ABSTRACT
The history of crops and weeds is deeply intertwined, the selection of traits in one shaping (directly and indirectly) the evolution of the other, in a particularly clear instance of mutual evolution through niche construction. In this chapter we seek to disentangle crop husbandry and weed use by distinguishing between weed ‘opportunists’ and ‘mimics’, and identifying associated forms of human exploitation shaped by different agrosystems. We use case studies to illustrate the potential of archaeobotanical remains of prehistoric weed flora associated with crops for reconstructing complex relationships among people, crops and weeds in the deep past.
