The third atlas of the Digital Plant Atlas Project presents illustrations of subfossil remains of plants with economic value. These plant remains mainly derive from excavations in the Old World (Europe, Western Asia and North Africa) that the Deutsches Archäologisches Institut (Berlin, Germany) and the Groningen Institute of Archaeology (Netherlands) have conducted or participated in.
Plant material is usually very perishable, but can nevertheless be preserved in archaeological sites if the biological decay of the material is blocked. Many plant remains are discovered during excavations in carbonized form, where despite having been in contact with fire, they have not been completely reduced to ash. Extremely dry climatic conditions, like those in Egypt, can also preserve plant material in a completely dessicated condition. Most of the economically valuable plants illustrated here have been carbonized or desiccated. So this atlas links up very well with the Digital Atlas of Economic Plants.
Like the other atlasses, this atlas is a combination of a book and a website.
Book and website include illustrations of seeds and fruits, and other plant parts. The resulting variety in seed and fruit forms is illustrated by examples from different excavations. To support their identification and determination, also pictures of recent plants and relevant plant parts have been included.
To supplement the photographs, the website also includes morphometric measurements of the subfossil seeds and fruits. These measurements can be compared with own measurements of the plant taxa in question.
Reviews
Raymond van der Ham in The Holocone (23) 2013, 1502–1503
Introduction vii
Glossary xxi
Acanthaceae 1
Adoxaceae 3
Alismataceae 5
Alliaceae 7
Amaranthaceae 15
Anacardiaceae 19
Apiaceae 23
Arecaceae 37
Asteraceae 57
Betulaceae 65
Boraginaceae 71
Brassicaceae 75
Burseraceae 85
Cannabaceae 87
Capparaceae 93
Chenopodiaceae 97
Cornaceae 103
Cucurbitaceae 105
Cupressaceae 117
Cyperaceae 121
Ericaceae 125
Euphorbiaceae 127
Fabaceae 131
Fagaceae 229
Juglandaceae 233
Lamiaceae 239
Linaceae 243
Lythraceae 255
Malvaceae 263
Meliaceae 269
Menispermaceae 275
Moraceae 279
Moringaceae 293
Nelumbonaceae 295
Neuradaceae 299
Nitrariaceae 301
Oleaceae 307
Orobanchaceae 315
Papaveraceae 317
Phyllanthaceae 321
Pedaliaceae 325
Pinaceae 331
Piperaceae 335
Plantaginaceae 341
Poaceae 343
Polygonaceae 545
Portulacaceae 549
Ranunculaceae 551
Rhamnaceae 553
Rosaceae 561
Rutaceae 629
Sapotaceae 633
Solanaceae 637
Vitaceae 645
Zygophyllaceae 657
Appendix 1 665
Appendix 2 671
Indices of plant names 681
