Experimental Barley Flour Production in 12,500-Year-Old Rock-Cut Mortars in Southwestern Asia - Fig 1

<p>A. Map of Natufian sites with narrow and wide conical mortars in the Southern Levant: (1) Small cave sites 11, 17, 22; (2) Ornit Cave; (3) Usba Cave; (4) Wadi Malich Terrace; (5) Umm Sawaneh 5; (6) Rosh Horesha; (7) Saflulim; (8) Romam; (9) Abu Salem; (10) Ramat Harif; background image © Sémhur / Wikimedia Commons / CC-BY-SA-3.0. B. Almost peeled barley grain subsequent to the third shift of dehusking in the narrow conical mortar. C. Grinding the dehusked grains to flour by intensive radial motion in a narrow conical mortar with a long wooden pestle. D. Fine flour and some groats deposited in the adjacent cuphole, subsequent to the first shift of milling.</p

Experimental Barley Flour Production in 12,500-Year-Old Rock-Cut Mortars in Southwestern Asia

<div><p>Experimental archaeology at a Natufian site in the Southern Levant documents for the first time the use of 12,500-year-old rock-cut mortars for producing wild barley flour, some 2,000 to 3,000 years before cereal cultivation. Our reconstruction involved processing wild barley on the prehistoric threshing floor, followed by use of the conical mortars (a common feature in Natufian sites), thereby demonstrating the efficient peeling and milling of hulled grains. This discovery complements nearly 80 years of investigations suggesting that the Natufians regularly harvested almost-ripe wild cereals using sickles hafted with flint blades. Sickles had been replicated in the past and tested in the field for harvesting cereals, thusly obtaining the characteristic sheen along the edge of the hafted flint blades as found in Natufian remnants. Here we report that Natufian wide and narrow conical mortars enabled the processing of wild barley for making the groats and fine flour that provided considerable quantities of nourishment. Dishes in the Early Natufian (15,000–13,500 CalBP) were groat meals and porridge and subsequently, in the Late Natufian (13,500–11,700 CalBP), we suggest that unleavened bread made from fine flour was added. These food preparing techniques widened the dietary breadth of the sedentary Natufian hunter-gatherers, paving the way to the emergence of farming communities, the hallmark of the Neolithic Revolution.</p></div

Steps of the experimental procedure using the Natufian utensils.

<p>A. A field of ripe wild barley ears with whole spikes before harvest, Negev, Israel. B. Beating spikelets on Threshing Floor II, by a heavy, bent branch with some straw, gathered in a heap. C. Sieving spikelet awns and straw using a large-hole traditional Arab sieve (sarod in Arabic). D. Hummeling spikelets with a long wooden pestle in a wide conical mortar (broken). E. Dehusking hulled spikelets with wooden pestle in a narrow conical mortar by vertical strokes (see adjacent cuphole). F. Dehusked grain and groats (after first shift of dehusking) scooped by hand from the deep mortar and deposited in the adjacent cuphole.</p