Drive-By Archeaobotany is a little 20 paged, 4 by 5.5 inch booklet that can be printed out on a standard computer printer and then cut and bound using an exacto or utility knife and standard stapler.

Here's an excerpt from the Introduction.

Tree experts or dendrologists who would prefer to spend their time in the library or arboretum studying trees must often spend a lot of time in their cars on the highways and interstates.  They sometimes laugh that in this case their dendrology is “drive-by dendrology” -- looking at trees as they drive by them.  But they often admit that this “drive-by dendrology” gives them a “real world” look at how and where trees occur on the landscape in nature and can be a very valuable counterpoint to the more formal studies in the lab or arboretum.

The same could be said about the value of “drive-by archeobotany” for the archaeologist.

This little booklet of drive-by archaeobotany is designed to help you see the various plants as an archaic forager might see them.  It is intended to be small enough to be carried along in a pocket or purse when you are out and about in the countryside -- or the city parking lot or on the sidewalk for that matter.

The booklet is intended to help you notice things about the plants that should be of interest to archaeologists because they were matters of sheer survival to the forager:  Where did the plant grow? along the river? in the deep woods? in disturbed areas? in heavy traffic areas? How did it change throughout the year?  When could it be harvested?  How long throughout the year could it be harvested?

To print the booklet you do not need a special printer, so long as that printer has at least 300 dots per inch of resolution and prints on 8.5X11" laser or copy paper.  It will not work with any printer that uses continuous paper with the perforations on the side.  An HP-LaserJet III or better or an ink-jet printer works fine.  To make a copy of this booklet do the following:

1. Download this PDF file and save it to your disk: www.prairienet.org/prairienations/botbook.pdf
2. When you view the file displayed on your monitor, it won't make much sense.  It is regular letter sized pages made up of four smaller pages.
3. Go to the print menu and do the following (Don't get in a hurry and overlook any of these steps.):
4. Make certain the Print all 6 pages button is selected.
5. Change the Print Odd and Even pages setting to Print Odd Pages Only.
6. Click on the OK button to print the pages.  Make certain you do not change the order of the stack of pages when you take them out of the printer.  Turn the stack over and put it back in the printer to print on the other side.  Make certain you place it so that the top of the page will be the same on both sides of the paper.
7. Go to the print menu and choose the following:
8. Make certaint the Print all 6 pages button is selected.
9. Change the Print Odd Pages only setting to Print Even Pages only.
10. This is important:  Don't overlook it:  Click on the Reverse Pages box to select that option.
11. Click on the OK button to print the pages.  Take the stack of pages out of the printer.  They should be printed on both sides with the top of the page the same on both sides of the sheet.
12. With a ruler and knife, cut the pages horizontally exactly across the middle between the top and bottom pairs of pages.  Do not cut them vertically between the left and right pages.
13. Assemble the double-page layouts in this way:  Lay down the "Acknowledgements" page face up.  Put page 2 on top of it, page 4 on top of that, page 6 on top of that, and page 8 on top of that, and page 10 on top of that.  The page on the top of the stack should be page 10 (Sumpweed) on the left and page 11 (Sunflower) on the right.
14. Fold the stack vertically in the center so that the front cover is facing up.  If you followed all these steps correctly the little booklet is paginated correctly.
15. Trim a .25 inch strip off the right side of the booklet so that it will fit into a shirt pocket a little better.
16. Put a staple or two in the spine with a regular stapler.

Note:  You are invited to make as many copies of this booklet as you wish and pass them out as you wish, provided you not use them for any commercial purpose or alter, edit or deface them in any way.  In particular, you may not remove or hide the copyright notice or publication information on the back cover.

You (or your organization) may distribute them non-commercially with a handwritten notation on them about such things as an organization name, event, phone number, etc.

I would appreciate it if you emailed me, letting me know how well it worked (or didn't work).  I would also appreciate knowing about any use anyone is getting out of the booklet.

Thanks.

DOCUMENT INFORMATION
This document: http://www.prairienet.org/prairienations/botbook.htm
Prairie Nations homepage: http://www.prairienet.org/prairienations
Author: Jim Fay, Ph.D.
Email:  jfay@prairienet.org
Posted: 5/22/04
The Prairie Nations website, presentations and publications are by Meredith and Jim Fay, who are solely responsible for the content.  No other affiliation is expressed or implied.