Grinding of wild cereals (grinding stone)
Molienda de granos silvestres (piedra de moler)
- Date
- c. 23 ka · confidence high
- Place
- Ohalo II, Sea of Galilee, Israel
- Credited to
- Homo sapiens (Kebaran)
- Field
- Life & health
⚠️ Disputed: the sources disagree.
What it is
A basalt slab bearing starch residues of wild barley and wheat, alongside more than 90,000 gathered seeds. Grinding turns grain into digestible flour.
Bilancino (Italy) and Kostenki (Russia) show grinding of rhizomes and oats around 30 ka; the Ohalo II evidence is the most unambiguous for cereals.
What it led to
- Cereals become a staple food: a precondition for agriculture
- Repetitive grinding work: new domestic routines and skeletal pathologies
- Porridge and flatbreads: infant feeding and earlier weaning
Built on
Made possible
- Flint sicklec. 23 ka
- Carbohydrate-rich diet and tooth decay at Taforaltc. 15-13 ka
- Flatbread from wild cerealsc. 14.4 ka
- Cereal fermentation (beer)c. 13 ka
- Flint sickle
- Flatbread from wild cereals
- Cereal fermentation (beer)