Just received this very interesting notice from the Research Group for Palaeocological and Geoarchaeological Studies (GEPEG) of the University of Barcelona (which is run by Prof. Rosa Maria Albert, who excavated with us at Safi a few years ago) regarding a new Phytolith-Core Reference Collection, which can be very helpful for any archaeologists working on issues relating to the environment and plant-use at archaeological sites.
Here is the notice:
Dear colleagues,
The Research Group for Palaeocological and Geoarchaeological Studies (GEPEG) of the University of Barcelona was created in 2005 with the purpose of, among others, conducting phytolith and mineralogical analyses of archaeological sediments to better understand the exploitation of plant resources by past populations, as well as to conduct climatic and vegetation reconstructions, taking into account the different postdepositional processes that can affect the archaeological material.
Along these years of research, GEPEG has created microphotographs of phytoliths that might serve as a reference catalog to identify the phytoliths from the different areas of study.
We are pleased to present the GEPEG Phytolith-Core Reference Collection. This is a new phytolith catalog which is available at http://gepeg.org/enter_PCORE.html
The catalog is based on phytolith images collected from three different sources:
- Modern reference plant material from the study areas.
- Modern soils collected from the same areas as modern plants or from areas that were previously described in terms of vegetation.
- Archaeological material.
The catalog not only provides microphotographs of phytoliths but also related information such as provenience of the sample, date of collection, in the case of modern soil assemblages, description of the vegetation from where the samples were collected, etc.
We hope it is of interest to you,
Sincerely yours,
GEPEG group
