Book contents
- Quaternary of the Levant
- Quaternary of the Levant
- Copyright page
- Contents
- Contributors
- Acknowledgements
- 1 The Quaternary of the Levant
- Part I: The Evolution of Current Landscapes and Basins
- Part II: Palaeoclimates
- Part III: Archaeology of Human Evolution
- Part IV: Palaeoecology
- 38 Palaeolithic Vegetal Diet in the Southern Levant
- 39 Pollen as Palaeoclimate Indicators in the Levant
- 40 The Archaeozoological Record in a Changing Environment of the Late Middle to the Late Pleistocene
- 41 Biogeography and Palaeoecology of the Early Pleistocene Large Mammals in the Levant
- 42 The Kaleidoscope of Mammalian Faunas during the Terminal Pleistocene and Holocene in the Southern Levant
- 43 Fish Exploitation during the Quaternary
- 44 The Exploitation of Aquatic Resources during the Quaternary
- 45 Fossil-Based Reconstructions of Ancient Water Bodies in the Levantine Deserts
- Part V: Quaternary Geomorphology
- Part VI: Humans in the Levant
- Index
- Plate section
- References
38 - Palaeolithic Vegetal Diet in the Southern Levant
The Archaeobotanical Evidence
from Part IV: - Palaeoecology
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 04 May 2017
By
Book contents
- Quaternary of the Levant
- Quaternary of the Levant
- Copyright page
- Contents
- Contributors
- Acknowledgements
- 1 The Quaternary of the Levant
- Part I: The Evolution of Current Landscapes and Basins
- Part II: Palaeoclimates
- Part III: Archaeology of Human Evolution
- Part IV: Palaeoecology
- 38 Palaeolithic Vegetal Diet in the Southern Levant
- 39 Pollen as Palaeoclimate Indicators in the Levant
- 40 The Archaeozoological Record in a Changing Environment of the Late Middle to the Late Pleistocene
- 41 Biogeography and Palaeoecology of the Early Pleistocene Large Mammals in the Levant
- 42 The Kaleidoscope of Mammalian Faunas during the Terminal Pleistocene and Holocene in the Southern Levant
- 43 Fish Exploitation during the Quaternary
- 44 The Exploitation of Aquatic Resources during the Quaternary
- 45 Fossil-Based Reconstructions of Ancient Water Bodies in the Levantine Deserts
- Part V: Quaternary Geomorphology
- Part VI: Humans in the Levant
- Index
- Plate section
- References
Summary
This chapter reconstructs the Palaeolithic vegetal of seed and fruit remains from three Pleistocene sites from the southern Levant - Gesher Benot Ya’aqov (GBY), Kebara Cave, and Ohalo II. All three sites demonstrate the importance of plants as foodstuffs. At GBY, seeds and fruit are common, as well as water plants. The variety of the site’s edible plants is evenly split between grass species, sugar- and oil-rich fruits, and greens. The high varieties of oil and fruit plants at GBY indicate their higher importance in the vegetal diet than in the other sites. In Kebara, the diet is largely based on legumes and is therefore high in toxins. Plants rich in protein constitute 40% of the varieties of edible plants at this site. Additionally, there is twice the amount of variety of oil-bearing plant seeds in Kebara when compared with the other two sites. At Ohalo II, a wide variety of plants was exploited. Unlike the other two sites, it has a large number of grass grains, which constitute ~40% of the varieties of plant taxa. Throughout the Palaeolithic: (a) Mediterranean climate and vegetation existed, and (b) the plants used were similar.
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- Quaternary of the LevantEnvironments, Climate Change, and Humans, pp. 329 - 336Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2017
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