Journal
PROCEEDINGS OF THE NATIONAL ACADEMY OF SCIENCES OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
Volume 107, Issue 44, Pages 18815-18819Publisher
NATL ACAD SCIENCES
DOI: 10.1073/pnas.1006993107
Keywords
flour; Upper Paleolithic; grindstones; diet; starch grains
Categories
Funding
- Istituto Italiano di Preistoria e Protostoria [2/2007]
- Soprintendenza per i Beni Archeologici della Toscana
- Department of Environmental Sciences of the University of Siena (Italy) [2008/1/4]
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European Paleolithic subsistence is assumed to have been largely based on animal protein and fat, whereas evidence for plant consumption is rare. We present evidence of starch grains from various wild plants on the surfaces of grinding tools at the sites of Bilancino II (Italy), Kostenki 16-Uglyanka (Russia), and Pavlov VI (Czech Republic). The samples originate from a variety of geographical and environmental contexts, ranging from northeastern Europe to the central Mediterranean, and dated to the Mid-Upper Paleolithic (Gravettian and Gorodtsovian). The three sites suggest that vegetal food processing, and possibly the production of flour, was a common practice, widespread across Europe from at least similar to 30,000 y ago. It is likely that high energy content plant foods were available and were used as components of the food economy of these mobile hunter-gatherers.
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