Early Plant Food Use and Processing: Insights from Madjedbebe Rockshelter, Northern Australia

Summary

This is an abstract from the "The Archaeobotany of Early Peopling: Plant Experimentation and Cultural Inheritance" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

A broad spectrum diet, including the exploitation of a variety of wild plant foods, has historically been considered a pre-cursor to the origins of agriculture. However, increasing evidence globally points to the use of a range of plant foods, including seeds and underground storage organs, by Pleistocene humans and their closest ancestors. At Madjedbebe, a rockshelter in northern Australia, early occupation by ~65 kya is associated with the use of a diverse range of plants, including evidence for intensive processing and associated technologies. This presentation considers this early diet and its change over time in response to changing environment and demography. This included a broadening of the diet during drier glacial stages, as well as changes in the seasonal round and incorporation of new foods with the formation of freshwater wetlands following sea level rise in the late Holocene. The foundations of the economy evidenced at Madjedbebe, including seasonal mobility, a broad diet and requisite plant processing and grinding technologies, were, however, maintained through time. Broad spectrum foraging is, therefore, a significantly older practice than once hypothesised and a key component of the resilient economic system evidenced at Madjedbebe, allowing for cultural continuity in the face of pronounced environmental change.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• The Archaeobotany of Early Peopling: Plant Experimentation and Cultural Inheritance   •
• Society for American Archaeology 89th Annual Meeting, New Orleans, LA (2024)

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Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 38136.0