quote:The transition from hunting-gathering to agriculture stands as one of the most important dietary revolutions in human history. Yet, due to a scarcity of well-preserved human remains from Pleistocene sites, little is known about the dietary practices of pre-agricultural human groups. Here we present the isotopic evidence of pronounced plant reliance among Late Stone Age hunter-gatherers from North Africa (15,000–13,000 cal BP), predating the advent of agriculture by several millennia. Employing a comprehensive multi-isotopic approach, we conducted zinc (δ66Zn) and strontium (87Sr/86Sr) analysis on dental enamel, bulk carbon (δ13C) and nitrogen (δ15N) and sulfur (δ34S) isotope analysis on dentin and bone collagen, and single amino acid analysis on human and faunal remains from Taforalt (Morocco). Our results unequivocally demonstrate a substantial plant-based component in the diets of these hunter-gatherers. This distinct dietary pattern challenges the prevailing notion of high reliance on animal proteins among pre-agricultural human groups. It also raises intriguing questions surrounding the absence of agricultural development in North Africa during the early Holocene. This study underscores the importance of investigating dietary practices during the transition to agriculture and provides insights into the complexities of human subsistence strategies across different regions.
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^ This makes me wonder exactly how 'substantial', considering that the bulk of the 'paleo-diet' of hunter-gatherers is already comprised of vegetation. In fact, optimal digestive health of humans depends on a percentage of fiber.
Posts: 26529 | From: Atlanta, Georgia, USA | Registered: Feb 2005
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quote:Originally posted by Djehuti: ^ This makes me wonder exactly how 'substantial', considering that the bulk of the 'paleo-diet' of hunter-gatherers is already comprised of vegetation. In fact, optimal digestive health of humans depends on a percentage of fiber.
That's true for extant hunter-gatherers, but the paper suggests that Pleistocene humans might have depended more on large game and shifted to more plant consumption after large game species declined or went extinct.
quote:According to the broad-spectrum and dietary breadth models, a reduction in the availability of large to medium-sized game animals often leads to increased foraging for previously overlooked resources such as lagomorphs and small birds and an increased exploitation of wild plants. This hypothesis has been commonly applied to explain the emergence of farming in Southwest Asia, where the Natufian hunter-gatherers, initially reliant on small to medium-sized ungulates, adapted their subsistence strategy due to ecological pressure on these animals. As a result, they gradually diversified their diet by incorporating a broader range of food resources, including wild plants.
quote:Originally posted by Brandon [QUOTE]This hypothesis has been commonly applied to explain the emergence of farming in Southwest Asia, where the Natufian hunter-gatherers, initially reliant on small to medium-sized ungulates, adapted their subsistence strategy due to ecological pressure on these animals. As a result, they gradually diversified their diet by incorporating a broader range of food resources, including wild plants.[quote]
Seems that plants, including cereals, were heavily used already around 20 000 years ago at the Ohalo II site in Israel. One can already here see special tools for cutting cereals and similar.
quote:Ohalo II is an archaeological site in Northern Israel, near Kinneret, on the southwest shore of the Sea of Galilee. It is one of the best preserved hunter-gatherer archaeological sites of the Last Glacial Maximum, radiocarbon dated to around 23,000 BP (calibrated). It is at the junction of the Upper Paleolithic and the Epipaleolithic, and has been attributed to both periods. The site is significant for two findings which are the world's oldest: the earliest brushwood dwellings and evidence for the earliest small-scale plant cultivation, some 11,000 years before the onset of agriculture. The numerous fruit and cereal grain remains preserved in anaerobic conditions under silt and water are also exceedingly rare due to their general quick decomposition.
In older excavations plant remains, and also small bones (like fish bones) were often overlooked due to methodological errors. In addition taphonomic processes do often not favor small bones, and plant remains that are not charred often disappear if not special circumstances preserve them. So it is probable that the consumption of plants and smaller animals many times can have been underestimated. Also new isotopic studies of human remains will probably change the picture somewhat.
-------------------- Once an archaeologist, always an archaeologist Posts: 2884 | From: Sweden | Registered: Mar 2020
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This research aims to shed light on the early stages of agricultural development in Northern Africa through the analysis of the rich macro-botanical assemblages obtained from Ifri Oudadane, an Epipalaeolithic–Early Neolithic site from North-East Morocco. Results indicate the presence of domesticated plants, cereals (Hordeum vulgare, Triticum monococcum/dicoccum, Triticum durum and Triticum aestivum/durum) and pulses (Lens culinaris and Pisum sativum) in the Early Neolithic. One lentil has been dated to 7611 ± 37 cal BP representing the oldest direct date of a domesticated plant seed in Morocco and, by extension, in North Africa. Similarities in both radiocarbon dates and crop assemblages from Early Neolithic sites in Northern Morocco and the Iberian Peninsula suggest a simultaneous East to West maritime spread of agriculture along the shores of the Western Mediterranean. Wild plants were abundantly collected in both the Epipalaeolithic and the Early Neolithic periods pointing to the important role of these resources during the two periods. In addition to fruits and seeds that could have been consumed by both humans and domesticated animals, fragments of esparto grass (Stipa tenacissima) rhizomes have been identified. This is a western Mediterranean native plant that may have been used as a source of fibres for basketry. Highlights
► We studied seed remains from the Epipalaeolithic–Neolithic site of Ifri Oudadane, Morocco. ► Lentil, wheat, barley and pea are identified in Early Neolithic levels. ► A lentil is dated to c. 7600 BP, the earliest date for a crop in northern Africa. ► Wild plants are abundant in both the Epipalaeolithic and the Neolithic levels. ► Wild plants were probably used as food, for fodder and for basketry.
So far, these data suggest that the Ifri Oudadane plant remains are the oldest cultivated plant remains not only from North of Africa but also, most likely, from the entire African continent.
results from Ifri Oudadane have shed light on the spread of agriculture to Morocco, and by extension, to North Africa, providing data that indicates an early arrival of the Neolithic crop assemblage to this region. The similarity in radio- carbon dates on domesticated plant species from Neolithic sites in Morocco and the Iberian Peninsula suggests a more or less syn- chronous spread of agriculture along both shores of the Western Mediterranean.
Comparison between dates carried out on seeds from northern Africa (Ifri Oudadane and Kaf Taht El-Ghar) and the Iberian Peninsula attributed to the middle-late 8th millennium BP supports the hypothesis that the spread of agriculture on both sides of the Western Mediterranean coasts could have been a more or less simultaneous processPosts: 26529 | From: Atlanta, Georgia, USA | Registered: Feb 2005
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