We know a little more about what they were eating and how they were preparing it from phytolith analysis. Phytoliths are microscopic pieces of silica found within plants that generally preserve much better than the plants themselves. Because phytoliths take their shapes within the plant's cells, cell walls, and intercellular spaces, the original plant can often be identified from the shape of the phytoliths. Phytoliths are collected within soil samples. To find out what plants were being ground with particular grinding tools, the dirt immediately next to the grinding surface was collected and analyzed for phytoliths.
Modern people grind seeds from cultivated grasses such as wheat and barley for food.
There were also several slabs of quartzite or sandstone upon which they ground different materials. While people in many parts of the world made, and still make, elaborately shaped and decorated grinding tools, the people at DB often simply used what was available naturally. They may also have been cooking meat or plant products in these vessels. One important material is chert for stone tools. American archaeologists and geologists consider materials such as flint and jasper to be types of chert.