Changing Plant-based Subsistence Practices among Early and Middle Holocene Communities in Eastern Maghreb

ABSTRACT

The eastern Maghreb is a key area for understanding environmental and cultural dynamics during the early and middle Holocene. Capsian populations from around 10000–7500 cal BP were among the last foragers in the region. Capsian sites are known as escargotières (land shell middens), and locally called rammadiyat (meaning ashy mound). As taphonomic conditions in Capsian open-air sites generally favour the preservation of resistant materials such as shells and bones rather than fragile plant remains, this study integrates macro-botanical and microfossil evidence from phytoliths, calcitic wood ash pseudomorphs and dung spherulites, since each is influenced by different formation and post-depositional processes. Archaeobotanical results from recent excavations in four Tunisian sites located across the lowland steppe, the Dorsale Mountains and the eastern coast display a wide range of wild plant resources, such as pine, oak, wild legumes, and grasses, in particular Alfa grass. These findings suggest that these plants could have played an important role in Capsian diet, whereas the presence of Alfa grass suggests the use of fibre sources for basketry, matting, building and fuel. Integrated macro-botanical and microfossil records contribute to a better understanding of changing subsistence practices on the threshold of early food-producing systems in north-west Africa.

KEYWORDS:

• Early-middle Holocene
• Northern Africa
• Capsians
• hunter-gatherers
• wild plants
• archaeobotany

Acknowledgements

This research was carried out within the framework of the European Research Council, ERC project PALEOPLANT (ERC-2013-CoG 614960), EU Horizon 2020 MICROARCHEODUNG, and ‘Les derniers chasseurs-cueilleurs Holocènes et la transition néolithique en Tunisie’ project, a cooperation programme currently directed by Nabiha Aouadi and Lotfi Belhouchet (Institut National du Patrimoine, Tunis), Alfredo Coppa (Sapienza University of Rome), and Giulio Lucarini (Institute of Heritage Science, National Research Council of Italy, ISPC-CNR). The MICROARCHEODUNG project received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under the Marie Sklodowska-Curie grant agreement No H2020-MSCA-IF-2015-702529. JM and YCM are beneficiaries of a Ramón y Cajal research fellowship funded by the Spanish Ministry of Competitiveness and Economy (MINECO). We are very grateful to all the excavation team members and especially to our colleague and friend Simone Mulazzani (previous co-Director of the cooperation programme) for access to the samples and amicable cooperative work. Thanks are extended to Oriol López-Bultó and Joan Manuel Soriano (Autonomous University of Barcelona), as well as to Ana Polo-Díaz and M. José Iriarte (Department of Geography, Prehistory and Archaeology/ Ikerbasque) and Ramón J. Barrio (Department of Analytic Chemistry) for further support at the laboratories of the University of the Basque Country (UPV-EHU).

Disclosure Statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Funding

This research was carried out within the framework of the FP7 Ideas: European Research Council, ERC project PALEOPLANT [grant number ERC-2013-CoG 614960], EU Horizon 2020 MICROARCHEODUNG, and ‘Les derniers chasseurs-cueilleurs Holocènes et la transition néolithique en Tunisie’ project, a cooperation programme currently directed by Nabiha Aouadi and Lotfi Belhouchet (Institut National du Patrimoine, Tunis), Alfredo Coppa (Sapienza University of Rome), and Giulio Lucarini (Institute of Heritage Science, National Research Council of Italy, ISPC-CNR). The MICROARCHEODUNG project received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under the Marie Sklodowska-Curie grant agreement No [grant number H2020-MSCA-IF-2015-702529]. JM and YCM are beneficiaries of a Ramón y Cajal research fellowship funded by the Spanish Ministry of Competitiveness and Economy (MINECO).