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Multistep Food Plant Processing at Grotta Paglicci (Southern Italy) Around 32,600 Cal B.P

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Multistep Food Plant Processing at Grotta Paglicci (Southern Italy) Around 32,600 Cal B.P Multistep food plant processing at Grotta Paglicci (Southern Italy) around 32,600 cal B.P. Marta Mariotti Lippia,1, Bruno Foggia, Biancamaria Arangurenb, Annamaria Ronchitellic, and Anna Revedind aDipartimento di Biologia, University of Florence, 50121 Florence, Italy; bSoprintendenza Archeologia della Toscana, 50121 Florence, Italy; cUnità di Ricerca di Preistoria e Antropologia, Dipartimento di Scienze Fisiche, della Terra e dell’Ambiente, University of Siena, 53100 Siena, Italy; and dIstituto Italiano di Preistoria e Protostoria, 50122 Florence, Italy Edited by Ofer Bar-Yosef, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA, and approved August 6, 2015 (received for review March 15, 2015) Residue analyses on a grinding tool recovered at Grotta Paglicci Italy, characterized by a Mediterranean climate (Supporting sublayer 23A [32,614 ± 429 calibrated (cal) B.P.], Southern Italy, Information and Fig. S1). have demonstrated that early modern humans collected and pro- Excavations at Paglicci have been carried out for over 40 y, cessed various plants. The recording of starch grains attributable first by the Museo Civico di Storia Naturale di Verona and, since to Avena (oat) caryopses expands our information about the food 1971, by the University of Siena, in collaboration with the plants used for producing flour in Europe during the Paleolithic Soprintendenza Archeologia della Puglia. The stratigraphic se- and about the origins of a food tradition persisting up to the pre- quence of the cave (12 m) (Fig. S2) yielded a large quantity of sent in the Mediterranean basin. The quantitative distribution of Paleolithic artifacts, examples of portable art, burials, and hu- the starch grains on the surface of the grinding stone furnished man and animal remains. Wall paintings of horses and hands information about the tool handling, confirming its use as a pestle- were discovered in the innermost part of the cave. These parietal grinder, as suggested by the wear-trace analysis. The particular state paintings are the only Paleolithic ones known in Italy (8). The of preservation of the starch grains suggests the use of a thermal retrieved materials mostly date to the Upper Paleolithic, namely treatment before grinding, possibly to accelerate drying of the to the Aurignacian, with marginally backed bladelets, and to the plants, making the following process easier and faster. The study entire Gravettian and Epigravettian chronology (9, 10). clearly indicates that the exploitation of plant resources was very The faunal association, along with the results of the isotopic – important for hunter gatherer populations, to the point that the analyses from faunal remains, indicate a climate colder than the ANTHROPOLOGY Early Gravettian inhabitants of Paglicci were able to process food present one (Supporting Information). plants and already possessed a wealth of knowledge that was to Plant remains consist of charcoal fragments mostly belonging become widespread after the dawn of agriculture. to Juniperus, Pistacia, and Prunus, occurring in almost all of the Aurignacian and the Gravettian levels. Deciduous Quercus was starch grains | Avena | pestle-grinder | flour | Early Gravettian often recorded. Pinus spp., Salix/Populus, Acer, Rhamnus, and Fraxinus sporadically occurred (11). ver the last few decades, a renewed interest in ancient diets Ohas led to particular attention being paid to the plant res- The Paglicci Pestle-Grinder idues recovered from tool surfaces and dental calculus in Pa- The tool (Fig. 1) was found in June 1989 in sublayer 23A (square leolithic sites (e.g., refs. 1–6). The data that we have collected 36H) (Supporting Information and Fig. S2). This sublayer was ± ± have expanded our knowledge of the lifestyle of ancestral hu- radiocarbon dated 28,100 400 B.P. [UtC-1414: 32,614 429 mans, indicating their familiarity with a wide variety of edible calibrated (cal) B.P.] (12, 13). plants and their capacity for complex, multistep food processing. On the basis of the functional analysis, this item has been Moreover, they corroborated the hypothesis that the “natural interpreted as a pestle-grinder; evidence of the grinding function diet” of our ancestors may not have been quite as simple and was found mainly on side 2 (13). Since its retrieval, this artifact basic as previously assumed. has been stored in a plastic bag. It is an elongated cobble of Starch and phytolith analyses were successfully used to analyze fine, not completely cemented calcareous sandstone bearing grinding tools and dental calculus, enriching the list of the Paleolithic food plants with taxa that are very difficult to detect Significance by other methods. Indeed, traditional carpological studies have generally furnished lists of edible plants restricted to those that The Early Gravettian inhabitants of Grotta Paglicci (sublayer comprise easily preservable portions or that were charred. 23 A) are currently the most ancient hunter–gatherers able to Starch analysis on grinding stones from Bilancino in Italy, process plants to obtain flour. They also developed targeted Kostenki 16 in Russia, and Pavlov VI in the Czech Republic (2, technologies for complex processing of the plant portions be- 3, 7) illustrated plant exploitation in the Mid-Upper Paleolithic fore grinding. The present study testifies for the first time, to and demonstrated that the ability to process plants to obtain our knowledge, the performance of a thermal pretreatment flour was already diffused across Europe during this period. that could have been crucial in a period characterized by a In this study, residue analysis on a grinding tool from Grotta climate colder than the current one. The starch record on the Paglicci, an important Paleolithic site in southeastern Italy, Paglicci grinding stone is currently the most ancient evidence of Avena supplied new data about plant gathering and multistep process- the processing of (oat). ing for obtaining flour since the Early Gravettian. Author contributions: M.M.L., B.A., and A. Revedin designed research; M.M.L., B.A., and A. Revedin performed research; M.M.L., B.A., and A. Revedin analyzed data; M.M.L., B.F., The Site B.A., A. Ronchitelli, and A. Revedin wrote the paper; and A. Ronchitelli provided Grotta Grotta Paglicci [Rignano Garganico, Apulia, N 41.6539722, Paglicci excavation data and material. E 15.6151666, 143 m above sea level (a.s.l.)] is located on the The authors declare no conflict of interest. eastern slope of the Vallone di Settepenne, a valley excavated This article is a PNAS Direct Submission. in the karst formation overlooking the Candelaro River plain, 1To whom correspondence should be addressed. Email: [email protected]. at the foot of the Gargano promontory, a mountainous penin- This article contains supporting information online at www.pnas.org/lookup/suppl/doi:10. sula jutting into the Adriatic sea on the southeastern coast of 1073/pnas.1505213112/-/DCSupplemental. www.pnas.org/cgi/doi/10.1073/pnas.1505213112 PNAS | September 29, 2015 | vol. 112 | no. 39 | 12075–12080 Downloaded by guest on September 28, 2021 Fig. 1. The Paglicci pestle-grinder with the sampling areas. The dashed line indicates the area that became wet during the sampling on the apex. longitudinal fissures, fractured at one end, slender and rounded Morphotype II (Fig. 3). Morphotype II consisted of irregularly at the other end, with a flat subquadrangular section. It measures subspherical, rounded in outline, and faceted starch grains with 11.8 × 5.5 × 3.7 cm and weighs 443 g. rounded vertices, measuring 3–30 μm (mean value 15.4; mode The stone, not previously washed, was subjected to two suc- 17.5); centric hilum generally surrounded by radiating fissures; cessive samplings (Fig. 1). The first one was carried out in 2010 extinction cross bilaterally symmetrical or asymmetrical. The size on the apical area [sample P23A(a)] and on the medial band of the grains was significantly smaller in sample P23A(a) (Fig. 4). area [P23A(b)]. In 2012, following a new procedure, three fur- Most of the grains were severely affected by damage attributable ther samples were collected: P23A(c) on side 2, close to the apex; to the grinding process. The grains displayed a morphology very P23A(d) from the previously washed medial band area on side 2; similar to that occurring in numerous Poaceae, for instance in and P23A(e) from an unwashed, presumably unused area on side Panicoideae and Polygonaceae. 1, near to the fractured end of the stone. Morphotype III (Fig. 3). Morphotype III consisted of starch grains Residue Analysis elongated, irregularly ovoid, main axis measuring 25–30 μm; hi- Residue analyses revealed the presence of numerous starch lum eccentric, closed, sometimes with a longitudinal fissure. The grains concentrated on the apex [samples P23A(a)], close to the grains were more or less damaged. They occurred in sample apex [P23A(c)], and on the medial band of the tool [sample P23A(b) and P 23A(c). The particular shape was strongly rem- P23A(b)]. More specifically, 250 starch grains per cm2 were iniscent of the morphology of the Quercus (oak) starch grains calculated in sample P23A(c). In sample P23A(d), which was (Supporting Information, Fig. S5, and Table S3). collected from side 2 after washing, and in sample P23A(e), from 2 2 Morphotype IV (Fig. 3). Morphotype IV consisted of spherical and an unused area on side 1, 25 grains per cm and 40 grains per cm subspherical to ovoid starch grains with centric closed hilum, the were, respectively, detected. main axis or diameter measuring 5–20 μm (mean value 9.5; mode Most of the grains (over 60%) showed more or less pro- 7.5). Spherical grains were prevalent in samples P23A(b) and nounced fissures radiating from the center of the grains, possibly P23A(c), subspherical and ovoid in P23A(a). The size of the referable to the grinding process; numerous grains revealed a grains was smaller in sample P23A(a), not exceeding 15 μm (Fig.
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