• A table of identifications:

SITE 1  SITE 2  SITE 3

Barley grains 20
Wheat grains 1
Barley rachis
Wheat glumes
Weed seeds
TOTAL
Size weed seeds

• An explanation of how you counted the items and why? (provided in one of the documents)

• 3 triangular plots of samples (SITE 1):

• (SITE 2):

• (SITE 3):

• How would these plots be interpreted by each researcher listed in the handout?

• To what extent are the different interpretations complementary of contradictory? (This is looking to see if the different author’s interpretations could complement or contradict each other. For instance for sites which are rich in one specific crop could the interpretations actually complement each other, for instance one might suggest a site is producing and another that this suggests that they were growing their own crops, could this actually be complementary – i.e. the two interpretations actually complement each other – they are not in opposition, both could be happening.

For contradictory you need to look at the authors’ interpretations and see if they actually suggest completely different things – so if one author suggests consumer site importing lots of grain, and another interprets that site as household could this be contradictory.

There may not be many examples, but think about whether you can see any.)

• How are the interpretations affected by type of crop?

• What does weed seed size tell you about the crop processing stages represented?

Sample Solution