The Role of Chemical Markers and Chemometrics in the Identification of Grasses Used as Food in Pre-Agrarian South West Asia

`This thesis explores the way in which novel chemical criteria can be used to identify charred remains of grains of small-grained grasses used as food by pre-agrarian hunter-gatherers in south-western Asia but which have hitherto rarely been identified with any precision.' As one might expect the statistical study that follows is a technical and specialised presentation and interpretation of large amounts of data, supported by numerous diagrams and tables.