Contextualizing wild cereal harvesting at Middle Palaeolithic Ghar-e Boof in the southern Zagros.

ABSTRACT: A stratigraphic sequence from Ghar-e Boof, a cave site in Iran, covering a period of c. 80,000-30,000 BP and containing more than 20,000 seed and chaff remains, allows a detailed study of the use of annual seed species of Palaeolithic hunter-gatherer groups and its evolution under the influence of changing environmental conditions. Taxonomic changes in the archaeobotanical assemblage and the stable carbon isotope data of pistachio support a considerable change in environmental conditions over the sequence from MIS 5a to MIS 3. The exceptional dominance of wild ancestors of modern crop species, including glume wheat and large-seeded legumes from Middle Palaeolithic layers AH VI (OSL ranges 72-81 ka BP), coincides broadly with the transition from MIS 5a to MIS 4. With the beginning of MIS 4

SUBMITTER: Riehl S 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC11322544 | biostudies-literature | 2024 Aug

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature