A new way of seeing pulses: preliminary results of geometric morphometric analyses of Iron Age seeds from the site of La Font de la Canya (Barcelona, Spain)

Abstract

This study applied size and shape analyses through traditional and geometric morphometrics to quantify the differences between three taxa: Lathyrus sativus (grass pea), Lens culinaris (lentil) and Vicia faba (broad bean). This analysis represents a pilot study in view of a wider future application of this technique to identify the role of legumes throughout the Western Mediterranean in the Bronze and Iron Ages. Here, we quantify the morphological differences of seed species from the site of La Font de la Canya (Catalonia, Spain), an Iron Age (625–150 bc) centre of storage and trade which delivered a vast assemblage of cereal, fruit and legume remains. Our results reveal that seed outline analyses have a greater potential of prediction than length measurements. The combination of the two, however, leads to even more precise predictions. Moreover, the quantitative differences between the lentils of the different samples confirm the potential of these analyses to further identify intra-species morphotypes.