Oriental: Discovery of the world's oldest medicinal use of plants in Taforalt

An international team has discovered archaeological evidence of the oldest medicinal use of plants in the Grotte des Pigeons at Taforalt, in the Oriental region, announced the National Institute of Archaeological Sciences and Heritage (INSAP). This discovery was made in archaeological layers dated to 15,000 years ago, the INSAP, which operates under the Ministry of Youth, Culture and Communication, specified in a statement, adding that the related study was published by the prestigious journal Nature. "The plants discovered correspond to the 'Ephedra' species, whose fruits were unearthed in an area of the cave reserved for burials according to precise rites, which were very widespread among human groups of the Stone Age, especially those between 22,000 and 7,000 years ago," the Institute highlights.

"This plant has several virtues, but it was probably used to stop hemorrhages and perhaps to alleviate pain," the statement notes, adding that previous research in the Grotte des Pigeons at Taforalt unearthed a human skull showing traces of a surgical operation, called trepanation, dated to 15,000 years ago and considered the oldest in the world.

"Studies have shown that the hole caused by the trepanation healed, which means that the 'operated' person survived and was able to overcome the effects of the operation thanks to the use of this type of plant," it is explained. "It is also known that these groups from this period of the Stone Age practiced dental avulsion, which consists of extracting the incisors of boys and girls, which would be a rite of passage from puberty to adulthood. Such an operation would also be very painful and plants would have been used," the same source adds. According to the INSAP, the oldest presence of this plant in an archaeological context was identified in the burial of a Neanderthal and dated to approximately 40,000 years ago. However, this presence corresponds to pollen that would have been deposited by the wind, unlike the discovery made in the Grotte des Pigeons at Taforalt where "calcined fruits of this plant were found, and this would therefore be the oldest medicinal use of these plants," the statement specifies.

"This does not rule out the possibility of their use in rites related to burials, but this discovery confirms that the human groups in the Grotte des Pigeons at Taforalt had precise knowledge of the different uses of plants 15,000 years ago, i.e., about 8,000 years before the Neolithic period," it is noted. This discovery was made by several researchers including Abdeljalil Bouzouggar, director of the INSAP and head of archaeological excavations in the Grotte des Pigeons at Taforalt, Ismail Ziani, an INSAP graduate and doctoral student at the University of Las Palmas in Spain, Louise Humphrey, a researcher at the Natural History Museum in London, Nicholas Barton, a professor at the University of Oxford, Jacob Morales, a professor at the University of Las Palmas, and Hassan Talbi, a professor at the Mohammed I University in Oujda.

Research conducted in the Grotte des Pigeons at Taforalt is carried out as part of a cooperation program between the INSAP (Morocco), Mohammed I University (Morocco), the University of Oxford (United Kingdom), and the Natural History Museum (United Kingdom), and also includes among its members doctoral students and researchers from the INSAP, the Max Planck Institute (Department of Archaeogenetics) in Germany, and the Monrepos Archaeological Research Centre in Germany.