Starch- rich plant foods 780,000 y ago: Evidence from Acheulian percussive stone tools

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: Ahituv, Hadar; Henry, Amanda G.; Melamed, Yoel; Inbar, Naama Goren-; Bakels, Corrie; Shumilovskikh, Lyudmila; Cabanes, Dan; Stone, Jeffery R.; Rowe, Walter F.; Alperson-Afil, Nira
• 署名单位: Bar Ilan University; University of Haifa; Leiden University - Excl LUMC; Leiden University; Naturalis Biodiversity Center; Bar Ilan University; Bar Ilan University; Hebrew University of Jerusalem; University of Gottingen; Rutgers University System; Rutgers University New Brunswick; Indiana State University; George Washington University
• 刊物名称: PROCEEDINGS OF THE NATIONAL ACADEMY OF SCIENCES OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
• ISSN/ISSBN: 0027-10842
• DOI: 10.1073/pnas.2418661121
• 发表日期: 2025-01-21
• 关键词: gesher-benot-yaaqov; grains

摘要

In contrast to animal foods, wild plants often require long, multistep processing techniques that involve significant cognitive skills and advanced toolkits to perform. These costs are thought to have hindered how hominins used these foods and delayed their adoption into our diets. Through the analysis of starch grains preserved on basalt anvils and percussors, we demonstrate that a wide variety of plants were processed by Middle Pleistocene hominins at the site of Gesher Benot Ya'aqov in Israel, at least 780,000 y ago. These results further indicate the advanced cognitive abilities of our early ancestors, including their ability to collect plants from varying distances and from a wide range of habitats and to mechanically process them using percussive tools.