Plant-Human Interactions in the Levantine Neolithic Investigated through Ground Stone Tool Use and Dental Calculus

PATH aims at understanding human-plant interactions at the dawn of one of the most significant changes in human evolution, agriculture.

Plant domestication led to considerable changes in behavioural, technological and social terms ending millions of years of hunting-gathering.

Analysing indirect and direct evidence of plant food processing and consumption, namely ground stone tools (GSTs) and ancient dental calculus from key sites in Israel, the Jordan Highlands and South-East Turkey, PATH will unravel how the introduction of domestic crops affected established patterns of wild plant exploitation and the dietary habits of the first Levantine farmers.

The function of GSTs will be investigated through use wear and residue analysis following a novel methodological approach combining qualitative and quantitative microscopy techniques.

The study of plant micro remains, such as starch granules, entrapped in dental calculus will provide information on the consumed plant foods at a species level.

PATH represents one of the first studies where the analysis of GST use and ancient tartar is combined, providing a novel multidisciplinary dataset and new interpretative means that will integrate current hypotheses on plant domestication.

The project will be developed at the Milá y Fontanals Institute on Humanities Research (IMF-CSIC) in Barcelona (Spain) with a Secondment at the Diet and Ancient Technology – DANTE laboratory at Sapienza University of Rome (Italy).

The Fellowship will allow the Applicant to develop new theoretical knowledge and practical skills for what concerns the Neolithic of the Levant and the application of confocal microscopy in use-wear analysis.

Overall, PATH will enhance our understanding of human-plant interactions by exploring how this relationship changed with the advent of domestic crops, providing new clues on the degree of interdependence between humans and wild plant foods at the brink of hunter-gathering to farming transition in the Near East.