“Our analysis showed that these hunter-gatherer groups, they included an important amount of plant matter, wild plants to their diet, which changed our understanding of the diet of pre-agricultural populations,” Zineb Moubtahij, the lead author for the study stated.
Additionally, researchers saw an abundance of cavities in the buried remains in the Taforalt caves, the places where Iberomaurusians would lay the dead to rest. According to the study, these cavities suggested the consumption of “fermentable starchy plants” like beets, corn, rye, and cassava.
The most remarkable aspect of this study is the revelation that this population developed ways to cultivate plant growth and to harvest crops, thousands of years before the agricultural revolution took place.
According to the report, these “hunter-gatherers also engaged in early forms of plant cultivation, such as the intentional planting and harvesting of wild cereals. This practice probably paved the way for the development of agriculture in the region.”
The conclusion of the study emphasised the “importance of Taforalt population’s dietary reliance on plants, while animal resources were consumed in a lower proportion than at other Upper Palaeolithic sites with available isotopic data.”
The research team plans to continue it’s examination of Paleolithic sites in North Africa and use innovative techniques to gain a deeper understanding of ancient dietary practices and the implications for human evolution.
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