title: Dental calculus reveals Mesolithic foragers in the Balkans consumed domesticated plant foods.
abstract: Researchers agree that domesticated plants were introduced into southeast Europe from southwest Asia as a part of a Neolithic "package," which included domesticated animals and artifacts typical of farming communities. It is commonly believed that this package reached inland areas of the Balkans by ∼6200 calibrated (cal.) BC or later. Our analysis of the starch record entrapped in dental calculus of Mesolithic human teeth at the site of Vlasac in the Danube Gorges of the central Balkans provides direct evidence that already by ∼6600 cal. BC, if not earlier, Late Mesolithic foragers of this region consumed domestic cereals, such as Triticum monococcum, Triticum dicoccum, and Hordeum distichon, which were also the main crops found among Early Neolithic communities of southeast Europe. We infer that "exotic" Neolithic domesticated plants were introduced to southern Europe independently almost half a millennium earlier than previously thought, through networks that enabled exchanges between inland Mesolithic foragers and early farming groups found along the Aegean coast of Turkey.
authors: McDonald Institute for Archaeological Research, University of Cambridge, Cambridge CB1 3ER, United Kingdom; ec484@cam.ac.uk.
authors: Emanuela
authors: E
authors: Cristiani
authors: BioArCh, University of York, York Y01 7EP UK, United Kingdom;
authors: Anita
authors: A
authors: Radini
authors: Institute of Archaeology, University College London, London WC1H 0PY, United Kingdom;
authors: Marija
authors: M
authors: Edinborough
authors: Department of Archaeology and Conservation, School of History, Archaeology, and Religion, Cardiff University, Cardiff CF10 3EU, United Kingdom.
authors: Dušan
authors: D
authors: Borić
mesh_terms: D000383:Agriculture / Q000266:history*; D000818:Animals; D000829:Animals, Domestic; D063368:Balkan Peninsula; D018556:Crops, Agricultural / Q000737:chemistry / Q000266:history; D003728:Dental Calculus / Q000737:chemistry / Q000266:history*; D000071278:Domestication; D049690:History, Ancient; D006801:Humans; D013213:Starch / Q000737:chemistry*; D014070:Tooth / Q000737:chemistry; D014908:Triticum / Q000737:chemistry*; D014421:Turkey
chemical_list: D013213:Starch
keywords: Mesolithic foragers; domesticated cereals; forager/farmer interaction; human dental calculus; starch analysis