Processing of wild cereal grains in the Upper Palaeolithic revealed by starch grain analysis

Abstract

* These authors contributed equally to this work.Barley (Hordeum vulgäre L.) and wheat {Triticum monococcum L. and Triticum turgidum L.) were among the principal 'founder crops' of southwest Asian agriculture\ Two issues that were central to the cultural transition from foraging to food production are poorly understood. They are the dates at which human groups began to routinely exploit wild varieties of wheat and barley, and when foragers first utilized technologies to pound and grind the hard, fibrous seeds of these and other plants to turn them into easily digestible foodstuffs. Here we report the earliest direct evidence for human processing of grass seeds, including barley and possibly wheat, in the form of starch grains recovered from a ground stone artefact from the Upper Palaeolithic site of Ohalo II in Israel. Associated evidence for an oven-like hearth was also found at this site, suggesting that dough made from grain flour was baked. Our data indicate that routine processing of a selected group of wild cereals, combined with effective methods of cooking ground seeds, were practiced at least 12,000 years before their domestication in southwest Asia.Ohalo II is located on the southwestern shore of the Sea of Galilee at an elevation of 212 m below sea level. In most years the site is submerged in 2-3 m of water. Ohalo II was exposed in 1989 and 1999, following a dramatic drop in the water level of the lake; today the site covers an area of about 2,000 m^. Three seasons of excavations took place during each of the low-level events before it was submerged again. The work revealed the remains of a camp, including six brush huts built from branches and leaves, hearths and a human grave^'. All the features were well-preserved, having been found in situ in the waterlogged sediments.

Starch grains from dental calculus reveal ancient plant foodstuffs at Chenqimogou site, Gansu Province

“…Plants in our comparative collection include foxtail millet (Setaria italica), broomcorn millet (Panicum miliaceum), rice (Oryza sativa), sorghum (Sorghum bicolor), oat (Avena sativa), and maize (Zea mays). In addition, the morphology of buckwheat (Fagopyrum esculentum), whitethorn (Crataegus pinnatifida), and so on are polygonal [1][2][3][4][5][6][7][8][19][20][21][22]. However, sizes of rice, oat, buckwheat, whitethorn, and others are all smaller than Group 1.…”

“…Genera include the grasses Panicum, Setaria, Lolium, and Aegilops, tree seeds of Quercus, Castanea, Corylus, and Juglans, as well as beans like Vigna (Figure 2). For starch identification, we also used description from many other studies of starch grain morphology [1][2][3][4][5][6][7][8]18].…”

“…In the past decades, starch grain analysis has been successfully employed to study the origins and dispersals of agricultural crops, artifact function, and paleoclimate reconstruction in America, Australia, and other areas [1][2][3][4][5][6][7][8][9][10].…”

Organic Residues in Archaeology: The Highs and Lows of Recent Research

“…These plant microfossils have been used extensively to examine residues from stone tools (129)(130)(131)(132)(133), shell tools (134), sediments (135)(136)(137), grinding stones (138), and dental calculus (139,140). The presence of starch grains and phytoliths has also been used to identify maize and beans in pottery residues from North America (141,142) and of a range of plant foods in residues from ceramic and stone artefacts from Bolivia (143).…”

Profile of Dolores R. Piperno

“…She recently isolated wild barley starch grains from a 20,000-year-old stone-grinding tool from Israel (20). ''It's a fast-growing field in archaeology,'' she says.…”