Heritage Cases

This project will attempt to collate requisite data in terms of object provenance, biography, plant type and part(s) to determine methods of processing, use and significance provide accurate information of the plant-based objects. The objects of study are necklaces with decorated tortoise-shell medicine-pouches, necklaces or ornaments made from seeds, reeds, grasses, and wood. Some objects labels have information on some components, such as desert grass, but most of the ornaments are not labeled or may have been mislabeled. I will use a formal analysis of the object and scientific archaeobotanical methods will be applied for plant identification purposes. Phytoliths analysis, a microbotanical method may be used to determine the provenance of the plant materials where the macro properties are absent. This is a microscopic methodology. Strings, bark and grass objects will be analysed using this method. Destruction (Charring and breaking) of specimen is necessary. Parenchyma cells analysis may be used to analyze bark remains .Seeds will be analyzed using macrobotanical analysis known as carpology. A binocular or polarized light microscope will be needed to analyze seed morphology. The seeds will be identified against the seed reference collection housed in the Archaeobotany lab in Archeology; they will be identified to species level and labelled according to their scientific names. Object metadata will be stored digitally for posterity and preservation against unforeseen disaster.