ABSTRACT
The potential role of plant foods in the diet of European hunter-gatherers has been much debated, but until recently there have been surprisingly few systematic investigations of archaeobotanical evidence for subsistence from European Palaeolithic and Mesolithic sites (Mason et al. 1994; Zvelebil 1994). Although this is a situation which is rapidly changing (see, e.g., analyses by Holden et al. 1995; Regnell et al. 1995; Kubiak-Martens 1996, 1999; Mason et al. 1996a; Perry 1999; also Perry, Robinson, Zapata et al. this volume), a view of hunter-gatherer subsistence in Europe as largely meat-based has tended to persist; while even those who acknowledge a possible role for plants have tended to the view that archaeobotanical evidence of food-plant use is unlikely to be obtainable (see Nason et al. 1995, in press). This chapter summarizes some of the findings of a research project (undertaken between 1994 and 1999) which was set up to examine archaeobotanical evidence from a range of sites of different dates and from different ecological zones across Europe, to determine whether any alternative view could be supported by primary evidence.
