Sedimentary Ancient DNA Metabarcoding for the Recognition of Human Plant Use at Aghitu-3 Cave, Armenia

Summary

This is an abstract from the "Pleistocene Landscapes and Hominin Behavior in the Armenian Highlands" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

Our knowledge of plants used by Upper Paleolithic humans is limited by the survival of identifiable plant parts. In this study, we present the results of ancient DNA studies of cave sediments from Aghitu-3 Cave in the Armenian Highlands. The cave contains a detailed record of human settlement and environmental variability between 39,000 and 24,000 years ago. Finds include stone artifacts, faunal remains, bone tools, shell beads, charcoal, and pollen. We applied sedaDNA metabarcoding to the sequence and combined the results with pollen data to obtain a temporal reconstruction of plant assemblages available to early humans. Our results reveal a stratification of plant abundance and diversity where DNA preservation reflects periods of occupation, with higher diversity in layers with greater activity. Low pollen concentrations combined with high sedaDNA abundance indicate that plants may have been brought into the cave by animals or humans. We report that the majority of the recovered plants are useful as food, flavor, medicine, or for technical purposes, demonstrating the potential of the environment around Aghitu-3 Cave to support humans during the Paleolithic. This study represents the first application of plant sedaDNA analysis of cave sediments for the investigation of potential plant use by early humans.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 88th Annual Meeting, Portland, OR (2023)   •
• Pleistocene Landscapes and Hominin Behavior in the Armenian Highlands

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Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 37159.0