Images of charred plant remains from early agriculture sites in the Near East.
These pages contain photos and drawings of sub-fossil charred plant remains from early Neolithic sites of Jerf el Ahmar, Tell Qaramel and Djade in northern Syria. In many cases photos of the nearest modern equivolents are presented. (compiled by George Willcox, Sandra Fornite & Linda Herveux funded by the European Research Project nšICA3-CT-2002-10022 and Archéorient of the CNRS.
Important points concerning the identifications
1) Exact species identification in many cases is not possible due to a) morphological variability, b) species diversity, c) the effect of charring and d) perhaps evolutionary changes. 2) Often the testa is missing from seeds so that 3) identification may rely on the internal seed structure. 4) Hard thick-coated seeds survive preferentially and are over represented compared to fragile seeds. Numerals given after the site names refer to sample numbers.
We have included a few drawings taken from publications of W. van Zeist and G. Hillman; bibliographical references are given on the appropriate pages.