Starch-Rich Plant Foods Played Central Role in Hominin Diet 780,000 Years Ago

Starch-Rich Plant Foods Played Central Role in Hominin Diet 780,000 Years Ago

Archaeologists say they have extracted a wide variety of starch grains from stone tools found at an early Middle Pleistocene site in Israel. These include acorns, grass grains, water chestnuts, yellow water lily rhizomes, and legume seeds.

Examples of some of the plants recovered from Gesher Benot Ya’akov percussive tools, including the whole plant, the edible part, and the characteristic starch grains. From left to right: oak, yellow water lily, and common oat. Scale bars - 20 µm. Image credit: Hadar Ahituv & Yoel Melamed.

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