Teeth reveal the diet of early farmers in northern Iraq

This is how scientists see microresidues of plants obtained from teeth under a microscope. Fig. Linda Scott Cummings

Wheat and barley were the basis of plant diet of inhabitants of northern Iraq 8.5 thousand years ago - told PAP Dr Arkadiusz Sołtysiak from the Institute of Archaeology, University of Warsaw, who took part in testing the microresidues of plants preserved in calculus.

Until recently, northern Iraq was rarely the area of research of archaeologists. In recent years research in this region has been intensified - many archaeological teams moved from the war engulfed Syria. There, in the region of the upper Tigris, in the mountainous part of northern Mesopotamia, the site Nemrik 9 is located - a settlement and burial ground from which the tested teeth originate.

"This is the first such project for very early Neolithic, the times when people began to cultivate crops and farm animals" - explained in an interview with PAP Dr. Arkadiusz Sołtysiak. In addition to the Polish researcher, Dr. Linda Scott Cummings of PaleoResearch Institute in the USA and Chad Yost were involved in the research project.

The study involved the analysis of microresidues preserved in calculus. The researchers studied teeth of a total of 11 deceased persons, [...] Science & Scholarship in Poland