New evidence for the processing of wild cereal grains at Ohalo II, a 23 000-year-old campsite on the shore of the Sea of Galilee, Israel

@article{Nadel2012NewEF,
  title={New evidence for the processing of wild cereal grains at Ohalo II, a 23 000-year-old campsite on the shore of the Sea of Galilee, Israel},
  author={Dani Nadel and Dolores R. Piperno and Irene Holst and Ainit Snir and Ehud Weiss},
  journal={Antiquity},
  year={2012},
  volume={86},
  pages={990 - 1003}
}
Traces of starch found on a large flat stone discovered in the hunter-fisher-gatherer site of Ohalo II famously represent the first identification of Upper Palaeolithic grinding of grasses. Given the importance of this discovery for the use of edible grain, further analyses have now been undertaken. Meticulous sampling combined with good preservation allow the authors to demonstrate that the Ohalo II stone was certainly used for the routine processing of wild cereals, wheat, barley and now oats… 
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70 Citations

Wild cereal grain consumption among Early Holocene foragers of the Balkans predates the arrival of agriculture
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Wild cereal grain consumption among Early Holocene foragers of the Balkans predates the arrival of agriculture
Forager focus on wild cereal plants has been documented in the core zone of domestication in southwestern Asia, while evidence for forager use of wild grass grains remains sporadic elsewhere. In this…
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The development of plant food processing in the Levant: insights from use-wear analysis of Early Epipalaeolithic ground stone tools
  • L. Dubreuil, D. Nadel
  • Environmental Science
    Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences
  • 2015
TLDR
Investigating plant food preparation in mobile hunter-gatherer societies from the Southern Levant indicates that the production of flour was a sporadic activity at Ohalo II, predating by thousands of years the onset of routine processing of plant foods.
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TLDR
Analysis of charred food remains from Shubayqa 1, a Natufian hunter-gatherer site located in northeastern Jordan, provides empirical data to demonstrate that the preparation and consumption of bread-like products predated the emergence of agriculture by at least 4,000 years.
CENTERED ON THE WETLANDS: INTEGRATING NEW PHYTOLITH EVIDENCE OF PLANT-USE FROM THE 23,000-YEAR-OLD SITE OF OHALO II, ISRAEL
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…
The use of stone at Ohalo II, a 23,000 year old site in the Jordan Valley, Israel
A wide range of stones were found at the 22,000-24,000 year old lakeshore camp of Ohalo II, the Sea of Galilee, Israel. The well-preserved camp includes the floors of six brush huts, several open-air…
A new archaeobotanical proxy for plant food processing: Archaeological starch spherulites at the submerged 23,000-year-old site of Ohalo II
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References

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More than 16 000 grains of small-grained grasses were retrieved at Ohalo II, a submerged 23 000-year-old site on the shore of the Sea of Galilee, Israel. The grains were part of a very large…
Epipalaeolithic (19,000 BP) cereal and fruit diet at Ohalo II, Sea of Galilee, Israel
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The authors have identified starch grains belonging to wild plants on the surface of a stone from the Gravettian hunter-gatherer campsite of Bilancino (Florence, Italy), dated to around 25000bp. The…
Processing of wild cereal grains in the Upper Palaeolithic revealed by starch grain analysis
TLDR
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 is reported.
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TLDR
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Plant-food preparation area on an Upper Paleolithic brush hut floor at Ohalo II, Israel
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TLDR
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TLDR
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