Archaeology Magazine — March-April 2018

36 ARCHAEOLOGY • March/April 2018

T

he Maya village of Cerén was home to some 200 people

when it was buried by a massive volcanic eruption around

a.d. 600. The resulting preservation has revealed that many of

its households carved out particular types of economic activity

for themselves—and one was the gardener of the community.

Archaeologists have learned that one property’s garden included

around 70 agave plants grown for their fiber, which was used to

make rope and twine, as well as fast-growing, sturdy cane that

reinforced the wattle-and-daub walls of the village’s structures.

Numerous large chili bushes and at least one cacao tree provided

specialty food products. “They produced all kinds of things that

were way beyond what they could consume themselves,” says

Payson Sheets of the University

of Colorado Boulder. He believes

that the garden’s surplus was

traded with others in the village

and exchanged at nearby mar-

kets for more exotic items such

as obsidian blades, greenstone

axes, and polychrome ceramics.

—Daniel Weiss

M

onasteries and convents in medieval Europe were bas-

tions of literacy and of expertise with medicinal herbs

unknown by the general population. At the site of the Naantali

Cloister in southwest Finland, scholars have employed a com-

bination of archaeological, historical, and botanical research to

learn what types of plants the Bridgettine monks and nuns who

lived there grew. Archaeo-

botanist Teija Alanko and her

colleague Kari Uotila sorted

and radiocarbon dated 4 , 561

plant macrofossils uncovered

during excavations around

the Naantali church, the

only surviving building of the

cloister, which was occupied

between 1443 and 1554. In

addition to dietary staples

such as rye, barley, and other

cereals, the team discovered

several species with healing

properties, including hen-

bane, greater celandine, St.

John’s wort, nettle, and juniper. They can’t, at this time, be sure

that the plant remains derive only from the garden, since many

could have been collected or cultivated elsewhere. However,

radiocarbon and archaeological dates have allowed Alanko and

Uotila to determine which plants came in and out of use over

time from before the cloister’s founding through its dissolution

during the Reformation. “We found macrosfossils of useful

plants for food, dyeing, and medical purposes in Naantali,”

Alanko explains. “This suggests a possible combined kitchen

and medicinal garden.” —Marley brown

COMMERCIAL GARDENS

Cerén, El Salvador

MEDICAL GARDENS

Naantali, Finland

Agave

Household, Cerén, 7th century a.d.

Naantali Church, 15th century

Sage, 15th-century illustration