Bread wheat. Barley. Peaches. Cherries. Grapes. Olives. Dates. Pomegranates. Lentils. Peas. How are these related? These are all things that people consume and they are important elements of material culture preserved in the archaeological record.
Palaeoethnobotany is
the study of plant remains that have been cultivated or used by humans in ancient times
and has been preserved in the archaeological record. This relatively recent area of
science allows archaeologists to reach not only beneath the soil, but into it. There they
may find tantalizing clues to the lives of the ancient inhabitants of the site.
By taking a soil sample, simply a bag of soil
from an area such as a floor space or a charcoal layer, paleoethnobotonists are able to
sort out parts of the soil, breaking it into smaller and smaller parts. 
This is done by using a flotation
system. One method of flotation is to pour the soil into a large barrel filled with water
and then to stir the mixture. The soil sample is then separated using screen meshes. Each
screen has a finer mesh than the one before. Materials left in the screens are then
collected, dried, bagged and labeled for further study. The remains of the material that
floats is called flot. Some materials found in the soil samples include seeds, bones,
glass and metal fragments, pottery, coins and even beads and jewelry. Plant materials
found in the flots include seeds, grains, chaff, fruit pits, nut shells and charcoal. By
examining the samples, the palaeoethnobotanist can tell what types of food people grew and
ate long ago.
Palaeoethnobotany doesn’t stop there however. Close examination can also help to identify the development of crops, the ways people made money by importing and exporting foods, and the ecology and the environment of the period.
Caesarea was of course a major port at various
times in its history. In addition to plant species that are native to the area, what else
might a scientist find? If you said non-native fruits and vegetables you were correct! The
finding of peach and cherry pits, for instance, is often surprising. Peaches and cherries
originated in an area of Asia that is now Iran, and they were consumed in large amounts at
Caesarea. Further, there is evidence that they were eaten fresh, not dried. This is
another possible example of the active trade going on in the Mediterranean between various
countries. 
By closely looking at the soil, scientists are
discovering a wonderful new tool for solving the mysteries at Caesarea.
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