Paleoethnobotany offers powerful tools for reconstructing past cultures by examining the interaction of human populations with the plant world. Plant remains from archaeological sites can provide information for a number of disciplines: archaeologists may use such remains to examine how plants were used, how agriculture changed over time, or how plant offerings in burials signaled social status; ecologists and botanists may use them to study morphological changes in plants due to domestication.
Combining case studies and theoretical discussions, Current Paleoethnobotany presents the first full discussion of the major stages and problems of paleoethnobotanical research, from designing and testing equipment, such as flotation machines, to quantification and interpretation. The volume explores a wide range of issues concerning collection techniques, analytical procedures, and interpretive models that will provide accurate information about past human societies from plant remains. The contributors offer data on specific regions as well as more general background information on the basic techniques of paleoethnobotany for the nonspecialist. Throughout, they explicitly examine the assumptions underlying paleoethnobotanical methods and the ways in which those assumptions affect anthropological and ecological research questions.
Based on a symposium presented at the 1985 meeting of the Society for American Archaeology, Current Paleoethnobotany moves beyond a technique-oriented view of paleoethnobotany to successfully integrate current thinking about both procedures and research goals. The contributors demonstrate the potential value of the field of paleoethnobotany and open the way for further discussion and improvement.

One of the first interdisciplinary discussions of taphonomy (the study of how fossil assemblages are formed) and paleoecology (the reconstruction of ancient ecosystems), this volume helped establish these relatively new disciplines. It was originally published as part of the influential Prehistoric Archeology and Ecology series. Taphonomy is plainly here to stay, and this book makes a first class introduction to its range and appeal.--Anthony Smith, Interdisciplinary Science Reviews

"A rich historical pastiche of 17th- and 18th-century philosophy, science, and religion."--G. Y. Craig, "New Scientist "
"This book, by a distinguished Italian historian of philosophy, is a worthy successor to the author's important works on Francis Bacon and on technology and the arts. First published in Italian (in 1979), it now makes available to English readers some subtly wrought arguments about the ways in which geology and anthropology challenged biblical chronology and forced changes in the philosophy of history in the early modern era. . . . [Rossi] shows that the search for new answers about human origins spanned many disciplines and involved many fascinating intellects--Bacon, Bayle, Buffon, Burnet, Descartes, Hobbes, Holbach, Hooke, Hume, Hutton, Leibniz, de Maillet, Newton, Pufendorf, Spinoza, Toland, and, most especially, Vico, whose works are impressively and freshly reevaluated here."--Nina Gelbart, " American Scientist
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How does bison meat taste after being frozen for 30,000 years? Were Ice Age cave painters trying to create "art" or just record history? How did ancient oil spills occur, before there were oil companies to create them? Those are just some of the questions renowned paleontologist Bjorn Kurten answers in this collection of lighthearted essays on fossils, ancient life, and related topics. Written for the general reader, these lively pieces range from a look at how scientific theories are created to some new views of old myths. Among the topics Kurten examines are the history of the Mediterranean Sea, the origin of birds, the theory of plate tectonics (continental drift), and the discovery of Piltdown Man, the "missing link" fossil forgery that fooled scientists for more than 40 years.

And, true to its title, the book offers a humorous "recipe" for freezing a mammoth that is tundra-tested, if not totally foolproof. "You may have to expend a few hundred mammoths before everything works out," the reader is cautioned, "But there are plenty of them." (Although the author hasn't tasted the fruits of his mammoth recipe, he did feast on some ancient bison meat that dated from 30,000 years ago. Kurten described the taste as "agreeable.")

Throughout these essays Kurten brings the prehistoric world alive with enthusiasm and humor, emphasizing that paleontology is the study of those that lived long ago instead of those who are long dead. As he says, "Isn't it more fun to see a dinosaur as something that used to live, rather than as the monstrous heap of bones which it happens to be at present?"

William Diller Matthew (1871-1930), who could be called the Father of Mammalian Paleontology, occupies a major position in the history of North American paleontology. In his biography of this paleontologist's paleontologist, Edwin Colbert paints a compelling portrait of the scientist's life and work. Using personal letters, archives, and accounts from those who knew Will Matthew, Colbert presents a delightful and informative account of Matthew's experiences around the turn of the century, complete with photographs of his excavations, world travels, time in New York, family, and environs. Matthew's unique contribution to science rested on his dual perspective as both geologist and paleontologist. He diligently collected and catalogued fossils while at the same time noting stratigraphic details that gave significant time-related information on these fossils. Matthew wrote widely on paleontology at the turn of the century, but most well known is his extensive essay "Climate and Evolution", written in 1915, which attracted almost immediate attention from the paleontological-zoological community. Characteristic of his no-nonsense approach to his work, this essay remains vital and inspirational to paleontological researchers today. Will Matthew was also keen on reaching the public at large and published profusely in the American Museum Journal (which after 1918 became Natural History magazine), where he described his fossil finds, new exhibits, and other interesting research. He also published several American Museum guide leaflets on specific subjects, such as the horse. His informative description "'The Horse', wrote a small boy in his essay, 'is the square animal with a leg at eachcorner, '" - a definition that obviously charmed Matthew. Peppered with such anecdotes, the engaging and highly readable William Diller Matthew, Paleontologist: The Splendid Drama Observed vividly depicts a man respected and revered by many generations of scientists.

The author describes the postcrania of the Miocene marsupials "Ilaria illumidens" and "Ngapakaldia tedfordi" and compares them with those of other vombatiforms and out-group marsupials. A cladistic analysis of postcranial characters shows "Ilaria" to be most closely related to the wombats, primarily on the basis of the highly derived manus. "Ngapakaldia"'s postcranium is more plesiomorphic and most similar to the phalangeriform possums.

This book chronicles the earliest histories of familiar tropical Asian crops in the ancient Middle East and the Mediterranean, from rice and cotton to citruses and cucumbers. Drawing on archaeological materials and textual sources in over seven ancient languages, The Tropical Turn unravels the breathtaking anthropogenic peregrinations of these familiar crops from their homelands in tropical and subtropical Asia to the Middle East and the Mediterranean, showing the significant impact South Asia had on the ecologies, dietary habits, and cultural identities of peoples across the ancient world. In the process, Sureshkumar Muthukumaran offers a fresh narrative history of human connectivity across Afro-Eurasia from the Bronze Age to the late centuries BCE.