Carolyne DOUCHE

Research interests

I am an archaeobotanist interested in the role of plants in the past near eastern communities and in the evolution of agricultural economies. My approach concerns macrobotanical remains (seeds, fruits, chaff) recovered from archaeological sites. Thanks to my participation to several fieldworks in Southwest Asia, I acquired a large experience in archaeobotany, including sampling strategy, processing, identification and also the knowledge of various floras.

My PhD thesis, conducted under the joint direction of G. Willcox (Research in Archaeobotany, CNRS), M. Tengberg (Prof. in Archaeobotany, MNHN) and P. Butterlin (Pr in Near Eastern archaeology, Univ. Paris 1), concerned the emergence and the development of agriculture based on the analysis of the archaeobotanical material from two Early Neolithic sites located in Syria: Tell Aswad (9800-8400 cal BP) and Dja’de el-Mughara (10700-10200 cal BP). The aim was to define plant husbandry practices of these communities. Studying both these emblematic early agriculture sites in South-West Asia allowed a comparative perspective on the organisation of prehistoric plant economies in two different biogeographical and cultural regions. The analysis of more than 400 archaeobotanical samples and 115 000 plant remains allowed me to confirm previous observations and bring out new data on this crucial period. Apart from the study of the syrian material, I’ve been working on the Early Neolithic sites of Aşıklı Höyük in C. Anatolia (dir. M. Özbaşaran) and Klimonas in Cyprus (dir. J.-D. Vigne and F. Briois). In 2019 I got a fix-term position at The Cyprus Institute (STARC) to analyse the material from several sites in Greece, under the joint collaboration of E. Margaritis and E. Nikita. This work was led in the framework of the H2020 Twinning project Promised (Promoting Archaeological Science in the Eastern Mediterranean). In parallel, I studied an assemblage from the Bronze Age site of Qaleh Sardar Bukan, located in NW Iran (dir. Y. Hasanzadeh). In 2021 I started to study the archaeobotanical remains from the LPPNA-PPNB settlement of Kharaysin (Jordan), in collaboration with A. Arranz and J.-J. Ibáñez (CSIC).

Current Research

In 2022 I started a Marie Skłodowska-Curie postdoctoral fellowship at the University of Oxford, under the supervision of Prof. M. Charles. The aim of this 2-years project, entitled Do grains make the difference? Plant economies during the development of urban societies in Mesopotamia (GRAMADIF), is to define the northern and the southern Mesopotamian agriculture and to redraw their evolution along with the urbanisation of societies. The study is based on the archaeobotanical analysis of material originating from new archaeological projects in northern and southern Iraq.

Publications

DOUCHÉ C. (accepté) “Aswad, un village agricole en plein essor : apports de l'archéobotanique“. In SANCHEZ-PRIEGO J. (ed.), Le village néolithique de Tell Aswad en Damascène, Syrie (PPNB, 8650-7800 BC). Paris : CNRS Editions

DOUCHÉ C. (accepté) “Living on a lakeshore during the PPNB: archaeobotanical evidence from Tell Aswad, southern Syria”. In BORRELL F., HALARASHI H. & E. HEALEY (eds.), Neolithic in Syria (SENEPSE, Special Issue)

DOUCHÉ C., TSIRTSI K. & MARGARITIS E.  (2021) "What's new during the first millennium BCE in Greece? Archaeobotanical results from Olynthos and Sikyon". In A. OIKONOMOU, G. ARTOPOULOS, N. BAKIRTZIS, S. HERMON, K. LORENTZ, E. MARGARITIS & A. SOLTYSIAK (eds.), ICAS-EMME 2 Proceedings: Archaeological Sciences in the Eastern Mediterranean and the Middle East (Journal of Archaeological Science – Reports 36, Special Issue)

PICHON F., IBÁÑEZ-ESTEVEZ J.-J., ANDERSON P., DOUCHÉ C. & COQUEUGNIOT É. 2021 "Harvesting cereals at Dja’de el-Mughara in northern Levant during the EPPNB (9th millennium): new results through microtexture analysis of sickle gloss". In E. CRISTIANI, A. ZUPANCICH & I. CARICOLA (eds.), Quantitative Approache to Usewear and Residue Analyses (Journal of Archaeological Science – Reports 36, Special Issue)

ROUSOU M., TENGBERG M., PARÈS A., DOUCHÉ C. & ERGUN M. (2021) "Species identification of archaeobotanical fruit remains from Pistacia L. Implications for our knowledge on past distribution and use of pistachio in prehistoric Cyprus", Vegetation History and Archaeobotany 30.5, p. 623–639

VALLET R., BALDI J.S., PADOVANI C., ABD-EL-KARIM R. & DOUCHÉ C. (2020) "Preliminary report on the VIIIth and IXth campaigns at Tell el-‘Uwaili", Sumer 66

VALLET R., ABD-EL-ALI J., AL-DEBS R., BACHELOT L., CHARPIN D., DARRAS L., DOUCHÉ C., GIRAUD J., HERR J.-J., IBRAHIM C., LISEIN J., MURAD A., MURA M., OBREJA S., OSELINI V., RASOOL A. & SUIRE J. (2020) "Preliminary report on the XIVth and XVth campaigns at Larsa", Sumer 66

MOLIST M., BRADOSTY Z., BREU A., SISA J., ALCANTARA R., CRUELLS W., DOUCHÉ C., MYLONA P., ARNAIZ M., SAÑA A. & GÓMEZ A. (2019) ”New data on the IV^th-III^rd milllennia in the northern Mesopotamia: the ancient occupations at Gird Lashkir in their archaeological contexts”, Paléorient 45.2, p.191-206

GÓMEZ A., CRUELLS W., ALCANTARA R., SAÑA M., DOUCHÉ C. & MOLIST M. (2019) ”New excavations at Gird Banahilk, a halafian site in Iraqi Kurdistan: Farmer and herder communities in the Upper Zagros Mountains”, Paléorient 45.2, p.53-66

DOUCHÉ C. & WILLCOX G. (2018) ”New archaeobotanical data from the Early Neolithic sites of Dja’de el-Mughara and Tell Aswad (Syria): a comparison between the Northern and the Southern Levant”, Paléorient 44.2, p.45-57

ERGUN M., TENGBERG M., WILLCOX G. & DOUCHÉ C. (2018) ”Plants of Aşıklı Höyük and changes through time: first archaeobotanical results from the 2010-14 excavation seasons”, in Ösbaşaran M., Duru G. and Stiner M. (eds.) The early settlement at Aşıklı Höyük. Essays in Honor of Ufuk Esin. Istanbul: Ege Yayınları, p.191-218

DOUCHÉ C. & PICHON F. (2018) ”Agricultural Strategies at Dja’de-el-mughara, Northern Syria”, Routes de l’Orient, Proceedings of the conference hold at Paris 16- 17 October 2015

DOUCHÉ C. (2018) ”(R)évolution agricole’ au Néolithique proche-oriental : quelle réalité? Exemples de Dja’de el-mughara et Tell Aswad (Syrie)”, Archéo-Doct. 10

DOUCHÉ C. & PICHON F. (2016) ”Compte-rendu du colloque Du Caucase à l’Arabie : l’espace domestique au Néolithique”, Routes de l’Orient, Special Issue on Arabian Archaeology