Hunter-gatherers ate more plants than expected, not just meat, worldwide experts say
There is a perception (perhaps popularised by the PaleoDiet) that before agriculture, humans relied predominantly on meat, but an international team show plants were very important to some hunter-gatherers.
The shift from hunting and gathering for food to settling and starting farming practices through agriculture is considered one of the biggest diet revolutions in human history. Limited human remains well preserved enough for archaeologists means that little has been known about what was actually eaten by humans before agriculture began, even though there has been a perception the human diet was dominated by meat.
Researchers now show through cutting-edge techniques that extract insights from the remains of Late Stone Age hunter-gatherers in North Africa. They show, based on initial findings of a population uncovered in the Moroccan cave of Taforalt, that they were highly reliant on consuming plants.
Deep analysis of teeth and skeletal remains
Scientists from across the world used isotopic analysis techniques to reveal the dietary practices of pre-agricultural humans in Morocco, dating to about 15,000–13,000 years ago. Their study looked at the diet of hunter-gatherers belonging to the Iberomaurusian culture found in the Moroccan cave of Taforalt.
They analysed the isotopes of zinc and strontium from the enamel of teeth and looked at collagen using carbon, nitrogen and sulphur analysis. In the skeletal remains they explored the amino acids present, and did the same in traces of plant matter to find out what the ancient people were consuming.
This is the first time zinc isotopes found in animal were used to deduce the diet of ancient peoples in Africa, even though many studies have been conducted in North Africa for its vast history of human evolution and anthropology research.
Many of these plants were of Mediterranean species, and on site acorns, pine nuts and wild pulses were found by archaeologists.
This was before agriculture was thought to have begun by thousands of years. Foraged plants were also introduced to the young and may have helped to wean infants.
Food for thought on what hunter-gatherers really ate
The population studied might show more reliance on plants than other populations from the same time period, showing the versatility of humanity. This challenges previous preconceptions that hunter-gatherer societies before the dawn of agriculture were predominantly meat eaters, living only on animal protein, showing plants had an important role in their diets, potentially even from a young age.
Zineb Moubtahij, lead author of the study, explains: “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. Understanding these patterns is crucial to unraveling the broader story of human evolution."
Next, to build a broader picture the team next hope to explore more sites in North Africa to unearth Paleolithic remains and use their advanced methods to understand their diets to find out how widespread this diversity of a diet could be.