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Science 28 September 1979:
Vol. 205. no. 4413, pp. 1341 - 1347
DOI: 10.1126/science.205.4413.1341
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Articles

Use of Barley in the Egyptian Late Paleolithic

Fred Wendorf 1, Romuald Schild 2, Nabil El Hadidi 3, Angela E. Close 1, Michael Kobusiewicz 4, Hanna Wieckowska 2, Bahay Issawi 5, and Herbert Haas 6

1 Members of the Department of Anthropology, Southern Methodist University, Dallas, Texas 75275
2 Staff members at the Institute for the History of Material Culture, Polish Academy of Sciences, Swierczewskiego 105, 00-140 Warsaw, Poland
3 Staff of the Herbarium, Botany Department, Faculty of Science, Cairo University, Giza, Egypt
4 Staff member at the Institute for the History of Material Culture, Polish Academy of Sciences, Zwierzyniecka 20, 60-814 Poznan, Poland
5 Staff member of the Geological Survey of Egypt, Abbassiya P.O., Cairo, Egypt
6 Staff of the Radiocarbon Laboratory, Southern Methodist University, Dallas, Texas 75275

Several grains of barley have been recovered from archeological sites at Wadi Kubbaniya, near Aswan in Egypt. The sites are typical Late Paleolithic and are firmly dated between 18,300 and 17,000 years ago. They seem to represent a very early use of ground grain in the Nile Valley, and evidence is presented for its continued use over the subsequent 6000 years. The Egyptian findings possibly record an initial stage of food production, and if they indeed do, then they suggest that food production may not have been brought about by environmental stress and may not have led inevitably to radical social changes.


THIS ARTICLE HAS BEEN CITED BY OTHER ARTICLES:
Plant macrofossils and their significance in Quaternary palaeoecology: Part III: Applications: late glacial, postglacial and archaeological deposits.
A. M. Mannion and A.M. Mannion (1986)
Progress in Physical Geography 10, 517-546
   PDF »
New Radiocarbon Dates on the Cereals from Wadi Kubbaniya.
F. Wendorf, F. WENDORF, R. SCHILD, A. E. CLOSE, D. J. DONAHUE, A. J. T. JULL, T. H. ZABEL, H. WIECKOWSKA, M. KOBUSIEWICZ, B. ISSAWI, et al. (1984)
Science 225, 645-646
   PDF »
Determination of Thermal Histories of Archeological Cereal Grains with Electron Spin Resonance Spectroscopy.
G. C. Hillman, G. C. HILLMAN, G. V. ROBINS, D. ODUWOLE, K. D. SALES, and D. A. C. MCNEIL (1983)
Science 222, 1235-1236
   Abstract »    PDF »


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