Theme:
1. The Material Record: Current Trends and Future Directions
Session format:
Regular session
Title:
Baskets and Their Belongings: Archaeobotany and Conservation of Vegetal Basketry Objects and Their Vegetal Content
Content:
The ancient basketry craft transitioned through the entire human history – from the early prehistoric human groups to the contemporary market of the 21st century. Basket-making is a trans-geographical and pervasive activity, resulting in products of diverse shapes, sizes, raw materials and functions as they service a wide utilisation spectrum by humans. Basketry is also strongly related to the vegetal raw material, including woody and non-woody plants, allowing for the creation of objects not only of different dimensions but also with specific properties such as durability, heavy load-resistivity, excellent ventilation or even waterproofness.
On the other hand, basketry products are often chosen for the storage, transportation and processing of raw materials or products of plant origin (consumables and non-consumables). Sometimes, a single plant may offer its different plant parts for both – a basket and its content. Examples of that could be some cereal species with stems and leaves appropriate for weaving, but also with a good grain yield which could be subsequently stored in a basket; or some tree species that provide outstanding properties for basket-making, but once shaped into a basket could also contain woody materials. The crucial role of conservation science is to uncover, document and preserve these objects, ensuring archaeobotanical analysis of both the baskets and their contents.
This particular link between the vegetal basketry object, its vegetal content (alimentary and non-alimentary) and their conservation is what we aim to explore in the current session. We welcome contributions, independent of their geographical region or chronological period, presenting archaeological, archaeobotanical, conservational or other related studies of both vegetal basketry materials combined with vegetal resources or products contained within basketry items and related to the functionality of both types of plant resources.
Keywords:
Basketry, Basketry content, Archaeobotany, Conservation science
Session associated with MERC:
no
Session associated with CIfA:
no
Session associated with SAfA:
no
Session associated with CAA:
no
Session associated with DGUF:
no
Session associated with other:
ARCHWILD Community
Main organiser:
Mila Andonova-Katsarski (Bulgaria) 1
Co-organisers:
Maria Herero-Otal (Spain) 2
Ingrid Stelzner (Germany) 3
Affiliations:
1. Division of Palaeobotany and Palynology, Institute of Biodiversity and Ecosystem Research, Bulgarian Academy of Sciences
2. Archaeobotany Laboratory, Prehistory Department, Autonomous University of Barcelona
3. Leibniz-Zentrum für Archäologie, Mainz
THIS SESSION CAN NOT BE SELECTED AT THIS MOMENT