The functional ecology of present-day arable weed floras and its applicability for the identification of past crop husbandry

Five studies of present-day weed floras are brought together in this paper to address the issue of ancient crop husbandry and how different agricultural practices may be identified from the archaeobotanical record. These studies have provided valuable insights into the complexity of the relationship between the functional attributes of species and their ecological significance in relation to habitat conditions and husbandry regimes. Using a suite of characteristics, practices such as irrigation, fallowing, crop rotation, time of sowing and intensity of cultivation (hoeing, weeding, manuring etc.) can be recognised on the basis of the functional ecology of the weed species accompanying the crops. The geographic variation in functional attributes is limited and permits the identification of husbandry practices in different climatic zones. Recommendations are made for the application of weed ecological methods to archaeobotanical assemblages.