![]() | Only 14 pages are availabe for public view |
Abstract Egypt’s arid climate has led to the outstanding preservation of its ancient cultural heritage. Along with its famous tombs, mummies and delicate artifacts, the climate has also preserved a wealth of botanical material on a macro (e.g., seeds, grains, fruits and stems) and micro (e.g. phytoliths, starch grains) level. The study of these archaeological plant remains can yield vital information about human nutrition, subsistence strategy and economy, agricultural production and the climate and environment in the past. The assemblage of plant macro remains retrieved from the Early Dynastic Cemetery (OP4) at Helwan archaeological site shed the light on the past relationship between man and the plant diversity grew during the Early Dynastic period. This achievement should be attributed to the excellent preservation status of these plant macroremains. Morphological features have been used to identify a total of 26819 fragments of plant macroremams. Morphological analysis of 30 soil samples from 10 tombs reveals the presence of remains of five cereal crops, flax, one wild edible fruit plant, 22 field weeds species, five water loving species and four xerophytes. Remains of field weeds and cereal chaff dominated the plant assemblage by (53%) and (38%) respectively. The rest of the remains were recorded in small percentages: flax (0.02), wild edible fruits (0.01 %), water loving plants (1.24%), xerophytes (0.04%) and unknown taxa (3%). The cereal remains from the studied tombs of OP4 at Helwan Early Dynastic Cemetery included grains, rachis fragments, glume bases, forks and rachis segments of five cereal crops: Hordeum vulgare L. convar. vulgare L, (six-row barley), Hordeum vulgare L. convar. distichion (L.) Alef, (two-row barley), Hordeum vulgare L. convar. coeleste (L.) Trofim (naked barely), Triticum turgidum L. ssp. dicoccon (Schrank.) Thell. (emmer wheat), Triticum aestivum/durum. (Free threshing wheat: macaronilbread wheat). Nine taxa of wild plants were recorded in over half the samples, namely: Medicago polymorpha, Medicago lupulina, Trifolium alexandrinum, Vicia sativa, Vicia ervilia, Bromus sp., Lolium temulentum, Phalaris minor, Rumex dentatus. It is very interesting to notice that 10 species of field weeds from Early Dynastic Helwan are still recorded among field weed assemblages associated with wheat and clover cultivation in modem Egypt. The current study concluded that the arable economy of Early Dynastic Helwan was largely based on the cultivation of cereals. The inhabitants of the area had cultivated barley (Hordeum vulgare convar. vu 19a re) as a major crop associated with emmer wheat (Triticum turgidum L. ssp. dicoccon) as well as small amounts of free threshing wheat (Triticum aestivum/durum), naked barley (Hordeum vulgare convar. eo eleste) and two row barley (Hordeum vulgare convar. distichion ). The study suggested occurrence of different vegetation types and habitats of xerophytes and swampy stands in the general vicinity of the site. |