FOLLY LANE, ST ALBANS HERTFORDSHIRE: PLANT MACROFOSSILS FROM A HIGH-STATUS 1ST CENTURY AD CREMATION BURIAL AND ASSOCIATED CONTEXTS.
Author(s): P Murphy
Charred plant macrofossils associated with the burial comprised cereal chaff and a few grains, fruits/seeds of grassland and weed plants, pinnules of bracken, grass culm nodes, rhizomatous material, remains of sloe and hazel, buds and thorns. This assemblage appears to represent charred residues of fuel/kindling with remains of vegetation charred in situ beneath the pyre. Mineral-replaced plant material from the burial included structural wood and monocotyledonous leaf tissue, but identification was not possible. Samples from ditches and gullies pre-dating the burial included charred cereal remains, fruits/seeds of weed and grassland plants (notably abundant Poaceae fruits), perhaps related to burning of weedy grassland vegetation prior to construction of the burial complex. Other contexts included macrofossils preserved by phosphatic mineral-replacement and charring.
- Report Number:
- 65/1995
- Series:
- AML Reports (New Series)
- Pages:
- 14
- Keywords:
- Environmental Studies Grain, Carbonised Plant Remains Seed
