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Palaeoenvironment and plant use in the Upper Capsian: macro-botanical and micro-botanical remains from Kef Hamda (Tunisia).
Jacob Morales  1, *@  , Portillo Marta  2, 3@  , Yolanda Carrión Marco  4@  , Paloma Vidal Matutano  5@  , Aouadi Nabiha  6@  , Lotfi Belhouchet  7@  , Eddargach Wassel  8@  , Antoine Zazzo  9@  , Alfredo Coppa  10@  , Peña-Chocarro Leonor  11@  , Simone Mulazzani  12@  , Giulio Lucarini  13, 14, 15, 16@  
1 : Universidad de Las Islas Canarias
2 : EU Horizon 2020 Marie Sklodowska-Curie Fellow, Department of Archaeology, University of Reading
Whiteknights Box 227, Reading RG6 6AB -  Royaume-Uni
3 : Prehistory Rearch Group, Department of Geography, Prehistory and Archaeology, Faculty of Arts, University of the Basque Country  (UPV/EHU)
C/ Francisco Tomás y Valiente s/n, 01006 Vitoria-Gasteiz -  Espagne
4 : PREMEDOC- GIUV2015-213. Universitat de València, Departament de Prehistòria, Arqueologia i Història Antiga
5 : University of Valencia - Departamento de Prehistoria y Arqueología
6 : Institut National du Patrimoine de Tunis  (INP)
4 Place du Château, 1008 Tunis -  Tunisie
7 : Institut National du Patrimoine - Musée de Sousse
8 : UMR 7041, ArScAn- Archéologies Environnementales, Maison de l'Archéologie et de l'Ethnologie
UMR 7041
21 allée de l'Université, 92023 Nanterre -  France
9 : Archéozoologie, archéobotanique : sociétés, pratiques et environnements
Museum National d'Histoire Naturelle, Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique : UMR7209
10 : Department of Environmental Biology, Sapienza University of Rome
11 : GI Arqueobiología. Instituto de Historia (CCHS). Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas
Albasanz 26-28, 28037 Madrid -  Espagne
12 : UMR 7269 LAMPEA, MMSH, Aix-en-Provence
Aix Marseille Université, Aix Marseille Université
13 : Dept. of Asian, African and Mediterranean Studies; University of Naples L'Orientale
14 : Institute of Heritage Science - National Research Council of Italy
15 : McDonald Institute for Archaeological Research, University of Cambridge
16 : International Association of Mediterranean and Oriental Studies (ISMEO)
* : Corresponding author

Kef Hamda is an open-air site located on a 35 x 10 m terrace along the El Garia crest of the Tunisian Ridge, at 700 m a.s.l. The site was discovered in 1973, and has been the focus of renewed archaeological excavations in 2014. It is dated between the 9 – 8th millennium cal BP, with evidence of a lithic complex belonging to the Upper Capsian. Systematic integrated analyses of macro-plant (seeds and wood charcoal) and microfossils (phytoliths and calcitic wood ash pseudomorphs) have yielded a rich assemblage that provide a varied range of data on the palaeoenvironment and the use of plants for consumption, fuel and basketry, among other uses. Charcoal remains show that the most used wood for fuel was Aleppo pine (Pinus halepensis), but other species such as Rhamnus/Phillyrea, Juniperus/Tetraclinis or strawberry tree (Arbutus unedo), among others less frequently collected, were also used. This record indicates that the fuel collection was carried out within of scrubland Mediterranean formations. As for seed remains, preliminary results point to the collection of several food plants such as wild legumes (Lathyrus/Vicia sp.), acorns (Quercus sp.), Aleppo pine nuts (Pinus halepensis), juniper (Juniperus sp.), lentisk (Pistacia lentiscus) and elderberry (Sambucus sp.). In addition, macro and microfossils of Alfa grass (Stipa tenacissima) suggest that this plant could be used to produce basketry and other craft items, such as mats, cords, and containers. Further, no crop seeds or domesticate animals have been recorded, in spite that pottery fragments were identified in the late occupation of the site, suggesting that wild plants played an important role in the subsistence of Capsian foragers in spite of the introduction of technological innovations linked to the Neolithic.


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