Composite Sickles and Cereal Harvesting Methods at 23,000-Years-Old Ohalo II, Israel

PLoS One. 2016 Nov 23;11(11):e0167151. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0167151. eCollection 2016.

Abstract

Use-wear analysis of five glossed flint blades found at Ohalo II, a 23,000-years-old fisher-hunter-gatherers' camp on the shore of the Sea of Galilee, Northern Israel, provides the earliest evidence for the use of composite cereal harvesting tools. The wear traces indicate that tools were used for harvesting near-ripe semi-green wild cereals, shortly before grains are ripe and disperse naturally. The studied tools were not used intensively, and they reflect two harvesting modes: flint knives held by hand and inserts hafted in a handle. The finds shed new light on cereal harvesting techniques some 8,000 years before the Natufian and 12,000 years before the establishment of sedentary farming communities in the Near East. Furthermore, the new finds accord well with evidence for the earliest ever cereal cultivation at the site and the use of stone-made grinding implements.

Publication types

  • Historical Article

MeSH terms

  • Anthropology, Cultural*
  • Crop Production / history*
  • Crop Production / instrumentation*
  • Crop Production / methods
  • Edible Grain*
  • History, Ancient
  • Humans
  • Israel

Grants and funding

This work was funded by Israel Science Foundation (Nos. 831/00 and 711/08), Jerusalem Center for Anthropological Studies, L.S.B. Leakey Foundation, Stekelis Museum of Prehistory in Haifa, MAFCAF Foundation, National Geographic Society, and Israel Antiquities Authority.