Carpología

Seeds of charred wheat, triticum.

Carpology is a discipline of botany that is dedicated to the study of seeds and fruits. He is considered inventor of the same one to the German Joseph Gaertner, doctor and botanist who lived during century XVIII and that dedicated his life to the study of the natural history. When the discipline is applied to archaeological remains is known as paleocarpology which in turn is located within paleobotanical science. From the results obtained from the study of fruits and seeds obtained in one place, carpology would have two objectives: first, to reconstruct the evolution of a specific plant species; and, secondly, to recreate what the landscape was like and, therefore, its flora and fauna.

For the data that this discipline is able to achieve is considered as "auxiliary" for others such as archeology. Among other things, carpology can discern between autochthonous seeds of an area and those that have been domesticated for human cultivation. From here we can extrapolate a reconstruction of the flora of the landscape, always taking into account how destructive anthropic action is.

At present there are numerous research centers that have departments of carpology. France, the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, Belgium or Germany are the European states with the longest course of this discipline. In spite of this, there are also equipment and personnel dedicated to carpology in Spain or Italy. It is an expanding science.

Many of these teams are currently doing research in different places like Syria, Lebanon, Algeria or Tunisia. These works, linked to archeology with very satisfactory results in terms of recovered carpological materials, overturn old theories which claimed that it was a science circumscribed to moist areas by conservation. Conservation

The conservation of seeds is basically due to three processes: vacuum, carbonization and mineralization.

The vacuum process usually occurs in moist lake areas where the materials are sealed under layers of lacustrine or other mud. This process eliminates any presence of oxygen in the medium where the material is, and the conservation is exceptional.

Carbonization is the process of heat exposure not exceeding 300 degrees that transforms a normal seed into a coal, without converting it into ash, thus preserving its morphology and structure, and allowing its identification. This form of conservation is the most usual.

Mineralization occurs when the tissues are impregnated with minerals, such as silica or calcium carbonate. Normally the cells are impregnated after the destruction of its content. Bibliography

Web of the Museum of Archeology of Catalonia

Web of the archaeological excavation of Althiburos

Web of the Department of Prehistory, Ancient History and Archeology

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