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Small-grained wild grasses as staple food at the 23 000-year-old site of Ohalo II, Israel

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Abstract

More than 16 000 grains of small-grained grasses were retrieved at Ohalo II, a submerged 23 000-year-old site on the shore of the Sea of Galilee, Israel. The grains were part of a very large archaeobotanical assemblage, unique for its period and region, as well as its exceptionally good preservation. This paper proposes that these grains were a staple food at Ohalo II, based on several lines of evidence: 1. the large number of grains found; 2. the fact that all grains were fully mature; and 3. ethnographic parallels for the use of small-grained grasses in hunter-gatherers’ societies as well as among present-day agriculturalists.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. MacCurdy Post-Doctoral Fellow, Department of Anthropology, Peabody Museum, Harvard University, 11 Divinity Avenue, 02138, Cambridge, MA, USA

    Ehud Weiss

  2. Faculty of Life Sciences and Martin (Szusz) Department of Land of Israel Studies and Archaeology, Bar-Han University, 52900, Ramat-Gan, Israel

    Ehud Weiss, Mordechai E. Kislev & Orit Simchoni

  3. Zinman Institute of Archaeology, University of Haifa, 31905, Haifa, Isarael

    Dani Nadel

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  1. Ehud Weiss
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  2. Mordechai E. Kislev
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  4. Dani Nadel
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Weiss, E., Kislev, M.E., Simchoni, O. et al. Small-grained wild grasses as staple food at the 23 000-year-old site of Ohalo II, Israel. Econ Bot 58 (Suppl 1), S125–S134 (2004). https://doi.org/10.1663/0013-0001(2004)58[S125:SWGASF]2.0.CO;2

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1663/0013-0001(2004)58[S125:SWGASF]2.0.CO;2

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