Archaeology

May 2, 2011May 2, 2011

Agricultural biodiversity in the Linear B tablets

It was a great thrill during a recent visit to Athens to check out selected Linear B tablets on display at the National Archaeological Museum. I hadn’t seen these things outside books since I was about 12 I think. It was an even greater thrill to realize — or remember — that some deal with agrobiodiversity. Here’s one (Ge 610) that “records quantities of raw materials for perfume manufacture.” It comes from the House of the Sphinxes at Mycenae, which may have belonged to a herbalist.

Unfortunately, I was not able to find any further information online about Ge 610, but I had better luck with Ge 603, one of a set “recording aromatic herbs (cumin, coriander, fennel, sesame, saffron) associated with male (workers) names).”

You can read all about that one in Writing Without Letters:

And it also gets a footnote in another book. Oh what fun one could have with this!

April 24, 2011April 25, 2011

Athena’s olive tree

Erechtheum, a photo by luigig on Flickr.

“Legend … says that this olive tree can be traced back to the tree originally planted by Athena here. Every invader cut it down and every time someone saved a sprig to be planted later. The most recent replanting was done by members of the American School in 1952 who saved it bit from what the Germans destroyed in 1942.”

April 23, 2011April 23, 2011

Nibbles: Plectranthus, Roads, Fast food, Dog food, Hybrid rice, Mapping climate change, Turf, Cassava, iPhone app, Zizania, Rice

Livingstone potato (Plectranthus) on the menu in Burundi. Yeah but what does it taste like?
The world’s roads mapped. About time too.
The world’s convenience food made better. Maybe.
Dog cooking pot from ancient China. Woof. Via.
Hybrid rice backfires. Via.
Mapping the impacts of climate change. Only country level though.
Native lawns better. But are they greener?
JSTOR does a cassava roundup despite hating tapioca.
Biodiversity monitoring? There’s an app for that.
Wild rice (not a wild relative of rice, mind, but sacred to the local Native Americans) vs the copper-nickel mining industry.
Slideshow on rice (the real thing) in Vietnam.

April 18, 2011April 22, 2011

Brainfood: Processing, Berries, Bush tomato, Rwanda, Bean erosion, Agroforestry seed, Trees, Rice nutrition

Special issue of Archaeological and Anthropological Sciences on food processing, “a critical variable in human economies and social and symbolic systems.” Looks like the editorial is open to all.
Investigation of genetic diversity in Russian collections of raspberry and blue honeysuckle. Some of them are much richer than others.
Solanum centrale, bush tucker: new microsatellites reveal diversity and polyploidy; and it benefits from arbuscular mycorrhiza, especially in low P soils.
The Crop Intensification Program in Rwanda: a sustainability analysis. It isn’t.
Wholesale replacement of lima bean (Phaseolus lunatus L.) landraces over the last 30 years in northeastern Campeche, Mexico. There was.
Certification of agroforestry tree germplasm in Southern Africa: opportunities and challenges. Need a scheme based on the FAOs Quality Declared Seed (QDS) with truth-in-labelling, with 3 germplasm categories (audit, select and genetically improved) as a start.
And speaking of trees … Silver fir stand productivity is enhanced when mixed with Norway spruce: evidence based on large-scale inventory data and a generic modelling approach. Diversity good for silver firs, no effect on Norway spruce.
Genotypic variation and relationships between quality traits and trace elements in traditional and improved rice (Oryza sativa L.) genotypes. Traditional varieties have more.

April 11, 2011April 11, 2011

Brainfood: Brazil nut, Cassava relatives, Botanic gardens, Pollinators, OECD, IPM, Community genetics, Insect resistance, Marco Polo sheep, Abiotic stresses, Better climate change modelling

Made in Brazil? Brazil Nut, yes. The genus Manihot, not so much.
The role of botanic gardens as resource and introduction centres in the face of global change. They have one. But they need to be more like genebanks.
Global growth and stability of agricultural yield decrease with pollinator dependence. Analysis of time-series FAO production data shows that more pollinator-dependent crops have lower yield growth and lower yield stability. So both should benefit from more active management of wild pollinators and their habitats. Results can be extended to other ecosystem services but that was a bridge too far for this reader.
Draft Policy Framework for Investment in Agriculture. “The purpose of this document is … to initiate discussion.” Off you go.
Deterrent and insecticidal properties of bean seed (Phaseolus vulgaris L.) whole meal or protein extract incorporated into the diet of Callosobruchus maculatus (F.) (Coleoptera: Bruchidae). To protect chickpeas from bruchid beetles, add bean proteins.
Community genetics: at the crossroads of ecology and evolutionary genetics, a special issue of the Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B, which includes …
… Insect-resistant biotech crops and their impacts on beneficial arthropods. The abstract gives nothing away: “The findings … are discussed.”
High connectivity among argali sheep from Afghanistan and adjacent countries means you need international collaboration for conservation. Good luck with that.
Better phenomics and genomics means you can do really cool Genetic analysis of abiotic stress tolerance in crops, and their wild relatives of course. But we knew that.
Five ways of Improving assessment and modelling of climate change impacts on global terrestrial biodiversity: more data, process-based modelling, better understanding of role of community interactions and of the effect of genetic variation, and better functional groupings of species for improved simulations of vegetation distribution.