Food plants in pollen records from ancient Southern Arabia: The evidences from Sumhuram (Southern Oman)

Archaeological excavations of the ancient city of Sumhuram (2nd century BC- 5th century AD), a port along the frankincense trade route in Dhofar, Southern Oman, offered the chance to gain new insights into the diet of the inhabitants. In spite of the mainly sandy nature of the sediments in the site, which does not favour good preservation of plant materials, pollen analyses and sporadic findings of starch grains, seeds and fruits allowed evidence of food plants to be gathered. Pollen and starch grains of cereals at Sumhuram attested to the consumption of major crops, like wheat and barley, as well as minor crops, such as the millets. Cereal pollen from a pit in the city helped strengthen the archaeological interpretation of this structure as foodstuff storage. Both date palm pollen and stones recovered in two rooms testified to the use of this plant, largely diffused in Arabia. Even though the provenance of these foodstuffs remains dubious - they could have been locally cultivated/gathered or imported from other territories - the outcome of our Modern Analogues study in wadi estuaries enabled us to attribute varying origins to pollen sources in the past record.