High-Resolution Spatial Analysis of Archaeobotanical Remains from a Kitchen Context in Imperial Late Antique (ca. a.d. 600) Dhiban, Jordan

Author/Creator ORCID

Date

2023-11-02

Department

Program

Citation of Original Publication

Farahani, Alan, Melissa Kutner, Danielle Steen Fatkin, and Benjamin W. Porter. “High-Resolution Spatial Analysis of Archaeobotanical Remains from a Kitchen Context in Imperial Late Antique (ca. a.d. 600) Dhiban, Jordan.” Journal of Field Archaeology 0, no. 0 (2023): 1–17. https://doi.org/10.1080/00934690.2023.2270879.

Rights

This item is likely protected under Title 17 of the U.S. Copyright Law. Unless on a Creative Commons license, for uses protected by Copyright Law, contact the copyright holder or the author.
Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 4.0 International (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 DEED)

Subjects

Abstract

Archaeological plant remains are key data in the identification of the material consequences of imperial interventions in past local lifeways. In this paper, the spatial and stratigraphic analysis of plant remains preserved in a hypothesized kitchen context from the archaeological site of Dhiban, Jordan, is presented in detail. This context is dated to ca. a.d. 570–640 based on 16 AMS dates, a time when the Dhiban community was part of and located at the eastern edge of the Byzantine empire. Analysis of over 130 point-provenienced flotation samples reveals a local emphasis on the agricultural production of wheat, peas, and grape, in spite of the challenges of water management in a semi-arid landscape. Comparison with other nearby and contemporaneous sites indicates that while all grew a similar suite of crops, their frequencies vary, possibly indicating a community of agricultural practice specializing in different foodstuffs or crops.