Simultaneous extraction of phytoliths, pollen and spores from sediments

Archaeological sediments often offer opportunities to examine local palaeoe nvironmental conditions from analysis of included microfossils. On-site con ditions commonly vary, and thus so do the preservation conditions for micro fossils. Consequently, a range of palynological preparation techniques are commonly used. While different types of microfossils provide valuable palae oenvironmental information, the use of separate extraction methods for diff erent microfossil types may be both time- and resource-consuming, especiall y where the recovery predictability is low. This paper examines the possibi lity of combining preparation techniques for three commonly encountered mic rofossils-pollen, spores and phytoliths-by comparing pollen extractions usi ng heavy liquid extraction and standard pollen recovery procedures. Althoug h the use of heavy liquids for pollen and spore preparations has been well- documented, for several reasons it has not been a favoured technique for po llen extraction. The research reported here shows that for most of the sedi ments tested, heavy liquid extraction procedures produced comparable result s to those arising from standard pollen extraction techniques. For oxidized sediments, especially, more reliable results are likely to be obtained for m heavy liquid extraction procedures than from those employing acetolysis. Overall, heavy liquid procedures allow complementary suites of data to be i nvestigated with the least cost and effort, thus enabling palynologists and phytolithologists to adopt more effective research practices for environme ntal reconstruction. (c) Academic Press