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Plant, pigment, and bone processing in the Neolithic of northern Arabia–New evidence from Use-wear analysis of grinding tools at Jebel Oraf

Archaeological sites with surface hearths are a ubiquitous feature across the arid zones of the Arabian interior. At Jebel Oraf, in the Jubbah basin of the Nefud Desert of northern Arabia, numerous grinding stone fragments were found in association with hearths, though the original purpose of these...

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Autores principales: Lucarini, Giulio, Guagnin, Maria, Shipton, Ceri, Radini, Anita, Alsharekh, Abdullah M., Petraglia, Michael
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Public Library of Science 2023
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10550130/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/37792728
http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0291085
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author Lucarini, Giulio
Guagnin, Maria
Shipton, Ceri
Radini, Anita
Alsharekh, Abdullah M.
Petraglia, Michael
author_facet Lucarini, Giulio
Guagnin, Maria
Shipton, Ceri
Radini, Anita
Alsharekh, Abdullah M.
Petraglia, Michael
author_sort Lucarini, Giulio
collection PubMed
description Archaeological sites with surface hearths are a ubiquitous feature across the arid zones of the Arabian interior. At Jebel Oraf, in the Jubbah basin of the Nefud Desert of northern Arabia, numerous grinding stone fragments were found in association with hearths, though the original purpose of these stones was unclear owing to the poor preservation of faunal and botanic remains. Here we describe results from use-wear analysis on five grinding tools at Jebel Oraf, demonstrating that such artefacts were used during the Neolithic for plant processing, bone processing, and pigment production. Grinding stones were often broken up after initial use and fragments were subsequently re-used for alternative purposes, before finally being placed on hearths or discarded. More specifically, plants were ground or prepared and possibly cooked in the hearths, and bones were processed as well. The analyses also highlight the importance of pigment processing at Neolithic sites and provide a link to painted rock art. The frequent use of pigment in the archaeological record suggests that pigment was widely used, and that Neolithic painted art may have been more common than the surviving images suggest.
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spelling pubmed-105501302023-10-05 Plant, pigment, and bone processing in the Neolithic of northern Arabia–New evidence from Use-wear analysis of grinding tools at Jebel Oraf Lucarini, Giulio Guagnin, Maria Shipton, Ceri Radini, Anita Alsharekh, Abdullah M. Petraglia, Michael PLoS One Research Article Archaeological sites with surface hearths are a ubiquitous feature across the arid zones of the Arabian interior. At Jebel Oraf, in the Jubbah basin of the Nefud Desert of northern Arabia, numerous grinding stone fragments were found in association with hearths, though the original purpose of these stones was unclear owing to the poor preservation of faunal and botanic remains. Here we describe results from use-wear analysis on five grinding tools at Jebel Oraf, demonstrating that such artefacts were used during the Neolithic for plant processing, bone processing, and pigment production. Grinding stones were often broken up after initial use and fragments were subsequently re-used for alternative purposes, before finally being placed on hearths or discarded. More specifically, plants were ground or prepared and possibly cooked in the hearths, and bones were processed as well. The analyses also highlight the importance of pigment processing at Neolithic sites and provide a link to painted rock art. The frequent use of pigment in the archaeological record suggests that pigment was widely used, and that Neolithic painted art may have been more common than the surviving images suggest. Public Library of Science 2023-10-04 /pmc/articles/PMC10550130/ /pubmed/37792728 http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0291085 Text en © 2023 Lucarini et al https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) , which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
spellingShingle Research Article
Lucarini, Giulio
Guagnin, Maria
Shipton, Ceri
Radini, Anita
Alsharekh, Abdullah M.
Petraglia, Michael
Plant, pigment, and bone processing in the Neolithic of northern Arabia–New evidence from Use-wear analysis of grinding tools at Jebel Oraf
title Plant, pigment, and bone processing in the Neolithic of northern Arabia–New evidence from Use-wear analysis of grinding tools at Jebel Oraf
title_full Plant, pigment, and bone processing in the Neolithic of northern Arabia–New evidence from Use-wear analysis of grinding tools at Jebel Oraf
title_fullStr Plant, pigment, and bone processing in the Neolithic of northern Arabia–New evidence from Use-wear analysis of grinding tools at Jebel Oraf
title_full_unstemmed Plant, pigment, and bone processing in the Neolithic of northern Arabia–New evidence from Use-wear analysis of grinding tools at Jebel Oraf
title_short Plant, pigment, and bone processing in the Neolithic of northern Arabia–New evidence from Use-wear analysis of grinding tools at Jebel Oraf
title_sort plant, pigment, and bone processing in the neolithic of northern arabia–new evidence from use-wear analysis of grinding tools at jebel oraf
topic Research Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10550130/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/37792728
http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0291085
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