Alexander Weide

Environmental Archaeology with a focus on past agro-ecology and the development of agricultural systems

 

Research Area

I am interested in past agricultural systems and how they develop through time. My main study region is southwest Asia, including Turkey and the Caucasus. In my research I study archaeological plant material that is commonly preserved by carbonisation and contains a large variety of subfossil materials such as crop remains, weed seeds, lumps of processed foods, remains of animal dung, etc. These materials allow us to reconstruct past diets and foodways, but also environmental and agro-ecological information via the remains of wild species that enter the archaeological deposits via crop processing activities (arable weeds) or the burning of animal dung (species from grazed habitats).

My research methods include plant functional ecology, stable isotope analysis, and geometric morphometrics (GMM). Plant functional ecology characterises weed floras based on sets of functional traits correlated with major agro-ecological variables such as soil fertility and disturbance. In conjunction with stable isotope analysis of crop remains, these two methods provide detailed insights into crop management strategies and intensification processes, including manuring, irrigation, fallow, tillage systems, and selective cropping. Geometric morphometrics complements our understanding of past agricultural systems, and has successfully used to identify crop subspecies and varieties, linking cultivation systems to past agro-biodiversity.

 

Project Interests

I am interested in developing projects based on recently collected archaeobotanical samples that focus on aspects of past agricultural systems, including cultivation practices, crop diversity, and resource use in general. I welcome projects that combine different methods and are keen to develop new approaches. In future research I would like to explore possibilities of GMM to identify wild plant seeds, and to drive forward applications of plant functional ecology in archaeology. The approach currently focuses on traditional cereal and pulse cultivation in western Eurasia but can be expanded to analyse e.g. millet cultivation or ecological implications of dung-derived seed assemblages.