Archaeobotanical evidence for early Neolithic diet and subsistence at M'lefaat (Iraq)

Abstract

The archaeobotanical assemblage of the Aceramic Neolithic site of M'lefaat, dated to the beginning of the 10th millennium uncal. BP, is dominated by legumes, especially Vicieae, Lathyrus/Vicia, Vicia ervilia and Lens, and by grasses, such as Hordeum spon- taneum/distichon, Aegilops cylindrica/tauschii/spehoides ssp. speltoides and Triticura boeoticum/Secale. Other taxa such as Gypsophila pilosa type and Bellevalia type, also count for a significant part of the assemblage. Taxa associated with a riverine environment dominate the charcoal assemblage. The archaeobotanical results of other contemporary steppic sites of the northern Fertile Crescent. (Qermez Dere, Abu Hureyra, Mureybet and Jerfel Ahmar), were compared to those of M'lefaat. The results are quite similar : legumes, especially Vicia and Lens, and grasses, especially Hordeum spontaneum/distichon and Triticum boeoticum/Secale, dominate. A distinctive trait of the M'lefaat assemblage is the abundance of Aegilops. Although it is impossible to rule out domestication or cultivation, there is no positive evidence for this at the site. Archaeobotanical results from M'lefaat and other steppic sites suggest that wetter conditions and a moist-steppe vegetation and/or forest-steppe, with good grasses, were in place 10,000 BP.