Plant remains on archaeological sites can consist of seeds, fruits, leaves, flowers, other plant parts, wood, and charcoal. These macroscopic remains are usually identified with the aid of a low-powered (x10–x60 magnification) stereomicroscope. Microscopic remains can sometimes be present, and the common types are pollen, diatoms, starch grains and phytoliths. These can only be identified using a high-powered (x40-x1000) compound microscope. To ensure a correct identification of macroscopic and microscopic plant remains modern reference material and identification guides (atlases) must be used. Interpretation of the assemblages relies on the researcher’s botanical, ecological and archaeological knowledge.
What can archaeobotany tell us?
Plant remains are found in many different situations on archaeological sites; these include domestic hearths (fuel and food spillage), industrial areas, storage areas (grain silos, storage jars etc), rubbish dumps – where food waste is often discarded, tombs and graves, as well as building materials (wooden beams and mud bricks). Plants have a ubiquitous presence on archaeological sites, often blowing around the site, and can be found in unsealed contexts such as streets and other open spaces. These are often present in low concentrations and are known as the ‘background flora’, which has very little interpretive value.
Collection of samples from sealed contexts such as those mentioned above can help identify what crops and other foods (fruits etc) were being cultivated locally or imported from other places to help understand daily domestic activities such as food preparation, crop processing, ritual/religious practices (grave goods, plants used in burial rituals, offerings) and materials used in the construction of a wide range of buildings (wood and mudbrick).
Archaeological plant remains can also tell us about how the environment around the settlement was exploited and maintained. For example, how the crop fields were managed, where wood for fuel and building materials was sourced from, what woods were used in the manufacture of tools such as those used in weaving and other industries, and which woods were preferred in the making of beds, statues, and coffins. Archaeobotany can also help identify if other sources of fuel were being used (dung cakes) and what wild resources were used in the manufacture of essential daily objects such as basketry, mats, ropes, shoes etc.
The study of plant remains from archaeological sites can give us detailed information on the daily and ritual life of a site or at a bigger scale, societies. Without archaeobotany the understanding of how a site functioned and how it exploited the surrounding landscape would be very incomplete and it is now considered to be an essential part of modern archaeological excavations along with other environmental disciplines.
The extraction of plant remains from archaeological contexts
In early archaeological excavations, there was no systematic sampling and processing of samples specifically for environmental remains. The retrieval of botanical materials relied on the excavator identifying caches of remains and picking out those that could be identified by the naked eye. Over time, it became apparent that the greatest proportion of preserved plant remains cannot be seen with the naked eye and therefore samples from relevant contexts were taken and processed to extract the plant remains and other small environmental remains, such as animal bones and insects.
On many sites the main type of preservation of plant remains is charring, and the most efficient way of extracting these is by using water flotation. This can be carried out on a small scale by using bucket flotation or on an industrial scale by using flotation machines known as siraf tanks. Which method of flotation used is dependent on the size of the site, sample size and time available. It is usually the decision of the specialist which method is best suited to the conditions. On other sites, especially those in hot, dry climates i.e., Egypt, the dominant preservation type is desiccation. Following sound museum practice whereby it is best to keep objects as close to the original conditions as possible, flotation is not recommended. Therefore, dry sieving through a series of geological sieves is preferred. This is a more time-consuming process, but smaller samples of desiccated material are required as most plant parts (flowers, leaves etc) that are often destroyed by charring are preserved and therefore more information is available from a smaller sample.
At Amarna, plant remains are preserved by charring and desiccation, with the latter being the dominant form. Originally the environmental samples were processed by dry sieving, but flotation was introduced from 1993 onwards after a pilot study by Delwen Samuel as the use of water was deemed to have no deleterious effect on the organic remains. However, when the samples processed by water flotation were examined after several years in storage, it was noted that the desiccated remains had started to decompose, perhaps due to incomplete drying before storing. Because of this, the standard method of sample processing at Amarna has returned to dry sieving. This does not mean that water flotation has been abandoned, but a more flexible approach to processing has been adopted.
History of archaeobotany at Amarna
There have been three main phases of archaeobotanical research at Amarna, all focussing on different aspects of life at Akhetaten:
1980s: Assessment of potential
In 1984, Jane Renfrew paid a brief visit to the site to assess the quality of preservation of the plant remains and establish if they could be used in a detailed study of human-plant relationships. If so, a long-term sampling strategy was to be instigated in order to extract the maximum amount of information from the site. Jane worked on samples she collected from organic deposits from the Workman’s Village, which included samples from the animal pens, fill of the main quarry and the make-up of the terrace in front of the Walled Village. She also studied the samples collected from the previous excavation seasons at the Workman’s Village between 1979 and 1983, which numbered 300 in total. Her report on the findings can be found in Amarna Reports II. After observing the excellent preservation of the plant remains (mostly by desiccation) she concluded that the site did justify the continuation of this project at a more detailed level. This led to the next major phase of archaeobotanical research at Amarna where a systematic sampling and sample processing strategy was established, with a view to making the study of plant remains one of the main arms of research into the detailed examination of daily life at Amarna and its satellite settlements.
1980s–1990s: Major insights into daily life
Through the 80s and 90s, excavations continued to provide insight into the daily use of plants at Amarna. Environmental samples were systematically taken in the field, following Jane Renfrew’s sampling strategy, leading to a backlog that needed to be processed and studied. Delwen Samuel in 1986/7 was invited to oversee the environmental sampling and processing as well as to study this backlog of materials. Delwen became interested in the processing and baking techniques used by ancient Egyptians to make bread, through study of Amarna’s numerous well-preserved archaeological contexts/features and artefacts associated with baking, and the excellently preserved plant remains. Bread was a staple food of ancient Egyptian life and therefore the methods of how grain is processed and then transformed into bread was important to understand in investigating daily life at Amarna. Through experimental archaeology and archaeobotany, Delwen was able to elucidate the stages of bread making in the New Kingdom (Samuel 1989; 1994). This led to her exploring ancient Egyptian beer production, which resulted in Newcastle Brown brewery producing a limited run beer based on her results.
Delwen was also able to find time to examine the desiccated contents of two linen bags which had been excavated in 1985 from the Workmen’s Village dating to 1350BC. One of the bags was found to contain a few remains of a spice/medicine called ajowan (Trachyspemum copticum). This flavouring originated in India and may have either been grown at Amarna or imported. This is the earliest record of this species in Egypt (Samuel 1995).
In 1988 there was a change in plans with regards to excavation at Amarna. A southern satellite site Kom el-Nana, consisting of Amarna period temples and shrines and a well preserved Late Antique settlement, was under threat from encroaching agriculture. It was decided that that attention should be concentrated here before Kom el-Nana was destroyed. A sampling strategy for the plant remains was developed by Delwen Samuel, and fully implemented from 1994 when Wendy Smith was invited to join the team. Wendy’s research centred on the agricultural practices at Late Antique Kom el-Nana (Smith 2003). This work added much needed hard archaeobotanical data to the understanding of Late Antique agricultural practices, diet, and fuel sources, especially in monastery setting which before had relied solely on historical sources.
While the seeds and other plant remains from Amarna had started to produce some very interesting results, the wood and charcoal remains had up to this point been left unstudied (although many samples had accumulated). In the late 1990s, Reiner Gerisch was invited to study the charcoal remains from the site (Gerisch 2004; 2010; 2012).
2000-present day: A continuation and more detail of daily life of the elite and non-elite
In 2000, Alan Clapham along with Chris Stevens were invited to carry on the work initiated by Delwen and Wendy. A slightly different approach was taken, with the aim in trying to reduce the backlog from the Workmen’s Village, and at the same time to keep up with the ongoing excavations in the Main City (Grid 12 and Ranefer’s House), Stone Village, and later the non-elite cemeteries near the South and North Tombs. A series of chapters in excavation reports as well as stand-alone papers have been produced during this time (Clapham and Stevens 2009; 2012; Stevens and Clapham 2010; 2014). Assistance was brought in for several seasons to reduce the number of unprocessed environmental samples (thanks to Ruth Owen).
The work at the South Tombs Cemetery is now complete and in the process of being written up (Clapham, forthcoming). The study of the cemeteries has involved looking at the plants that have been deposited as grave goods as well as examining and identifying the plant materials used in the various types of mats that were used to enclose the buried bodies. Samples of the grave matrix i.e., the deposits that surrounded the body, were also studied and it is hoped that the combination of these remains will shed a light on the burial practices of the non-elite at Amarna. Work on the plant remains from the northern cemeteries is also nearing completion. As a side project to the plant remains from the non-elite graves it is hoped that by working with the bioarchaeologists working on the skeletons it will be possible to shed some light on the nutritional status of those who worked and lived at Amarna.
Other fieldwork projects have been initiated at Amarna since 2000, producing environmental samples. Their ongoing study (e.g. Clapham 2025) is adding to the growing corpus of archaeobotanical data from Amarna which will produce a more complete picture of daily life and plant use and management of wild resources at the site. It is also envisaged that other environmental datasets such as the insect and animal remains along with the archaeological data can all be linked to produce an overarching vision of life at Amarna, as already initiated by Kemp, Samuel, and Luff (1994).
Alan Clapham
Further reading
Clapham, A.J. 2025. The plant remains from site M50.14–16. In Hodgkinson, A.K., Working in the Suburbs: The Archaeological Remains from Amarna Site M50.14–16. London: Egypt Exploration Society, 261–76.
Clapham, A.J. and C.J. Stevens. 2009. Dates and confused: Does measuring date stones make sense? In Ikram, S. and Dodson, A. (eds), Beyond the Horizon: Studies in Egyptian Art, Archaeology and History in the Honour of Barry J. Kemp. Cairo: AUC Press, 9–27.
Clapham, A.J. and C.J. Stevens. 2012. The plant remains from the Stone Village. In: Stevens. A. (ed) Akhenaten’s Workers: The Amarna Stone Village Survey, 2005-2009. Vol. 2: The Faunal and Botanical Remains, and Objects. Egypt Exploration Society Excavation Memoir 101, London: Egypt Exploration Society and Amarna Trust, 15–45.
Gerisch, R. 2004. Holzkohleuntersuchungen an pharaonischem und byzantinischem Material aus Amarna und Umgebung: ein Beitrag zur Identifizierung von Hölzern unter Berücksichtigung des Gebrauches von Holz als Brennmaterial und seiner Rolle bei der Rekonstruktion der lokalen Vegetation; mit einem anthrakologischen Atlas in deutsch und englisch. Münchner ägyptologische Studien 53. Mainz: von Zabern.
Gerisch, R., 2010. The wood fuel they burnt. In B. Kemp and A. Stevens, Busy Lives at Amarna: Excavations in the Main City (Grid 12 and the House of Ranefer, N49.18). Volume I: The Excavations, Architecture and Environmental Remains. EES Excavation Memoir 90, London: Egypt Exploration Society and Amarna Trust, 399–425.
Gerisch, R. 2012. The Stone Village wood and charcoal. In A. Stevens, Akhenaten’s Workers. The Amarna Stone Village Survey, 2005–2009. Volume II: The Faunal and Botanical Remains, and Objects. London: Egypt Exploration Society and Amarna Trust, 47–74.
Kemp, B.J., D. Samuel and R. Luff. 1994. Food for an Egyptian city: Tell el-Amarna. In: Luff, R and P. Rowley-Conwy (eds.), Whither Environmental Archaeology? Oxbow Monograph 38. Oxford: Oxbow, 133–70.
Renfrew, J.M. 1985. Preliminary report on the botanical remains. In B.J. Kemp (ed.), Amarna Reports II. London: Egypt Exploration Society, 175–90.
Samuel, D. 1989. Their staff of life: Initial investigations on ancient Egyptian bread baking. In B.J. Kemp (ed.), Amarna Reports V. London: Egypt Exploration Society, 253–90.
Samuel, D. 1994. An archaeological study of baking and bread in New Kingdom Egypt. PhD thesis. University of Cambridge, Uk
Samuel, D. 1995. Umbellifer fruits (Trachyspermum copticum [L.] Link) from the Workmen’s Village. In B.J. Kemp (ed.), Amarna Reports VI. London: Egypt Exploration Society, 372–83.
Samuel, D. 1996a. Investigation of ancient Egyptian baking and brewing methods by correlative microscopy. Science 273, 488–90.
Samuel, D. 1996b. Archaeology of ancient Egyptian beer. Journal of the American Society of Brewing Chemists 54/1, 3–12
Samuel, D. 1999. Bread making and social interactions at the Amarna Workmen’s Village, Egypt. World Archaeology 31, 121–44.
Samuel, D, and P. Bolt. 1995. Rediscovering ancient Egyptian beer. Brewer’s Guardian 124/12, 26–31.
Smith, W. 2003. Archaeobotanical Investigations of Agriculture at Late Antique Kom el-Nana (Tell el-Amarna). Egypt Exploration Society Excavation Memoir 70. London: Egypt Exploration Society.
Stevens, C.J. and A.J. Clapham. 2010. The botanical samples in B.J. Kemp and A. Stevens (eds) Busy Lives at Amarna: Excavation in the Main City (Grid 12 and the House of Ranefer, N49.18). Vol. 1: The Excavations, Architecture and Environmental Remains. London: Egypt Exploration Society, 427–44.
Stevens, C.J. and A.J. Clapham. 2014. Botanical insights into the life of an ancient Egyptian village. Excavation results from Amarna. In: C.J. Stevens, Nixon, S., Murray, M.A. and Fuller, D.Q. (eds), Archaeology of African Plant Use. Walnut Creek, California: Left Coast Press Inc, 151–64.