Title:
Flax for seed or fibre use? Flax capsules from ancient Egyptian sites (3rd millennium BC to second century AD) compared with modern flax genebank accessions
Author(s):
Karg, Sabine; Spinazzi-Lucchesi, C.; Diederichsen, A.
Year of publication:
2024
Available Date:
2024-07-29T06:16:54Z
Abstract:
In order to determine whether ancient Egyptians had already selected and cultivated very specialized flax types according to their purpose for textile or oil production, respectively, we compared archaeobotanical flax finds with nearly 3000 diverse genebank accessions kept at the Plant Gene Resources of Canada (PGRC). The main result was that fibre flax was most probably already cultivated during the 3rd millennium BC, whereas in later periods an intermediate flax and/or oil type was in use. The collaboration between archaeobotanists and genebank curators shows how our knowledge about ancient usage of plants can be improved by interpreting observations made on ancient findings using recent characterization data obtained from diverse genebank material.
Part of Identifier:
e-ISSN (online): 1573-5109
Keywords:
Archaeobotany
Genebank collections
Domestication
Ancient Egypt
Linum usitatissimum
DDC-Classification:
930 Geschichte des Altertums bis ca. 499, Archäologie
Publication Type:
Wissenschaftlicher Artikel
URL of the Original Publication:
DOI of the Original Publication:
Journaltitle:
Genetic Resources and Crop Evolution
Department/institution:
Geschichts- und Kulturwissenschaften
Institut für Prähistorische Archäologie
Comments:
Die Publikation wurde aus Open Access Publikationsgeldern der Freien Universität Berlin gefördert.