LEIPZIG, GERMANY—According to a statement released by the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, an international team of researchers analyzed 15,000-year-old remains of hunter-gatherers unearthed in Morocco, and determined that they ate a diet rich in plant foods. It had been previously thought that hunter-gatherers living in North Africa relied heavily on animal foods. The analysis featured zinc and strontium isotope analysis of tooth enamel; carbon, nitrogen, and sulfur analysis of collagen; and the analysis of amino acids in human remains and in traces of acorn, pine nuts, and wild pulses recovered from Morocco’s Taforalt Cave. The study suggests that a significant proportion of the hunter-gatherer diet relied upon Mediterranean plant species, thousands of years before these plants were grown as crops. The researchers also think that these plant foods may have been fed to weaning infants. “Our findings not only provide insights into the dietary practices of pre-agricultural human groups but also highlight the complexity of human subsistence strategies in different regions,” said Zineb Moubtahij of the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology. “Understanding these patterns is crucial to unraveling the broader story of human evolution,” he reasoned. Read the original scholarly article about this research in Nature Ecology & Evolution. To read about leatherworking tools found in a Moroccan cave that date as far back as 120,000 years ago, go to “Earliest Leatherworkers,” one of ARCHAEOLOGY’s Top 10 Discoveries of 2021.
