Labs
Ethnobotany Laboratory
Lab Director: Mollie S. Toll
If all we looked at in the Ethnobotany Lab were specimens recognizable during excavation as botanical, we would have very little to do most of the time. Extraordinary preservation conditions (dry caves or rapidly smothered fires) would provide windfalls of abundant and varied plant materials, but for the most part, we'd be filing our fingernails and eating bonbons. Luckily, archaeologists know now that microscopic plant parts are recoverable from varied contexts in almost every archaeological site, using the inexpensive and environmentally friendly recovery technique of flotation.
The Ethnobotany Laboratory processes soil samples from all OAS excavations, as well as contracting with other agencies and individuals. The tiny seeds and charcoal fragments found in flotation samples provide information about resource selection for food and fuel, as well as the distribution of subsistence and manufacturing activities within sites. Changes in resource selection (between different geographic entities, between different regional site types, or over time) can reveal much about the choices available to prehistoric populations.