Starch-rich plant foods 780,000 y ago: Evidence from Acheulian percussive stone tools.

In contrast to animal foods, wild plants often require long, multistep processing techniques that involve significant cognitive skills and advanced toolkits to perform. These costs are thought to have hindered how hominins used these foods and delayed their adoption into our diets. Through the analysis of starch grains preserved on basalt anvils and percussors, we demonstrate that a wide variety of plants were processed by Middle Pleistocene hominins at the site of Gesher Benot Ya'aqov in Israel, at least 780,000 y ago.

Evidence for the cooking of fish 780,000 years ago at Gesher Benot Ya'aqov, Israel.

Although cooking is regarded as a key element in the evolutionary success of the genus Homo, impacting various biological and social aspects, when intentional cooking first began remains unknown. The early Middle Pleistocene site of Gesher Benot Ya'aqov, Israel (marine isotope stages 18-20; ~0.78 million years ago), has preserved evidence of hearth-related hominin activities and large numbers of freshwater fish remains (>40,000).

Correction: Evaluating the intensity of fire at the Acheulian site of Gesher Benot Ya'aqov-Spatial and thermoluminescence analyses.

[This corrects the article DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.

Evaluating the intensity of fire at the Acheulian site of Gesher Benot Ya'aqov-Spatial and thermoluminescence analyses.

This manuscript presents an attempt to evaluate the intensity of fire through spatial patterning and thermoluminescence methodology. Previous studies of Layer II-6 Level 2 at the Acheulian site of Gesher Benot Ya'aqov suggested that hominins differentiated their activities across space, including multiple activities around a hearth reconstructed on the basis of the distribution of burned flint artifacts. A transect of ~4 m was extended from the center of the reconstructed hearth of Level 2 to its periphery in order to examine the intensity of fire.

A new type of anvil in the Acheulian of Gesher Benot Ya'aqov, Israel.

We report here on the identification and characterization of thin basalt anvils, a newly discovered component of the Acheulian lithic inventory of Gesher Benot Ya'aqov (GBY). These tools are an addition to the array of percussive tools (percussors, pitted stones and anvils) made of basalt, flint and limestone. The thin anvils were selected from particularly compact, horizontally fissured zones of basalt flows.

Cultural conservatism and variability in the Acheulian sequence of Gesher Benot Ya'aqov.

The Acheulian Technocomplex exhibits two phenomena: variability and conservatism. Variability is expressed in the composition and frequencies of tool types, particularly in the varying frequencies of bifaces (handaxes and cleavers). Conservatism is expressed in the continuous presence of bifaces along an immense time trajectory.

Spatial organization of hominin activities at Gesher Benot Ya'aqov, Israel.

The spatial designation of discrete areas for different activities reflects formalized conceptualization of a living space. The results of spatial analyses of a Middle Pleistocene Acheulian archaeological horizon (about 750,000 years ago) at Gesher Benot Ya'aqov, Israel, indicate that hominins differentiated their activities (stone knapping, tool use, floral and faunal processing and consumption) across space. These were organized in two main areas, including multiple activities around a hearth.