Cooking in caves: Palaeolithic carbonised plant food remains from Franchthi and Shanidar

Kabukcu, C, Hunt, CO ORCID: 0000-0003-0330-8871, Hiill, E, Pomeroy, E, Reynolds, T, Barker, G and Asouti, E (2022) Cooking in caves: Palaeolithic carbonised plant food remains from Franchthi and Shanidar. Antiquity: a quarterly review of archaeology. ISSN 0003-598X

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Abstract

Research on Palaeolithic hunter-gatherer diet has focused on the consumption of animals. Evidence for the use of plant foods is comparatively limited but is rapidly expanding. The authors present an analysis of carbonised macro-remains of processed plants from Franchthi Cave in the Aegean Basin and Shanidar Cave in the north-west Zagros Mountains. Microscopic examination of the charred food remains reveals the use of pounded pulses as a common ingredient in cooked plant foods. The results are discussed in the context of the regional archaeobotanical literature, leading the authors to argue that plants with bitter and astringent tastes were key ingredients of Palaeolithic cuisines in South-west Asia and the Eastern Mediterranean.

Item Type:	Article
Uncontrolled Keywords:	Prehistoric food preparation; Palaeolithic diet; Hunter-gatherer archaeobotany; Eastern Mediterranean; Southwest Asia; 2004 Linguistics; 2101 Archaeology; Archaeology
Subjects:	C Auxiliary Sciences of History > CB History of civilization C Auxiliary Sciences of History > CC Archaeology G Geography. Anthropology. Recreation > GF Human ecology. Anthropogeography G Geography. Anthropology. Recreation > GN Anthropology T Technology > TX Home economics > TX341 Nutrition. Foods and food supply
Divisions:	Biological and Environmental Sciences (from Sep 19)
Publisher:	Cambridge University Press (CUP)
Date of acceptance:	17 June 2022
Date of first compliant Open Access:	2 December 2022
Date Deposited:	20 Jun 2022 09:06
Last Modified:	05 Jul 2025 15:15
DOI or ID number:	10.15184/aqy.2022.143
URI:	https://researchonline.ljmu.ac.uk/id/eprint/17110

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