REAL

Resilience in East African Landscapes

  • Welcome
  • About us
  • People
    • Advisory Board
    • Researchers
      • David Anderson
      • Franziska Bedorf
      • Michael Bollig
      • Lowe Borjeson
      • Colin Courtney Mustaphi
      • Benoit Hazard
      • Paul Lane
      • Rob Marchant
      • Dirk Verschuren
      • Mats Widgren
    • Early Stage Researchers
      • Christine Adongo
      • Maxmillian Chuhila
      • Chris de Bont
      • Aynalem Degefa
      • Esther Githumbi
      • Marie Gravesen
      • Rebecca Kariuki
      • Eric Kioko
      • Nik Petek
      • Annemiek Pas Schrijver
      • Anna Shoemaker
      • Geert van der Plas
    • Associate Partners
  • Projects
  • News
    • REAL News
    • Conferences and workshops
    • Training
    • Fieldwork
    • Outreach
  • Resources
    • Cartography and Geospatial
      • Maps and Data
      • GIS Tutorials and Resources
    • Links
    • Research Permits
  • Publications
    • REAL Publications
    • Laboratory Protocols
    • Lexicon
    • Library Archive
    • Palaeo- Glossary
  • Contact us
  • ARCC Project 2017-2021
    • ARCC project overview
    • ARCC blog
  • Annemiek Pas Publications
  • BSX

Phytolith Training Workshop – University of Cape Town

Bulliform!

During the week of June 30th – July 4th 2014, Anna Shoemaker and Nik Petek had the opportunity to participate in a Phytolith Training Workshop at the University of Cape Town led by Professor Carlos Cordova of the Department of Geography, Oklahoma State University.

The workshop was hosted by Professor Michael Meadows, Department of Environmental and Geographical Science, University of Cape Town and Associate Professor Lindsey Gillson, Plant Conservation Unit, Department of Biological Sciences, University of Cape Town.

Professor Cordova is a world leader in the application of phytolith analysis to understanding South African paleoenvironments.

Phytoliths are the silica skeletons of plant cells.  Compared to other ancient plant residues, phytoliths are remarkably resistant to decay, and thus have been used by paleoecologists and archaeologists to infer the presence of plants in the past.

All plants that  produce phytoliths create phytolith types, and these types yield varying levels of taxonomic  information.  For instance, maize plants produce distinct phytoliths in their domesticated and wild varieties, which is really interesting considering maize pollen is often indistinguishable and maize kernels do not preserve well.

However, phytolith analysis is also subject to it’s fair share of controversy (see Shillito 2013).  Yet, the REAL project is committed to exploring the potential for phytolith analysis with regards to understanding food histories and paleoenvironments in East Africa.

 

 

 

Share this:

  • Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on LinkedIn (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Pinterest (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Tumblr (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Reddit (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Google+ (Opens in new window)
  • Click to email this to a friend (Opens in new window)

Latest News

New paper on past Mount Kenya forest fires

  New paper out on long term forest fire interactions on Mount Kenya https://t.co/TCIiA5VXJl … [Read More...]

ARCC land use scenario discussions at NM-AIST, Arusha

On 30 March 2022, Rob Marchant led discussions on land use and land cover change scenarios developed … [Read More...]

Swiss Society for African Studies newsletter

  The latest Newsletter 2021/1 from the Swiss Society for African Studies features an ARCC … [Read More...]

Talk on East African futures

  Rebecca Kariuki (The Nelson Mandela African Institution of Science and Technology, Tanzania … [Read More...]

More News

  • About us
  • People
  • Projects
  • Training
  • Resources
  • Contacts

Site information

REAL is a Marie Curie Actions InnovativeTraining Network (ITN), funded by the European Commission under the Seventh Framework Programme.

Find us on Facebook:

Find us on Facebook:

Coordinating partner

Prof. Paul Lane
Department of Archaeology and Ancient History,
Uppsala University, and
Department of Archaeology, University of Cambridge

Copyright © 2023

loading Cancel
Post was not sent - check your email addresses!
Email check failed, please try again
Sorry, your blog cannot share posts by email.