Experimental Barley Flour Production in 12,500-Year-Old Rock-Cut Mortars in Southwestern Asia The Harvard community has made this article openly available. Please share how this access benefits you. Your story matters Citation Eitam, David, Mordechai Kislev, Adiel Karty, and Ofer Bar- Yosef. 2015. “Experimental Barley Flour Production in 12,500- Year-Old Rock-Cut Mortars in Southwestern Asia.” PLoS ONE 10 (7): e0133306. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0133306. http:// dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0133306. Published Version doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0133306 Citable link http://nrs.harvard.edu/urn-3:HUL.InstRepos:21461212 Terms of Use This article was downloaded from Harvard University’s DASH repository, and is made available under the terms and conditions applicable to Other Posted Material, as set forth at http:// nrs.harvard.edu/urn-3:HUL.InstRepos:dash.current.terms-of- use#LAA RESEARCH ARTICLE Experimental Barley Flour Production in 12,500-Year-Old Rock-Cut Mortars in Southwestern Asia David Eitam1*, Mordechai Kislev2, Adiel Karty3, Ofer Bar-Yosef4 1 Independent researcher, Hararit, Israel, 2 Faculty of Life Sciences, Bar-Ilan University, Ramat-Gan, Israel, 3 Independent researcher, Zikhron Ya'akov, Israel, 4 Department of Anthropology, Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States of America *
[email protected] Abstract Experimental archaeology at a Natufian site in the Southern Levant documents for the first a11111 time the use of 12,500-year-old rock-cut mortars for producing wild barley flour, some 2,000 to 3,000 years before cereal cultivation. Our reconstruction involved processing wild barley on the prehistoric threshing floor, followed by use of the conical mortars (a common feature in Natufian sites), thereby demonstrating the efficient peeling and milling of hulled grains.