ABSTRACT
Ohalo II on the southwestern shore of Lake Kinneret (Sea of Galilee), 9km south of Tiberias, Israel, consists of a surface scattered with artifacts, as well as several shallow depressions 3-5m wide, in which in situ Levantine early Epipalaeolithic remains were found. The site was excavated between 1989 and 2001 by D. Nadel, then of the Israel Antiquities Authority. Among the human artifacts and faunal assemblages, a rich assemblage of plant remains was also recovered. Preliminary studies of the vegetal macrofossils have already been published, with charred wood samples and Hordeum L. (barley) grains radiocarbon dated to 19,430 ± 770 bp (Nadel 1990; Kislev et al. 1992; Nadel et al. 1995). Further investigations of this plant material now make possible a description of the palaeoecology of the surroundings of prehistoric Ohalo II.
