Historical, archaeological and linguistic evidence test the phylogenetic inference of Viking-Age plant use

Teixidor‐Toneu, Irene; Kool, Anneleen; Greenhill, Simon J.; Kjesrud, Karoline; Sandstedt, Jade J.; Manzanilla, Vincent; Jordan, Fiona M.

doi:10.1098/rstb.2020.0086

Cited by 11 publications

(4 citation statements)

References 46 publications

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“…Different types of historical studies on medicinal plant use exist. Historical ethnobotanical studies in Europe have been interested in the mechanisms of knowledge transmission, e.g., by Dioscorides and Galen [ 1 , 2 ], or the influence of ancient herbals on recent medicinal plant use, e.g., Tabernaemontanus 16th century [ 3 ], Hildegard von Bingen 12th century [ 4 , 5 ], Iatrosophia texts in Cyprus [ 6 , 7 ], Corpus Hippocraticum 5th century BC [ 8 , 9 ], Nordic countries [ 10 ], Northeastern Europe 19th century [ 11 ], Celtic Provenance Medieval Wales [ 12 ] and several Western pharmacopeias [ 13 ]. Ancient herbals were also used for extracting information that appears to be relevant for drug discovery programs (e.g., [ 14 , 15 , 16 ]).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Trends of Medicinal Plant Use over the Last 2000 Years in Central Europe

Cero

Saller²,

Leonti

et al. 2022

Plants

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Medicinal plant knowledge in Central Europe can be traced back from the present to antiquity, through written sources. Approximately 100 medicinal plant taxa have a history of continuous use. In this paper, we focus on use patterns over time and the link between historical and traditional uses with the current scientific evidence. We discuss our findings against the backdrop of changing eras and medicinal concepts. Based on use-records from totally 16 historical, popular and scientific herbals, we analyze how use categories of 102 medicinal plant taxa developed over time. Overall, 56 of the 102 taxa maintained continuous use throughout all time periods. For approximately 30% of the continuous uses, scientific evidence supporting their use exists, compared to 11% for recently added uses and 6% for discontinuous uses. Dermatology and gastroenterology are use categories that are relevant across all time periods. They are associated with a high diversity of medicinal taxa and continuously used medicinal species with scientific evidence. Antidotes, apotropaic (protective) magic, and humoral detoxification were important use categories in the past. New applications reflecting biomedical progress and epidemiological challenges are cardiovascular and tonic uses. Changes in medicinal concepts are mirrored in plant use and specifically in changes in the importance of use categories. Our finding supports the concept of social validation of plant uses, i.e., the assumption that longstanding use practice and tradition may suggest efficacy and safety.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Trends of Medicinal Plant Use over the Last 2000 Years in Central Europe

Cero

Saller²,

Leonti

et al. 2022

Plants

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show abstract

“…Within this subset, archaeological data is merely used to put the results into perspective (e.g. Teixidor-Toneu et al, 2021). Phylogenetic methods have been adapted very early on linguistic data to test hypotheses about cultural evolution: for example, mode and rates of change, co-evolution of traits along the tree (e.g.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Mapping the field of cultural evolutionary theory and methods in archaeology using bibliometric methods

Matzig

Schmid

Riede

2023

Humanit Soc Sci Commun

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Bibliometrics offers powerful means of visualising and understanding trends within research domains. We here present a first exploratory bibliometric analysis of cultural evolutionary theory and attendant methods as applied specifically within archaeology across the last four decades (1981–2021). Bibliographic coupling network analysis shows that there exists a broadly successive series of author clusters making up the core of this research domain. A broader vernacular version of cultural evolution is also commonly used in thematic or regional research traditions that fall outside of cultural evolutionary studies in the strict sense. Our bibliometric networks trace the development of evolutionary archaeology over the last four decades and while they demonstrate the centrality of computational models, they also suggest a stagnation in the application of precisely that suite of methods—phylogenetics—that is central to evolutionary archaeology’s biological counterpart palaeontology. Recent methodological innovations in palaeobiology are, however, offering new ways of integrating artefact shape data directly with phylogenetic applications. This development may usher in a renaissance in artefact phylogenetics and appropriately marco-scale applications of cultural evolutionary theory in archaeology.

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“…The task of understanding the drivers of overall similarity in ethnofloras is separate, but related to the reconstruction of uses of specific plant species in the past, an approach that can identify ancestral knowledge even if plant use is predominantly driven by plant availability. A recent study assessed the possibility of reconstructing ancestral knowledge of medicinal plants in Nordic cultures, evaluating inferences against historical and archaeobotanical sources (13). For many plants, ancestral reconstructions of Old Norse knowledge were supported by historical knowledge, but some were revealed by PCMs alone.…”

Section: Mainmentioning

confidence: 99%

Phylogenetic reconstructions of Polynesian medicinal plant use reveal adaptive strategies to meet health needs

Thompson

Jordan

Hawkins

2022

Preprint

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Modern migrants using plants to meet their health needs are known to conserve traditional knowledge, but also to innovate to adapt to their new environment. The voyage into Polynesia is amongst the most remarkable of human migrations, resulting in the peopling of isolated, difficult to reach archipelagos. We use this context to determine the role for adaptation in plant-based healthcare at pre-historic timescales. Testing the extent to which the new floristic environments encountered, cultural ancestry or geographic proximity predict the composition of ethnopharmacopoeias, we reveal adaptation to new floristic environments across seven oceanic ethnolinguistic groups. Reconstructions using data that encompass therapeutic applications and plant parts reveal more than three quarters of the plants used cross-culturally have use likely to be innovations by the first migrants into Oceania. For the other plants, there are non-tree-like patterns in therapeutic applications and plant parts used, showing that even when plants have continuity of use there is lability in how they are used. Applying linguistic criteria to the plants with putatively deep cultural uses, we find two, qaoa (Ficus) and walo-walo (Premna), that are highly conserved in therapeutic use, plant part used and with cognate names. Our study highlights the remarkable flexibility of Polynesian people seeking to meet health needs.

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Historical, archaeological and linguistic evidence test the phylogenetic inference of Viking-Age plant use

Cited by 11 publications

References 46 publications

Trends of Medicinal Plant Use over the Last 2000 Years in Central Europe

Trends of Medicinal Plant Use over the Last 2000 Years in Central Europe

Mapping the field of cultural evolutionary theory and methods in archaeology using bibliometric methods

Phylogenetic reconstructions of Polynesian medicinal plant use reveal adaptive strategies to meet health needs

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