Archaeological studies have revealed that 15,000 years ago, human groups in Eastern Morocco (specifically in Taforalt, Berkane Province) survived on a diet based primarily on plants 8,000 years before the advent of agriculture during the Neolithic period, according to Morocco’s National Institute of Archaeology (INSAP).
The transition from hunting and gathering to agriculture was one of the most important food revolutions in human history. However, due to the scarcity of well-preserved human remains from Pleistocene sites, our knowledge of the dietary practices of “pre-agricultural” human groups is limited.
A new study based upon stable isotope analysis of skeletons discovered in the Pigeons cave at Taforalt and published today in the journal Nature Ecology and Evolution shows that human groups adopted a diet based mainly on plants and not on meat as might be expected in Palaeolithic hunting communities.
The results of the study unequivocally demonstrate a significant plant-based component in the diet of these hunter-gatherers.
This particular dietary pattern calls into question the prevailing idea that human groups in Paleolithic times were heavily dependent on animal proteins for thousands of years before the advent of agriculture.
Such a conclusion confirms the results already obtained at the archaeological site, indicating the presence of one of the oldest “sedentary” lifestyles in the world.
INSAP carried out the search at the Pigeons cave in Taforalt for a number of years, under the aegis of Morocco’s Ministry of Culture, the Faculty of Science in Oujda (Laboratoire 2GPMH), Oxford University, and the Natural History Museum in London, England.
The study was led by a doctoral student from INSAP, Morocco, and INSAP researchers from the “Origin and evolution of Homo sapiens cultures in Morocco” research group, the UMR 5563 CNRS research unit in Toulouse, France, the Max Planck Institute in Germany, the University of Bordeaux in France, the University of Kent in the UK, the Collège de France, and the Monrepos archaeological research center in Germany.