School of Social Science, University of Queensland, Brisbane, QLD, 4072, Australia.
Australian Research Council Centre of Excellence for Australian Biodiversity and Heritage, University of Wollongong, Wollongong, NSW, 2522, Australia.
Nat Commun. 2020 Feb 17;11(1):924. doi: 10.1038/s41467-020-14723-0.
There is little evidence for the role of plant foods in the dispersal of early modern humans into new habitats globally. Researchers have hypothesised that early movements of human populations through Island Southeast Asia and into Sahul were driven by the lure of high-calorie, low-handling-cost foods, and that the use of plant foods requiring processing was not common in Sahul until the Holocene. Here we present the analysis of charred plant food remains from Madjedbebe rockshelter in northern Australia, dated to between 65 kya and 53 kya. We demonstrate that Australia's earliest known human population exploited a range of plant foods, including those requiring processing. Our finds predate existing evidence for such subsistence practices in Sahul by at least 23ky. These results suggest that dietary breadth underpinned the success of early modern human populations in this region, with the expenditure of labour on the processing of plants guaranteeing reliable access to nutrients in new environments.
鲜有证据表明植物性食物在早期现代人向全球新栖息地扩散的过程中发挥了作用。研究人员假设，早期人类种群通过东南亚岛屿和萨胡尔（Sahul，澳大利亚大陆、新几内亚岛及其附近岛屿）的迁徙是受高热量、低处理成本食物的吸引所致，并且在全新世之前，在萨胡尔地区，人们并不常用需要加工的植物性食物。在这里，我们报告了对澳大利亚北部马杰德比比洞穴中烧焦的植物性食物残留物的分析结果，这些残留物的年代在 65 千年前至 53 千年前之间。我们证明，澳大利亚最早被发现的人类种群利用了多种植物性食物，包括需要加工的植物性食物。我们的发现早于萨胡尔地区现存的此类生存实践的证据至少 23 千年。这些结果表明，饮食的广泛性是该地区早期现代人成功的基础，他们在加工植物上投入的劳动保证了在新环境中可靠地获取营养。
