ArchbotLit-the archaeobotanical literature database: an update of the search engine for literature on archaeological remains of cultivated plants since 1981

The online Archaeobotanical Literature Database (ArchbotLit) is an important tool for getting targeted access to archaeobotanical publications. It offers the opportunity for archaeobotanists, archaeologists, freelancers, students and an interested public to easily obtain information about cultivated plants and their development. In addition it increases the visibility of archaeobotanical studies beyond the inner circle and supports teaching in environmental archaeology. The ArchbotLit database builds upon the efforts of Jurgen Schultze-Motel, Gatersleben, and Helmut Kroll, Kiel, who have collected offprints of papers from archaeobotanists worldwide since the 1980s. The content was transferred into referenced plant lists that were published annually from 1992 to 2001 in the central organ of the International Workgroup for Palaeoethnobotany (IWGP), the journal Vegetation History and Archaeobotany and as contributions entitled Literature on archaeological remains of cultivated plants. These were succeeded by the online database archaeobotany.de, comprising the literature from 1981 to 2004. To sustain this online-database in the public domain it was recently converted into the wiki-platform ArchbotLit, hosted at Kiel University. Here, we introduce the new wiki-online-database and its functionalities for data upload and as a search engine.

Automated summary

ArchbotLit is an important online database for accessing targeted archaeobotanical publications, supporting research and teaching in the field. It was built upon the collection of papers from archaeobotanists worldwide and aims to increase the visibility of archaeobotanical studies.