Category: Bioarchaeology

New paper! Diet and Resource Management in Palaikastro: Insights into Bronze Age Economy

Join us on an archaeological journey to the Minoan city of Palaikastro in eastern Crete, as we explore the recently published research paper on the management of diet and natural resources (Gestió de la dieta i dels recursos naturals a la ciutat minoica de Palaikastro). Through the ‘Palace and Landscape at Palaikastro’ (PALAP) project, a…
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News from the Mongolian steppe: latest campaign sheds further light on nomadic societies and pastoralism 

During late May and June, we conducted new excavation and exploration work in Züünkhangai, as part of the project that aims to investigate Bronze Age nomadic societies and pastoralism in Mongolia.  ZK513: A 4000-Year-Old Winter Camp Still in Use Today The objective of the 2023 archaeological campaign was multifaceted. The team primarily excavated the site…
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Reconstructing the diet and food ways of Roman Iesso

Today, Theoni Baniou is in Guissona to offer a talk for the assistants of the course “XVII Curs d’Arqueologia Ciutat romana de Iesso” (XVII edition of the Roman City of Iesso Archaeology Course), organised by Guissona Museum and the Autonomous University of Barcelona in collaboration with the ICAC, the Guissona City Council, and the Institute…
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Open Access! Presenting the PALAP dataset: Unraveling Ancient Lifestyles in Crete

New publication presents dataset with records of primary archaeobotanical and zooarchaeological remains from the ‘Palace and Landscape at Palaikastro’ (PALAP) excavation project, providing insight to ongoing debates surrounding the Bronze Age, including the emergence and economic organisation of urban centres during this era. We are thrilled to announce the release of a comprehensive dataset of our latest findings…
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Seeds and Other Carporemains: Markets, Food, and Urban Industry

We are excited to participate in the “Sessions Formatives Arqueoborn-II: Arqueologia i Arqueobiologia Urbana a Barcelona” (Arqueoborn-II Training Sessions: Urban Archaeology and Archaeobiology in Barcelona) organized by El Born Centre de Cultura i Memòria (El Born CCM) with the “Llavors i altres carporrestes: mercats, alimentació i indústria urbana” (Seeds and Other Carporemains: Markets, Food, and…
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From climate to conflict: recap of the GIAP Seminars of 2023

What an extraordinary year it has been for the GIAP Seminar series in 2023! As we bid farewell to this year’s series, let’s take a moment to reminisce about the incredible talks that we were able to enjoy. Although this chapter has concluded, the GIAP team is already hard at work, preparing another remarkable line-up…
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At the Barcelona Science Festival, we cultivate knowledge with Archaeobotany!

This weekend, Rambla Prim in Barcelona has been buzzing with families and researchers at the 16th Science Festival.  We participated in the event with a workshop on cereal cultivation and sustainable food, where children and their families interacted with large-scale reproductions of ancient cereal seeds  and performed tasks of sample identification and classification.  The activity was very well received, with the participation of about thirty people, including 15 children and their families. The workshop led to the discovery of Archaeobotany: a discipline that is not widely known in the popular imagination of Archaeology but is essential for understanding key aspects of past societies‘ daily life; such as food, agricultural practices, and trade routes. In the introductory phase of the workshop, we compared some of the most consumed cereals today with the wide variety of cereal species that existed in the prehistoric Mediterranean area. Using various graphic and plastic materials (a poster, reproductions of charred seeds, and images on paper), our researchers explained the most relevant aspects of their research methodology. Furthermore, the researchers explained the key aspects of the current research methodology in archaeobotany. They emphasized the collaboration with ancient seed banks (agrogenetics), our experimental cultivations in the Institute of Plant Breeding and Genetic…
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Open registration for the 43rd Conference of the Association of Environmental Archaeology!

You can now register for the 43rd Conference of the Association for Environmental Archaeology, which will take place in Tarragona from 24-26 November 2023, hosted by the ICAC. The title for the conference is Telling Environmental Archaeology Stories, with which we aim to explore the contributions of environmental archaeology in creating history and how our research has helped…
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Cultivating Knowledge: Deciphering the Seeds of the Past to Plant the Future

(Català a continuació) Would you like to be an archaeobotanist for a day? Join us this Sunday afternoon at the “Festa de la Ciència 2023” in Barcelona! Cultivating Knowledge: Deciphering the Seeds of the Past to Plant the FutureDid you know that from something as small as a seed, we can learn what our ancestors…
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The archaeozoology team gets bigger!

We are very glad to welcome Abel Gallego-Valle back to the group, who won our latest postdoctoral call, and will contribute with his expertise to the archaeozoology team at GIAP. He will contribute with his expertise on the research on animal husbandry and archaezoology in the framework of the GIAP projects. In particular, the dental…
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