Identifying the “unidentifiable”: The basketry plants of the Late Cycladic Akrotiri

Abstract

The general purpose of this study is the first identification of vegetal basketry remains from the Late Cycladic Akrotiri (island of Thera, Greece) where after the eruption of the Theran volcano (c.1600 BC) products of the basket-making craft have been preserved in an excellent stage. The application of archaeobotanical analysis in combination with Scanning Electron Microscopy made possible the taxonomic identification of very challenging basketry remains below the traditional sample size. This contributed to the methodology for the analysis of perishable archaeological plant remains and illustrated the potential that such perishable plant remains have for the study craft practices in the past.