Olive cultivation in the heart of the Persian Achaemenid Empire: new insights into agricultural practices and environmental changes reflected in a late Holocene pollen record from Lake Parishan,SW Iran

Ancient Persia witnessed one of its most prosperous cultural and socio-economic periods between 550 bc and ad 651, with the successive domination of the Achaemenid, Seleucid, Parthian and Sassanian Empires. During this period agricultural activities increased on the Iranian plateau, as demonstrated by a remarkable arboricultural expansion. However, available data are not very informative about the spatial organization of agricultural practices. The possible links between climate conditions and agricultural activities during this millennium of continuous imperial domination are also unclear, due to the lack of parallel human-independent palaeoclimatic proxies. This study presents a new late Holocene pollen-based vegetation record from Lake Parishan, SW Iran. This record provides invaluable information regarding anthropogenic activities before, during and after the empires and sheds light on (i) spatial patterning in agricultural activities and (ii) possible climate impacts on agro-sylvo-pastoral practices during this period. Results of this study indicate that arboriculture was the most prominent form of agricultural activity in SW Iran especially during the Achaemenid, Seleucid and Parthian periods. Contrary to the information provided by some Greco-Roman written sources, the record from Lake Parishan shows that olive cultivation was practiced during Achaemenid and Seleucid times, when olive cultivation was significant, at least in this basin located close to the capital area of the Achaemenid Empire. In addition, pollen from aquatic vegetation suggests that the period of the latter centuries of the first millennium bc was characterized by a higher lake level, which might have favoured cultural and socio-economic prosperity.     

Correction: NPP-ID: Non-Pollen Palynomorph Image Database as a research and educational platform

Vegetation History and Archaeobotany -     

Long-term ecology and conservation of the Kungur forest-steppe (pre-Urals,Russia): case study Spasskaya Gora

Biodiversity and Conservation - The Kungur forest-steppe is the northernmost outpost of European forest-steppe, located in the western pre-Urals within the boreal climatic zone. The co-existence of...     

On the relation of Potamomyces armatisporus to the fossil form-type Mediaverrunites and its taxonomical and ecological implications

This study links the spores of the recent ascomycete genus Potamomyces with the fossil form-taxa Mediaverrunites. Spores of the only known representative of Potamomyces, P. armatisporus, were found in recent material from Nepal together with a previously unknown spore type described here for the first time as Potamomyces nepalensis-type. Potamomyces is thus not a monotypic genus. The rarely isolated type species P. armatisporus is known as a lignicolous freshwater ascomycete from tropical rivers. Our findings indicate that the genus also lives in damp conditions in terrestrial habitats, and is recently distributed also in subtropical regions. Based on the fossil findings of Mediaverrunites, the genus Potamomyces evolved at least 25 million yr ago at the onset of younger Tertiary. Potamomyces is an excellent example of the potential of interdisciplinary fungal research, combining insights from fungal evolution, taxonomy, ancient and recent distribution and ecology.     

First palaeoecological evidence of buffalo husbandry and rice cultivation in the Kerinci Seblat National Park in Sumatra,Indonesia

Vegetation History and Archaeobotany - Rice is one of the most important subsidence crops, however evidence of the origin and domestication of rice cultivation is still scarce in Indonesia. This...