DOI: 10.58132/lntpfm
title: Plant macroremains from archaeological site at Zaborów, near Warsaw

description: [ENG:]The basic data used in further publications, compiled as part of a master's thesis in Archaeology prepared by Eliza Drogosz, supervised by Aldona Mueller-Bieniek, based on materials collected and archaeologically processed by Adam Cieśliński and Marcin Woźniak."Analiza makroszczątków roślinnych z pieców kotlinkowych kultury przeworskiej w Zaborowie, stanowisko V (powiat warszawski zachodni)"Warszawa, September 2023The master's thesis includes the analysis and interpretation of plant macrofossils, such as fruits and seeds, preserved in charred form, mainly from the basins of slag-pit furnaces used in the past for iron smelting (dymarki).The samples were collected during excavations carried out in 2022 by Prof. Adam Cieśliński and Marcin Woźniak, MA. The material was obtained by wet sieving, using water flotation, and sieve column with a mesh diameter of 0.2 mm to 1 mm. The samples were processed by Eliza Drogosz, and identifications verified by Prof. Aldona Mueller-Bieniek. The photographic documentation was made using Keyence and Zeiss microscopes. Unfortunately, during the photography, technical errors affecting the scale happened, so in particularly important cases, the photographs were taken again and the correct scale was included in the publications.This is the first carpological study of this type of archaeological object in Poland. In addition to information on plants whose seeds were intentionally or accidentally found in the charcoal pits, it also provided material for accelerator mass spectrometry (AMS) radiocarbon dating. The tables also indicate the presence of charcoal and sclerotia of the fungus Cenococcum.Zaborów, stanowisko 5, gmina Leszno, powiat warszawski zachodni,Zaborów, site 5, Leszno municipality, Warsaw West CountyAZP 56-63/22location:52° 15′ 44″ N, 20° 40′ 38″ E,52.262222, 20.677222Relative, archaeological dating:Jastorf culture and Przeworsk culture – it should be noted, however, that archaeological dating markers, such as pottery or characteristic elements of clothing/armour, are generally not found in the slag-pits.Radiocarbon dating of organic remains indicates that some of the charred seeds date back to the Jastorf culture (4th–3rd century BC).Data and file overwiew:ENG_Zaborów V ArboDat: The table ENG_Zaborów V ArboDat presents the same results as prepared in the frame of Master Thesis PL_Katalog_archeobotaniczny, which was adopted to the standard archaeobotanical data, using the ArboDatMulti database (Kreuz and Schäfer, 2002; Pokorná et al., 2011).Abbreviations:MNI – minimum number of whole specimensEco – ecological group. The Eco column contains numbers corresponding to the ecological groups also given in column A.Rtyp – type of macrofossil: seed – seed or fruit (non-fleshy, e.g. achene); node – node of monocotyledonous stems, most often grasses; rachSeg – fragment of grass or cereal spike; scler – sclerotiumstate – method of fossilisation, preservation: ch – charred, ot – uncharred, i.e. most likely recent.x, xx, xxx – as in PL_Katalog_archeologiczny table (few, moderately numerous, very numerous).Literature:Kreuz, A., Schäfer, E., 2002. A new archaeobotanical database program. Veget Hist Archaeobot 11, 177–180. https://doi.org/10.1007/s003340200019Pokorná, A., Dreslerová, D., Křivánková, D., 2011. Archaeobotanical database of the Czech Republic, an interim report. Interdisciplinaria archaeologica Natural Sciences in Archaeology 2, 49–53. PL_Katalog_archeologiczny:l.p. - serial numberObiekt - number of archaeological featureWykop - number of archaeological trench and quarterKlasyfikacja funkcjonalna – type of archaeological featureNumer próbki – sample numberObjętość próbki (l) – sample volume (litres)Liczba makroszczątków na litr osadu – numer of macro-remains per 1 liter of sedimentRóżnorodność próby- sample diversity – taxa number/specimen numberObecność węgli drzewnych – presence of wood charcoal- tak/nie – yes/noCenococcum (0/X/XX/XXX) - presence of sclerotia of the fungus Cenococcum geophilum on a four-point scale (0 - absent; X - 1-10, ‘few’; XX - 11-100, “numerous”; XXX - over 100, ‘very numerous’)Minimalna liczba znalezionych makroszczątków roślinnych - Minimum number of plant macrofossils found - in the case of fragments, the reconstructed number of whole specimens is givenWykaz znalezionych nasion - List of seeds found - if charred, no annotation; if not charred, annotation ‘uch’; the minimum number of specimens is given in bracketsUwagi dodatkowe - Additional comments and draft photos of specimensPL_Katalog_archeobotaniczny:The archaeobotanical catalogue offers a slightly different perspective. It is arranged alphabetically according to the names of the plant families whose remains were found in the samples. The first column contains the name of the family, the second column contains the ordinal number (as sometimes more than one taxon belongs to a single family), followed by the Latin name of the taxon, i.e. either the name of the species, genus or family, depending on the level of detail achieved during identification. The next column contains the Polish name of the taxon, followed by information on whether the seed is potentially suitable for radiocarbon dating. This is followed by information on the total number of charred specimens of a given taxon found in the samples; then the total number of uncharred specimens (uch) of a given taxon found in the samples; and thirdly, the total number of specimens of a given taxon whose charring is uncertain (uch?), in the samples. The next column contains information on the object and sample number from which the seed originates, the functional classification of the object, followed by the columns already described in the previous subsection, describing the distribution of probabilities of identification of individual taxa, i.e. the columns: the sum of the minimum number of certain specimens (with the same value as the next column) together with information on the number of charred, uncharred or uncertain specimens (this information was also included in the subsequent columns where numbers were given), the number of certain specimens (100% certainty of identification), the sum of probable specimens multiplied by 0.75, the number of probable specimens (75% certainty of identification), the complement of probable specimens (the remaining 25%) expressed in the taxon name, the sum of potential specimens multiplied by 0.5, the number of potential specimens (50% certainty of identification), complements of probable specimens (the remaining 50%) expressed in the taxon name, the sum of unlikely specimens multiplied by 0.25, the number of unlikely specimens (25% certainty of identification) and complements of unlikely specimens (the remaining 75%) expressed in the taxon name. The last column is reserved for additional comments.This is a rarely used method of describing identified remains, which takes into account the varying degree of certainty of identification.The ‘Uwagi dodatkowe’ column contains, among other things, draft photos of macro-remains. PL_Proby_z_obiektow_innych_niz_hutnicze:A table with the same layout as the PL_Katalog archeologiczny. It includes samples taken from the archaeological features not connected with smelting. The list also includes one control sample taken from the natural layer, outside archaeological sediments.Pictures of macroremains:In file name number of sample (ZV_XX) is followed by the latin name of identified plant. Number of samle is given in tables as ZV/XX)