A microbotanical and microwear perspective to plant processing activities and foodways at Neolithic Çatalhöyük

PLOS ONE RESEARCH ARTICLE A microbotanical and microwear perspective to plant processing activities and foodways at Neolithic Çatalhöyük Carlos G. Santiago-Marrero ID1*, Christina Tsoraki ID2, Carla Lancelotti ID1,3, Marco Madella1,3,4 a1111111111 a1111111111 a1111111111 a1111111111 a1111111111 OPEN ACCESS Citation: Santiago-Marrero CG, Tsoraki C, Lancelotti C, Madella M (2021) A microbotanical and microwear perspective to plant processing activities and foodways at Neolithic Çatalhöyük. PLoS ONE 16(6): e0252312. https://doi.org/ 10.1371/journal.pone.0252312 Editor: Eleni Asouti, University of Liverpool, UNITED KINGDOM Received: January 8, 2021 Accepted: May 13, 2021 Published: June 10, 2021 Peer Review History: PLOS recognizes the benefits of transparency in the peer review process; therefore, we enable the publication of all of the content of peer review and author responses alongside final, published articles. The editorial history of this article is available here: https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0252312 Copyright: © 2021 Santiago-Marrero et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. Data Availability Statement: All relevant data are within the manuscript and its Supporting Information files. 1 CaSEs—Department of Humanities, Universitat Pompeu Fabra, Barcelona, Spain, 2 School of Archaeology and Ancient History, University of Leicester, Leicester, United Kingdom, 3 Institució Catalana de Recerca i Estudis Avançats (ICREA), Barcelona, Spain, 4 School of Geography, Archaeology and Environmental Studies, The University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa * Abstract Çatalhöyük is a renowned archaeological site in central Anatolia, best known for its Neolithic occupation dated from 7100 to 6000 cal BC. The site received worldwide attention early on for its large size, well-preserved mudbrick architecture, and elaborate wall paintings. Excavations at the site over almost three decades have unearthed rich archaeobotanical remains and a diverse ground stone assemblage produced by what once was a vibrant farming community. The study presented here adds to our understanding of crops and plant processing at Çatalhöyük by integrating phytoliths and starch analyses on grinding implements found at three domestic contexts attributed to the Middle (6700–6500 cal BC) and Late (6500–6300 cal BC) period of occupation. Our results reveal a rich microbotanical assemblage that testifies the use of a wide range of geophytes and wild seasonal resources previously unknown at the site. Moreover, by comparing results from the microbotanical proxies and microscopic wear patterns on artefacts, we are also able to discern various plant processing practices the analysed artefacts were employed for. In sum, this work further expands our understanding of plants and crop processing activities performed by the inhabitants of Neolithic Çatalhöyük. 1.0 Introduction Archaeobotanical remains are the best proxies for studying the emergence of prehistoric agricultural practices. The informative potential of such remains, coupled with ethnographic and ecological models, allowed researchers to identify diverse plant processing strategies of past societies [1–5]. Within these strategies, how plants are transformed into food and crafts have always been central themes. Traditionally these issues have been approached by recovering carbonized macrobotanical remains such as seeds and other inflorescence anatomical parts (chaff, spikelets, forks, etc.) [6, 7]. However, it is only by connecting artefactual assemblages and plant remains that we can gain a broader and more complete picture of plant-processing activities [8, 9]. Grinding implements are among the oldest and most numerous artefacts PLOS ONE | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0252312 June 10, 2021 1 / 43 PLOS ONE Funding: This work was funded by the following: The Çatalhöyük Research Project (http://www. catalhoyuk.com/); CaSEs – Quality Research Group of the Catalonian Government SGR-212 (https:// www.upf.edu/web/cases); Raindrops ERC starting grant (Grant agreement ID: 759800) CL, MM; Ph. D. Scholarship (PIPF-UPF-PhD), Department of Humanities Universitat Pompeu Fabra (https:// www.upf.edu/web/humanitats/) CG.S-M; CRAFTS Marie-Curie Intra-European Research Fellowship (Grant agreement no. PIEF-GA-2012-328862) CT. Competing interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist. Plant processing activities and foodways at Neolithic Çatalhöyük found in archaeological sites that can be directly associated with plant processing and food production activities [10–13]. Indeed, it has been suggested that an increase in grinding tools and the establishment of cereal-based economies in Southwest Asia are directly correlated [11, 14–16]. Except for some exceptional finds (e.g., [12, 17]), it is generally difficult to make a direct link between macrobotanical remains and grinding implements. Where possible, such a link relies mainly on contextual associations of macrobotanical remains and archaeological finds and on an understanding of taphonomic conditions of depositional practices (primary vs. secondary deposition, but also intentional staged depositions, see [18]) to interpret plant processing areas and related practices within settlements [16, 19–21]. However, the often mobile nature of many grinding tools and the wide spectrum of activities they may have been used for in the past that included processing cereals, underground storage organs (USOs), leaves and shoots, and non-food related products such as pigments and hides, further complicates such contextual associations [22–25]. In addition, vegetal remains such as USOs, leaves and shoots are often absent in the macrobotanical record due to poor preservation via carbonization or because they could have been eaten or processed raw and as such are less prone to accidental charring [13, 16, 24, 26–30]. Significant advances in the functional analysis of grinding tools during the last two decades have revealed a wealth of information about the function of tools and subsistence practices more broadly [22, 25, 31–35]. Moreover, grinding tools from key archaeological sites dated to the Paleolithic and Neolithic period have been sampled for microbotanical remains and more recently there has been an attempt to integrate the results of microwear studies with the study of inorganic and organic micro-residues such as phytoliths and starch (i.e. [24, 36–46]). Phytoliths originate from the deposition of opal silica in plant cells and cell walls creating casts of the cells or entire tissues. Grasses are the most prolific producers but phytoliths are found in many other plant groups with species of economic interest [47]. Since phytoliths are inorganic, th (...truncated)