الفهرس 
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Abstract
Egypt’s arid climate has led to the outstanding preservation of its
ancient cultural heritage. Along with its famous tombs, mummies and
delicate artifacts, the climate has also preserved a wealth of botanical
material on a macro (e.g., seeds, grains, fruits and stems) and micro (e.g. phytoliths, starch grains) level. The study of these archaeological plant
remains can yield vital information about human nutrition, subsistence
strategy and economy, agricultural production and the climate and
environment in the past.
The assemblage of plant macro remains retrieved from the Early Dynastic Cemetery (OP4) at Helwan archaeological site shed the light on the past relationship between man and the plant diversity grew during the Early Dynastic period. This achievement should be attributed to the excellent preservation status of these plant macroremains. Morphological features have been used to identify a total of 26819 fragments of plant macroremams.
Morphological analysis of 30 soil samples from 10 tombs reveals the presence of remains of five cereal crops, flax, one wild edible fruit
plant, 22 field weeds species, five water loving species and four xerophytes. Remains of field weeds and cereal chaff dominated the plant
assemblage by (53%) and (38%) respectively. The rest of the remains
were recorded in small percentages: flax (0.02), wild edible fruits
(0.01 %), water loving plants (1.24%), xerophytes (0.04%) and unknown
taxa (3%).
The cereal remains from the studied tombs of OP4 at Helwan
Early Dynastic Cemetery included grains, rachis fragments, glume bases,
forks and rachis segments of five cereal crops: Hordeum vulgare L.
convar. vulgare L, (six-row barley), Hordeum vulgare L. convar.
distichion (L.) Alef, (two-row barley), Hordeum vulgare L. convar.
coeleste (L.) Trofim (naked barely), Triticum turgidum L. ssp. dicoccon (Schrank.) Thell. (emmer wheat), Triticum aestivum/durum. (Free
threshing wheat: macaronilbread wheat).
Nine taxa of wild plants were recorded in over half the samples,
namely: Medicago polymorpha, Medicago lupulina, Trifolium alexandrinum, Vicia sativa, Vicia ervilia, Bromus sp., Lolium temulentum, Phalaris minor, Rumex dentatus.
It is very interesting to notice that 10 species of field weeds from
Early Dynastic Helwan are still recorded among field weed assemblages
associated with wheat and clover cultivation in modem Egypt.
The current study concluded that the arable economy of Early Dynastic Helwan was largely based on the cultivation of cereals. The inhabitants of the area had cultivated barley (Hordeum vulgare convar.
vu 19a re) as a major crop associated with emmer wheat (Triticum
turgidum L. ssp. dicoccon) as well as small amounts of free threshing
wheat (Triticum aestivum/durum), naked barley (Hordeum vulgare
convar. eo eleste) and two row barley (Hordeum vulgare convar.
distichion ).
The study suggested occurrence of different vegetation types and
habitats of xerophytes and swampy stands in the general vicinity of the
site.