Collection of plant remains from archaeological contexts

Plant remains may be found preserved in various types of deposits of natural or human origin. Archaeological contexts are especially useful to study the relationships between ancient human populations and plants, and provide information on the exploitation of natural resources for shelter, fuel, and food for humans and animals.Archaeobotany (or paleoethnobotany) is the field of research dealing with the study of plant remains from archaeological sites. It was extensively developed during the last century, but only since the 1960s standard protocols were established for systematic sampling and analysis, together with reference collections.