Diet of Mesolithic Balkan Foragers

See:

http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2016-08/uoc-adp082616.php

"[FONT=&quot]The study of dental calculus from Late Mesolithic individuals from the site of Vlasac in the Danube Gorges of the central Balkans has provided direct evidence that Mesolithic foragers of this region consumed domestic cereals already by c. 6600 BC, i.e. almost half a millennium earlier than previously thought."

"[/FONT][FONT=&quot]"Microfossils trapped in dental calculus are a direct evidence that plant foods were an important source of energy within Mesolithic forager diet. More significantly, though, they reveal that domesticated plants were introduced to the Balkans independently from the rest of Neolithic novelties such as domesticated animals and artefacts, which accompanied the arrival of farming communities in the region".[/FONT][FONT=&quot]These results suggest that the hitherto held notion of the "Neolithic package" may have to be reconsidered. Archaeologists use the concept of "Neolithic package" to refer to the group of elements that appear in the Early Neolithic settlements of Southeast Europe: pottery, domesticates and cultigens, polished axes, ground stones and timber houses."

I think they may be going too far with the above. These people were trading for the cereals. That doesn't signal the "arrival" of the Neolithic.

The paper itself, which is more circumspect.

Cristiani et al
http://www.pnas.org/content/early/2016/08/24/1603477113.abstract

"The starch record entrapped in dental calculus of Mesolithic human teeth from the site of Vlasac in the central Balkans provides direct evidence that complex Late Mesolithic foragers of this region consumed domesticated cereal grains. Our results challenge the established view of the Neolithization in Europe that domestic cereals were introduced to the Balkans around ∼6200 calibrated (cal.) BC as a part of a “package” that also included domesticated animals and artifacts, which accompanied the arrival of Neolithic communities. We infer that Neolithic domesticated plants were transmitted independently from the rest of Neolithic novelties from ∼6600 cal. BC onwards, reaching inland foragers deep in the Balkan hinterland through established social networks that linked forager and farmer groups."

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The Danube Gorge were a specific culture of HG, who ate lots of fish. This culture was confined to the Danube Gorge where Vlasac is located. It is totally different from other Balkan HG groups.

From 6200 BC there is clear evidence of trade with the incoming farmers. These HG married many farmers daughters who moved to the Danube Gorge.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lepenski_Vir
http://www.donsmaps.com/lepenski.html

Angela said:

See:

http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2016-08/uoc-adp082616.php

"The study of dental calculus from Late Mesolithic individuals from the site of Vlasac in the Danube Gorges of the central Balkans has provided direct evidence that Mesolithic foragers of this region consumed domestic cereals already by c. 6600 BC, i.e. almost half a millennium earlier than previously thought."

""Microfossils trapped in dental calculus are a direct evidence that plant foods were an important source of energy within Mesolithic forager diet. More significantly, though, they reveal that domesticated plants were introduced to the Balkans independently from the rest of Neolithic novelties such as domesticated animals and artefacts, which accompanied the arrival of farming communities in the region".These results suggest that the hitherto held notion of the "Neolithic package" may have to be reconsidered. Archaeologists use the concept of "Neolithic package" to refer to the group of elements that appear in the Early Neolithic settlements of Southeast Europe: pottery, domesticates and cultigens, polished axes, ground stones and timber houses."

I think they may be going too far with the above. These people were trading for the cereals. That doesn't signal the "arrival" of the Neolithic.

The paper itself, which is more circumspect.

Cristiani et al
http://www.pnas.org/content/early/2016/08/24/1603477113.abstract

"The starch record entrapped in dental calculus of Mesolithic human teeth from the site of Vlasac in the central Balkans provides direct evidence that complex Late Mesolithic foragers of this region consumed domesticated cereal grains. Our results challenge the established view of the Neolithization in Europe that domestic cereals were introduced to the Balkans around ∼6200 calibrated (cal.) BC as a part of a “package” that also included domesticated animals and artifacts, which accompanied the arrival of Neolithic communities. We infer that Neolithic domesticated plants were transmitted independently from the rest of Neolithic novelties from ∼6600 cal. BC onwards, reaching inland foragers deep in the Balkan hinterland through established social networks that linked forager and farmer groups."

Click to expand...

I agree. Unless they find farming tools in HG settings, the cereal came from trade or perhaps from domesticated cereal spreading wild through balkans. As we know HGs of Europe ate variety of wild wheat already.

Perhaps they were trading goods for flour to make flat bread over firepit?

there was a wave of immigrants from Anatolia to the Peloponesos 13 ka (1000 years after Villabruna)
they brought obsidian from Melos but also pistachio and pulses seeds from Anatolia

http://www.dartmouth.edu/~prehistory/aegean/?page_id=107


these people could very well have been proto neolithic G2a2
this is some mtDNA



this was before the earliest neolithic in Greece which started about 6800 BC in the Sesklo area

but I don't see any connection between these people and the Danube Gorge
the Danube Gorge HG were sedentary though
if they got hold of some domesticated seeds, why not sow a few to supplement their diet?