Title: Proceedings of the 15th conference of the International Work Group for Palaeoethnobotany, Wilhelmshaven 2010
Abstract: The current issue contains a selection of articles originating from lectures given at the 15th conference of the IWGP, which took place at Wilhelmshaven, Germany, from May 31st to June 6th, 2010. The conference was held on occasion of the 75th birthday of Prof. Karl-Ernst Behre in 2010, who was among the founders of the work group in 1968 and a participant of the meetings since then (Fig. 1). Furthermore Vegetation History and Archaeobotany, which was started by him, had its 20th anniversary this year. It has since become well established and leading in its field, comprising vegetation history as well as archaeobotany and related fields of palaeoecology. Therefore this issue is dedicated to him in recognition of his merits, not only for the work group, but for the whole field of vegetation history and also the journal for which he still plays a major role as Associate Editor. Starting with the double issue vol. 5/1–2 of Vegetation History and Archaeobotany in 1996, this is now the 6th issue of this series (and part of the 20th anniversary volume). As at the previous meeting in Krakow in 2007, again more than 200 participants from 32 countries registered, giving evidence of the increasing importance of the work group in recent years (Fig. 2). Traditionally the organiser(s) of the conference edit the proceedings, supported by the Associate Editors with expertise in archaeobotany to deal with the large number of submissions within a reasonable time. Involved were: Corrie C. Bakels, Stefanie Jacomet, Malgorzata Latalowa, Marijke van der Veen, Andrew Fairbairn (partly), George Willcox and Felix Bittmann (Editor in Chief and editor of this issue who in addition made the final decisions, technical improvements, layout of figures and line-up of contributions). As usual, the editorial responsibility can be seen from each single article. Special thanks go to all colleagues involved in the peer reviewing. Without their help and their most valuable and critical reviews it would not have been possible to improve and to select contributions of high quality. They did a great job and are acknowledged at the end. Finally I