An assessment of microCT technology for the investigation of charred archaeological parenchyma from house sites at Kuk S
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ORIGINAL PAPER
An assessment of microCT technology for the investigation of charred archaeological parenchyma from house sites at Kuk Swamp, Papua New Guinea Jenifer Pritchard 1 & Tara Lewis 2 & Levi Beeching 3 & Tim Denham 1 Received: 20 October 2017 / Accepted: 23 April 2018 # Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature 2018
Abstract Archaeological parenchyma is analysed using microCT to enable virtual histological examination and taxonomic identification to species level. MicroCT images are compared with reflected light microscopy (RLM) and scanning electron microscopy (SEM) images of fresh, desiccated and charred reference specimens. These results reveal differences in cell dimensions depending upon sample preparation and highlight the importance of using appropriately prepared reference material. A reference library is provided as supplemental material to address a lack of available imagery of reference specimens. MicroCT analysis confirms previous, more tentative, identifications of fragments of archaeological parenchyma from relatively recent archaeological contexts at Kuk Swamp, highlands of Papua New Guinea. Five archaeobotanical fragments are described in detail and with varying levels of confidence to sugarcane (Saccharum officinarum) and sweet potato (Ipomoea batatas). The study demonstrates the potential of non-destructive microCT for the identification of archaeological parenchyma. Keywords Archaeological parenchyma . MicroCT . Virtual histology . Sugarcane (Saccharum officinarum) . Sweet potato (Ipomoea batatas) . Archaeobotany
Introduction The taxonomic identification of macrobotanical specimens is an integral part of archaeological research. Archaeological parenchyma is often an under-reported and under-identified component of archaeobotanical assemblages due to difficulties of taxonomic identification and access to suitable reference collections. A combination of reflected light microscopy (RLM), transmitted light microscopy and scanning electron microscopy (SEM) is typically used to describe and identify
Electronic supplementary material The online version of this article (https://doi.org/10.1007/s12520-018-0648-0) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users. * Tim Denham [email protected] 1
College of Arts and Social Science, Australian National University, Canberra, Australia
2
School of Life and Environmental Sciences, Deakin University, Geelong, Australia
3
Department of Applied Mathematics, Australian National University, Canberra, Australia
archaeological parenchyma (Rosendahl and Yen 1971; Ugent et al. 1981; Ugent and Peterson 1988; Hather 1991, 2000; Ladefoged et al. 2005). In this study, the value of microCT to archaeobotanical investigation is evaluated for five charred archaeological parenchyma samples, comprising macrobotanical culm and tuber remnants previously described using RLM by Lewis et al. (2016). The charred fragments of archaeological parenchyma were obtained during excavations of house sites and associated contexts at Kuk
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