A Disregarded Nobility: The Role and Exploitation of Wild Plants in North Africa during the Holocene, Analyzed through an Integrated Functional Analysis on Non-Knapped Stone Tools
Lucarini G., Radini A.
Farafra Oasis Haua Fteah Mid-Holocene Wild grasses Ground tools Use-wear analysis Starch analysis
The two case study areas presented in this paper - the Haua Fteah cave of Cyrenaica, Libya and the Farafra Oasis in the Egyptian Western Desert - have so far produced archaeobotanical assemblages exclusively made up of wild plants, among which several species of grasses are included. They have also yielded a number of grinding tools. The general assumption of a direct link between grinding tools and plant exploitation was tested, adopting an integrated approach of use-wear and plant micro-residue analysis of the stone tools. Results of this analysis confirmed that a variety of wild plants were processed in the two regions during the Mid-Holocene, showing how these local species represented a primary source of food even after Levantine domesticated animals and plants were introduced into North Africa.
Source: Revolutions. The Neolithisation of the Mediterranean Basin: The Transition to Food-Producing Economies in North Africa, Southern Europe, and the Levant, pp. 69–83, Berlino, 29-30 Ottobre 2015
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@inproceedings{oai:it.cnr:prodotti:462379,
title = {A Disregarded Nobility: The Role and Exploitation of Wild Plants in North Africa during the Holocene, Analyzed through an Integrated Functional Analysis on Non-Knapped Stone Tools},
author = {Lucarini G. and Radini A.},
booktitle = {Revolutions. The Neolithisation of the Mediterranean Basin: The Transition to Food-Producing Economies in North Africa, Southern Europe, and the Levant, pp. 69–83, Berlino, 29-30 Ottobre 2015},
year = {2021}
}