Prehistoric Hunter-Gatherer Plant Food Use in the Northern Zagros: New Evidence from Carbonized Plant Macro-remains

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.

Research on plant remains over the past two decades increasingly point to the importance of plant foods in Paleolithic hunter-gatherer subsistence. In this paper I will present recent results of archaeobotanical research on carbonized plant macro-remains from late-Middle, Upper Paleolithic and Epipaleolthic sites located in the northern Zagros Mountains. The evidence to date supports a long-term reliance on wild pulses and nuts in this region. In addition, evidence from carbonized fragments of prepared food items indicate complexity and diversity of culinary practices, including the multistep preparation of plants with unpalatable and potentially toxic compounds. I will discuss this evidence in relation to plant resource choice in the context of hunter-gatherer occupations in Southwest Asia and the broader Eastern Mediterranean.

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): 41486.0