Carpology

Carpology is a discipline of botany devoted to the study of seeds and fruits. The German inventor Joseph Gaertner, an 18th-century doctor and botanist, dedicated his life to the study of natural history. He considered its inventor. When the discipline is applied to archaeological remains, it is known as paleocarpology, which in turn is located within paleobotanical science.

Carpology pursues two objectives: to reconstruct the evolution of a certain plant species; and to recreate the landscape and, thus, its flora and fauna.

Carpology data is considered "auxiliary" for fields such as archeology. Among other things, carpology can distinguish between indigenous seeds and those that have been domesticated for human cultivation. Landscape flora can be extrapolated.

Numerous research centers host carpology departments. France, the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, Belgium or Germany are the European states with the longest history of this discipline. Teams are dedicated to carpology also in Spain and Italy.

Teams carry out research in places such as Syria, Lebanon, Algeria, or Tunisia. This work linked to archeology by exploiting carpological materials.

References

External links

ALONSO i MARTINEZ, N., De la llavor a la farina: els processos agrícoles protohistòrics a la Catalunya occidental, Monographies d'archéologie méditerranéenne 4, Lattes, Association pour la recherche archéologique en Languedoc oriental, 1999
BUXÓ, R. y PIQUÉ, R., La recogida de muestras en arqueobotánica: objetivos y propuestas metodológicas, Museu d’Arqueologia de Catalunya, Barcelona, 2003.
BUXÓ, R., Arqueología de las plantas. La explotación económica de las semillas las frutas en el marco mediterráneo de la Península Ibérica, Crítica, Barcelona, 1997.
BUXÓ, R; MOLIST, M. (dir.), From the adoption of Agriculture to the Current Landscape: long term interaction between Men and Environment in the East Mediterranean Basin, European project ICA3-CT-2002-10022, Monografies 9, Museu d’Arqueologia de Catalunya, Barcelona, 2007
DURAND, A., Les paysages médiévaux de Languedoc (Xe-XIIe siècles), Toulouse, Presses universitaires du Mirail, 1998