Subsistence archaeobotany: food production and the agricultural transition in East Timor

Abstract

The Archaeobotany of East Timor’s early subsistence practices has not previously been the target of systematic and comprehensive research, and this is the main purpose of this doctoral thesis. The project aims at investigating early plant food management and the introduction of agriculture in East Timor, using charred plant remains from archaeological sites as a direct line of evidence. East Timor’s economy today relies mostly on subsistence farming practices, involving a diversified array of food products from different origins. Amongst the most widely distributed, maize (Zea mays) and cassava (Manihot esculenta), originated in the American tropics and are known to have been introduced after the XVI century, with the first European (Portuguese) colonial contacts. Rice (Oryza sativa) was most probably domesticated in eastern Asia, and is believed to have been introduced to Timor some time within the last 4000 years. Many fruits and nuts (such as Canarium sp., Artocarpus spp., the breadfruit, and Pandanus sp.), as well as different members of the Dioscoreaceae and Araceae families (Dioscorea alata and D. hispida yams, and taro, Colocasia esculenta), are also widely used and may have been so since the early‐ or the mid‐Holocene. The history of plant management and agricultural origins in the wider region has been mostly investigated through more indirect proxies, such as animal domesticates, pottery and pollen records. In East Timor, the first pottery and animal domesticates appear in the archaeological record around 3800‐3600 BP and are generally accepted as being associated with the introduction of full agricultural practices. However, with the exception of Ian Glover’s seminal work in the 1960s, very few plant remains from archaeological sites have ever been reported. The main corpus of this project is based on the recovery, identification, and interpretation of macrobotanical plant remains recovered during two archaeological fieldwork seasons, carried out by the author in East Timor in 2004 and 2005. Macrobotanical assemblages derived from excavations by Sue O’Connor, Matthew Spriggs and Peter Veth and not previously analysed, are also incorporated in the study, and plant remains reported by Glover reassessed. With one exception – which does not contradict the general picture – results obtained confirm the absence of rice or millets in any of the excavated assemblages, suggesting that none of these crops were introduced to East Timor with the first pottery or animal domesticates. They have arrived only in a later period, possibly within the last 2000‐1500 years, when the caves iv investigated were no longer being systematically used for habitation purposes. The macrobotanical analysis undertaken also suggests that a range of fruits and tubers have been in use in Timor since the early‐ to mid‐Holocene, and that plant exploitation probably goes back as far as ca. 40 ky before present. The method of recovery of plant remains used in the field, based on comprehensive flotation and wet‐sieving techniques, shows that it is indeed possible to unearth macrobotanical assemblages from tropical and semi‐tropical archaeological environments. Systematic comparison between archaeological specimens and a modern reference collection, based on morphological and anatomical binomial attributes and the use of both light‐powered bifocal and scanning electron microscopes, allows for positive identification of charred plant remains. The adoption of these techniques by archaeologists needs to become standard research practice across the region if we are to successfully address issues of past plant management and agricultural origins. Show more