M.) Carbonised seeds, sample size and on-site sampling. In N. R. J. Fieller, D. D. Gilbertson and N. G. A. Ralph (eds.) Palaeoenvironmental Investigations. British Archaeological Reports, International Series 258, 166-178.
1989 (Van der Veen, M.) Charred grain assemblages from Roman-period corn driers in Britain. The Archaeological Journal, 146, 302-319.
1991 (Van der Veen, M.) Consumption or production? Agriculture in the Cambridgeshire Fens. In J. Renfrew (ed.) New Light on Early Farming. Recent Developments in Palaeoethnobotany. Edinburgh, Edinburgh University Press, 349-361.
1992 (Van der Veen, M.) Crop Husbandry Regimes. An archaeobotanical study of farming in northern England: 1000 BC - AD 500. Sheffield, Sheffield Archaeological Monographs 3. ISBN 0906090415
1995 (Van der Veen, M.) The identification of maslin crops. In H. Kroll and R. Pasternak (eds.) Res Archaeobotanicae, Kiel, pp. 335-343.
1997 (Van der Veen, M. and Palmer, C.) Environmental factors and the yield potential of ancient wheat crops. Journal of Archaeological Science 24(2):163-182.
1999 (Van der Veen, M.) The economic value of chaff and straw in arid and temperate zones. Vegetation History and Archaeobotany 8, 211-224.
2006(Van der Veen, M. and Jones, G.) A re-analysis of agricultural production and consumption: implications for understanding of the British Iron Age. Vegetation History and Archaeobotany 15(3): 217-228. DOI 10.1007/s00334-006-0040-3
2007 (Van der Veen, M.) Formation processes of desiccated and carbonised plant remains - the identification of routine practice. Journal of Archaeological Science 34: 968-990. DOI 10.1016/j.jas.2006.09.007
7) The Identification of Routine Practice
It is clear that archaeobotanical data are far more robust than often given credit for and that any patterning in the data is a direct reflection of major differences in the day-to-day practices carried out on the settlement. Despite the fact that many samples contain plant remains from more than one origin (i.e. high degree of mixing), individual routes of entry can still be identified through an assessment of the formation processes of each crop or plant component on a sample-by-sample basis. This project explores these processes.
An understanding of these processes is important as it helps highlight differences in human plant-related activities between settlements, periods and regions. We know that most, if not all, routine practices are ordered by socially perceived norms and that the discard of waste from such activities is thus socially and culturally structured. This means that the analysis and understanding of formation processes can bring to light changes in such routine practices and consequently changes in the way that social relationships were negotiated and reproduced. In the case studies reviewed for this project the careful study of the formation processes has resulted in the identification of social practices such as feasting, deliberate house conflagration, changes in women’s daily tasks, spatial separation of food preparation and consumption, a partial move to more centralised food provisioning of an industrial workforce, shifts between farming strategies that value security and those capable of taking risks, the economic role of harvesting by-products (chaff and straw), as well as variations in the role of animals within the farming system. Results so far highlight that the study of archaeological plant assemblages can greatly contribute to the economic and social archaeologies of the region and period from which they originate.
1999 (Van der Veen, M.) The economic value of chaff and straw in arid and temperate zones. Vegetation History and Archaeobotany 8, 211-224.
2007 (Van der Veen, M.) Formation processes of desiccated and carbonised plant remains - the identification of routine practice. Journal of Archaeological Science 34: 968-990. DOI 10.1016/j.jas.2006.09.007
8) Iron Age Agriculture in England
This project concerns the reconstruction of Iron Age agriculture using charred seed assemblages from settlement sites as primary data. As part of my PhD research I analysed the assemblages from six Iron Age settlements in north-east England (Van der Veen 1992). The results indicate that in this region two distinct cultivation practices were in operation side by side, one representing small-scale arable production, the other indicative of arable expansion. The results also suggest that the replacement of emmer wheat by spelt wheat during the Iron Age in Britain may have been caused by a change in cultivation regime, rather than being related to climatic change or other environmental factors (see also Van der Veen 1995). Further seed assemblages from sites in the region have since then been studied (see Van der Veen 1994, 1999 and 2001). The wider context of this research is discussed in Van der Veen and O’Connor (1998) and Van der Veen (2005).
More recently, I have been studying, together with Prof. Glynis Jones, the patterning in carbonized seed assemblages from Iron Age sites in Britain. We concluded that a predominance of grain-rich samples is likely to be an indicator of the scale of production and consumption, rather than a means of distinguishing between the two, as had previously been suggested. A review of the evidence from Iron Age Britain indicates that grain-rich site assemblages primarily occur in the south of the country, and frequently co-occur with pits, used for the storage of surplus grain. Moreover, such pits are concentrated in hillforts. It is proposed that the grain stored in such pits may have been used in large communal feasts and that the hillforts functioned as locations for feasting (Van der Veen and Jones 2006, 2007).
1992 (Van der Veen, M.) Crop Husbandry Regimes. An archaeobotanical study of farming in northern England: 1000 BC - AD 500. Sheffield, Sheffield Archaeological Monographs 3. ISBN 0906090415
1994 (Van der Veen, M.) The plant remains. In R. L. Fitts, C. C. Haselgrove and P. C. Lowther, An Iron Age farmstead at Rock Castle, Gilling West, North Yorkshire. Durham Archaeological Journal 10, pp. 31-39.
1995 (Van der Veen, M.) The identification of maslin crops. In H. Kroll and R. Pasternak (eds.) Res Archaeobotanicae, Kiel, pp. 335-343.
1996 (Van der Veen, M.) The plant macrofossils from Dragonby. In J. May (ed.) Dragonby. Report on the Excavations at an Iron Age and Romano-British Settlement in North Lincolnshire. Oxford, Oxbow Monograph 61, pp.197-211.
1998 (Van der Veen, M. and O’Connor, T.) The expansion of agricultural production in later Iron Age and Roman Britain. In J. Bayley (ed.) Science in Archaeology: an Agenda for the Future. London, English Heritage, pp.127-143. ISBN 1850746931
1999 (Van der Veen, M.) The Plant Remains. In R. L. Fitts, C. C. Haselgrove, P. C. Lowther and S. H. Willis, Melsonby revisited: survey and excavation 1992-95 at the site of discovery of the “Styanwick”, North Yorkshire, hoard of 1843. Durham Archaeological Journal 14-15, 1-52 (28-32).
2001 (Hodgson, N., Stobbs, G. C. and Van der Veen, M.) An Iron-Age settlement and remains of earlier date between South Shields Roman Fort, Tyne and Wear. The Archaeological Journal 158: 62-160. (published 2002 for 2001)
2005 (Van der Veen, M.) Gardens and fields: the intensity and scale of food production. In M. van der Veen (ed.) Garden Agriculture. World Archaeology 37(2): 157-163. DOI 10.1080/004382405000130731
2006(Van der Veen, M. and Jones, G.) A re-analysis of agricultural production and consumption: implications for understanding of the British Iron Age. Vegetation History and Archaeobotany 15(3): 217-228. DOI 10.1007/s00334-006-0040-3
2007 (Van der Veen, M. and Jones, G.) The production and consumption of cereals: a question of scale. In C. Haselgrove and T. Moore (eds.) The Later Iron Age of Britain and Beyond. Oxford, Oxbow, pp. 419-429. ISBN 9781842172520
9) Ancient Agriculture in the Arid Zone of North Africa
So far this project has concentrated on the study of ancient agriculture in Libya. The analysis of desiccated and charred plant remains from Zinchecra, Fezzan, southern Libya has identified the earliest recorded evidence for agriculture in the Sahara (Van der Veen 1992). Three cereal crops and three fruit crops have been identified, as well as salad plants and herbs. The range of crops found suggest a form of early oasis agriculture was practiced. Radiocarbon dates give a date of 900-400 cal BC for the occupation of the settlement, which is associated with the Garamantes, one of the Saharan tribes mentioned by Herodotus.
Work on the reconstruction of agriculture in the Libyan Valleys, the semi-desert area of Tripolitania, north-west Libya, has identified a flourishing arable system, with cereals, pulses, fruits and oil plants being cultivated over a long time-span (c. 1st - 7th centuries AD). Reviews discussing the evidence for the last 10,000 years have been published in Van der Veen 1995 and Van der Veen 1999.
1985 (Van der Veen, M.) The UNESCO Libyan Valleys Survey X: Botanical evidence for ancient farming in the pre-desert. Libyan Studies 16, 15-28.
1992 (Van der Veen, M.) Garamantian agriculture: the plant remains from Zinchecra, Fezzan. Libyan Studies 23, pp. 7-39.
1992 (Van der Veen, M.) Botanical evidence for Garamantian agriculture in Fezzan, southern Libya. Review of Palaeobotany and Palynology 73, pp. 315-327. doi:10.1016/0034-6667(92)90066-P
1995 (Van der Veen, M.) Ancient agriculture in Libya: a review of the evidence. Acta Palaeobotanica 35 (1), pp. 85-98.
1996 (Van der Veen, M., Grant, A. and Barker, G.) Romano-Libyan agriculture: crops and animals. Chapter 8 in G. Barker, D. Gilbertson, B. Jones and D. Mattingly (eds.) Farming the Desert: The UNESCO Libyan Valleys Archaeological Survey. Vol. 1: Synthesis. Paris, UNESCO, pp. 227-263 (bibliography 365-391). ISBN 9231032143/0950836389
1999 (Van der Veen, M.) Introduction. In M. van der Veen, M (ed.)The Exploitation of Plant Resources in Ancient Africa. New York, Kluwer Academic/Plenum Publishers, pp. 1-10.
10) The Exploitation of Plant Resources in Ancient Africa
Many publications highlight parallels with and contrasts between Africa and other regions such as the Near East and Europe, in the interaction between climate change and subsistence strategies, the transition to farming, the rise of civilizations, metal technology and trade. Few of these earlier publications could rely on direct botanical evidence as such data were rarely recovered. To redress this problem the Workgroup for African Archaeobotany was founded in 1994 by Professor Krystyna Wasylikowa (Kraków) and the first meeting was held in Mogilany, Poland in May 1994, with the papers from that meeting published in Acta Palaeobotanica 35 (1) 1995. While the workgroup initially focused specifically on North Africa, it was realized at the first meeting that our work had not only extended beyond that geographical boundary, but also that our research would greatly benefit from viewing the issues under study within the wider framework of the entire continent. The second meeting was held at the University of Leicester in June 1997, the third meeting at Frankfurt in 2000, the fourth at Groningen (2003), the fifth in London (2006); the fifth is planned for Cairo in June 2009.
The papers of these meetings are published in:
Stuchlik, L. and Wasylikowa, K. (eds.) 1995. Acta Palaeobotanica 35(1).
Veen, M. van der (ed.) 1999. The Exploitation of Plant Resources in Ancient Africa. London, Kluwer Academic and Plenum Publishers. (see table of contents below)
Neumann, K., Butler, A. and Kahlheber, S. (eds.) 2003. Food, Fuel and Fields. Progress in African Archaeobotany. Cologne, Heinrich Barth Institut.
Cappers, R. (ed.) 2007. Fields of Change. Progress in African Archaeobotany. Groningen: Barkhuis and Groningen University Library.
M. van der Veen (ed.) 1999. The Exploitation of Plant Resources in Ancient Africa. New York, Kluwer Academic/Plenum Publishers. Hardbound, 283 pp., ISBN 0-306-46109-9.
This book brings together the most recent evidence for the exploitation of plant resources in ancient Africa. It presents case studies from the West African Sahel, Ethiopia, Uganda, Egypt and Sudan, which range in date from 8000 BP to the present day. The volume addresses topics such as the role of wild plant resources in hunter-gatherer and farming communities, the origins of agriculture, the agricultural foundation of complex societies, long-distance trade and exchange of foods and crops, and the human impact on local vegetation - all key issues of current research in archaeology, anthropology, agronomy, ecology and economic history.
While the volume does not pretend to be comprehensive in its coverage of the entire continent – the evidence is still too patchy for that – it does bring together most archaeobotanical data from Africa collected over the ten years prior to publication. These data were collected as part of current and recently completed international and interdisciplinary research projects, and all articles include extensive bibliographies referring to previously published work. The book contains 20 chapters written by scholars from eight different countries.
