Composite Sickles and Cereal Harvesting Methods at 23,000-Years-Old Ohalo II, Israel

Groman-Yaroslavski, Iris; Weiss, Ehud; Nadel, Dani

doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0167151

Cited by 29 publications

(13 citation statements)

References 51 publications

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“…This interpretation for semi-ripe cereal harvesting is further reinforced by the identification of several flint blades at the site with a gloss typical of cereal harvesting at a semi-ripe stage (Snir, Nadel, Grosman-Yaroslavski, et al 2015). In addition, a use-wear study of five sickle blades shows that cereal harvesting using composite tools with hafted large blades took place at the site (Grosman-Yaroslavski et al 2016). However, the number of such tools and the low-intensity level of the gloss indicate that this practice of cereal collection was not widespread at the site, perhaps indicating that an “uprooting” collection method was more prevalent.…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Rather, new data suggest that Epipaleolithic peoples practiced low-level cultivation on an opportunistic basis, with casual use of wild cereal cultivation in the fields of wild cereals (Asouti and Fuller 2012; Fuller et al 2011). Indeed, researchers have argued persuasively for early low-key cereal cultivation based on the Ohalo II data (Grosman-Yaroslavski et al 2016; Snir, Nadel, Grosman-Yaroslavski, et al 2015).…”

Section: Rethinking Late Pleistocene Hunter-gatherer Plant Usementioning

confidence: 99%

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Centered on the Wetlands: Integrating New Phytolith Evidence of Plant-Use From the 23,000-Year-Old Site of Ohalo Ii, Israel

2017

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Epipaleolithic hunter-gatherers are often interpreted as playing an important role in the development of early cereal cultivation and subsequent farming economies in the Levant. This focus has come at the expense of understanding these people as resilient foragers who exploited a range of changing micro habitats through the Last Glacial Maximum. New phytolith data from Ohalo II seek to redress this. Ohalo II has the most comprehensive and important macrobotanical assemblage in Southwest Asia for the entire Epipaleolithic period. Here we present a phytolith investigation of 28 sediment samples to make three key contributions. First, by comparing the phytolith assemblage to a sample of the macrobotanical assemblage, we provide a baseline to help inform the interpretation of phytolith assemblages at other sites in Southwest Asia. Second, we highlight patterns of plant use at the site. We identify the importance of wetland plant resources to hut construction and provide evidence that supports previous work suggesting that grass and cereal processing may have been a largely “indoor” activity. Finally, drawing on ethnographic data from the American Great Basin, we reevaluate the significance of wetland plant resources for Epipaleolithic hunter-gatherers and argue that the wetland-centered lifeway at Ohalo II represents a wider Levantine adaptive strategy.

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Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Rethinking Late Pleistocene Hunter-gatherer Plant Usementioning

confidence: 99%

Centered on the Wetlands: Integrating New Phytolith Evidence of Plant-Use From the 23,000-Year-Old Site of Ohalo Ii, Israel

2017

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“…The Ohalo II fish remains offer the sole and earliest evidence to date of a fisher-hunter-gatherer economy along the Lake Kinneret shores, immediately after the peak of the Last Glacial Maximum [ 15 , 17 – 19 , 22 , 26 ]. This economy reveals a complex taphonomic scenario representing evidence of fish preparation and consumption, as part of a very rich diet that encompassed a variety of mammals and birds and, no less important, a wide range of plant foods, including cereals, of which some may have been cultivated [ 39 , 166 , 167 ].…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Opportunism or aquatic specialization? Evidence of freshwater fish exploitation at Ohalo II- A waterlogged Upper Paleolithic site

et al. 2018

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Analysis of ca. 17,000 fish remains recovered from the late Upper Paleolithic/early Epi-Paleolithic (LGM; 23,000 BP) waterlogged site of Ohalo II (Rift Valley, Israel) provides new insights into the role of wetland habitats and the fish inhabiting them during the evolution of economic strategies prior to the agricultural evolution. Of the current 19 native fish species in Lake Kinneret (Sea of Galilee), eight species were identified at Ohalo II, belonging to two freshwater families: Cyprinidae (carps) and Cichlidae (St. Peter fish). Employing a large set of quantitative and qualitative criteria (NISP, species richness, diversity, skeletal element representation, fragmentation, color, spatial distribution, etc.), we demonstrate that the inhabitants of Ohalo II used their knowledge of the breeding behavior of different species of fish, for year-round intensive exploitation.

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“…The data from Shubayqa 6 and Kharaysin 1 (PPNA) indicate cutting of semi-ripe cereals (Figure 17). This could potentially be interpreted as evidence for harvesting cultivated wild cereals, which fits the archaeobotanical information indicating wild cereal cultivation during this period in southern Levant (Weiss et al, 2016). Nevertheless, few tools from these sites were analyzed and the archaeobotanical study of both sites has not been completed yet so this conclusion has to be considered preliminary.…”

Section: Evolution Of Plant Harvesting Techniques In the Southern Levantmentioning

confidence: 65%

Sickle Gloss Texture Analysis Elucidates Long-Term Evolution of Plant Harvesting During the Transition to Agriculture

et al. 2021

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Archaeobotanical and genetic analysis of modern plant materials are drawing a complex scenario for the origins of cereal agriculture in the Levant. This paper presents an improved method for the study of early farming harvesting systems based on the texture analysis of gloss observed on sickle blades through confocal microscopy. Using this method, we identify different plant harvesting activities (unripe/semi-ripe/ripe cereal reaping and reed and grass cutting) quantitatively and evaluate their evolution during the time when plant cultivation activities started and domesticated crops appeared in the Levant (12,800 to 7000 cal BC). The state of maturity of cereals when harvested shifted over time from unripe, to semi-ripe and finally to ripe. Most of these changes in harvesting techniques are explained by the modification of crops during the transition to agriculture. The shift in plant harvesting strategies was neither chronologically linear nor geographically homogeneous. Fully mature cereal harvesting becomes dominant around 8500 cal BC in Southern Levant and one millennium later in Northern Levant, which accords with the appearance of domestic varieties in the archaeobotanical record. The evolution of plant harvesting better fits with the gradualist model of explanation of cereal agriculture than with the punctuated one.

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Composite Sickles and Cereal Harvesting Methods at 23,000-Years-Old Ohalo II, Israel

Cited by 29 publications

References 51 publications

Centered on the Wetlands: Integrating New Phytolith Evidence of Plant-Use From the 23,000-Year-Old Site of Ohalo Ii, Israel

Centered on the Wetlands: Integrating New Phytolith Evidence of Plant-Use From the 23,000-Year-Old Site of Ohalo Ii, Israel

Opportunism or aquatic specialization? Evidence of freshwater fish exploitation at Ohalo II- A waterlogged Upper Paleolithic site

Sickle Gloss Texture Analysis Elucidates Long-Term Evolution of Plant Harvesting During the Transition to Agriculture

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