ABSTRACT
Chapter 9 explores ways of understanding through the archaeological record the role played by plants in maintaining health, re-establishing health, or altering the state of the mind or body—that is, the paleoethnobotany of medicinal plants. Five approaches/types of evidence are illustrated: potential medicinal properties of recovered plants, compelling archaeological contexts of remains, human coprolite or latrine evidence, residues of medicinal preparations, and elemental or chemical signatures in human remains.
