Interior of Grotta Paglicci, Italy, with wall paintings. Image courtesy of Stefano Ricci.
Posted on 09/09/2015 1:29:43 AM PDT by SunkenCiv
Researchers report early evidence of flour production by ancient humans. Recent interest in ancient diets has led to the collection of extensive data about the variety of plants eaten by early humans and ancient food processing capabilities. Marta Mariotti Lippi of the University of Florence and colleagues analyzed the residues from an ancient grinding tool to gain further insight into food processing practices of the Early Gravettian culture of ancient Europe. The tool was found in Grotta Paglicci in Southern Italy in 1989 and dates to more than 32,000 years ago. Residue samples from the tool contained a variety of starch grains, and the distribution of the starch grains on the tool surface supported the use of the tool for grinding grain into flour. The presence of swollen, gelatinized starch grains in the residues suggests that the plants were thermally treated before grinding. Such a treatment might have been necessary to accelerate plant drying during the Middle-Upper Paleolithic, when the climate was colder than at present. The most common starch grains in the residues appeared to come from oats, representing the oldest evidence to date of the processing of oats for human consumption. The findings suggest that the inhabitants of Grotta Paglicci may have been the earliest people to use a multi-step process in preparing plants for consumption.
(Excerpt) Read more at popular-archaeology.com ...
Interior of Grotta Paglicci, Italy, with wall paintings. Image courtesy of Stefano Ricci.
But the glutens!...What about the glutens? tsk, tsk, tsk.
Oats doesn’t have gluten.
Oh okay, I didn’t realize it was oats-only subject matter.
Wait until they dig a little deeper and find the prehistoric dirty bowls with the remains of the oat-based cold cereal which was eaten with *milk*.
That is really interesting-I guess people 32,000 years ago liked to experiment to have a more varied diet, just like we do-maybe they were making bannocks and cooking them on a hearthstone. I wonder if a prehistoric muffin pan will be found?
Protopasta
They were the masta of pasta.
They could have dropped balls of dough in soup or stew for dumplings. Jane Auel in her Clan of the Cave Bear series of books describes making soup/stew by lining a hole in the ground with skins and dropping in heated stones. Easy enough to drop in balls of dough too. After the period of relatively high development in Europe, there were a series of severe drops in temperature, 3 at least from 28000 to 22000 BC. I believe the one at 22,000 was caused by the giant eruption of sakara-jima in Japan that left a caldera that is now 15 miles in diameter.
The nearby cave art features a prehistoric version of Mister Ed.
Elephantiasis? ;’)
Neandertals invented soup?
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/1607603/posts?page=17#17
N eating habits:
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/1966704/posts
I know! I know!
I had to do a double-take too. I believe those are croissants. Pablo was known for his sense of humor.
one can now buy gluten free dog food
What if I’m suspected of feeding my dog non-gluten-free dog food? Will my neighbors call the hotline and have me investigated? Would authorities place my dog in a foster home until further notice?
For a while I promoted a Thanksgiving dinner tradition with my 2 sons and husband. During the meal I would read the description of a primitive feast I found in one of the Clan of the Cave Bear books. Then I would read a communal pot feast scene from Lawrence’s book “The Seven Pillars of Wisdom.” These stories were great for conversation and comparing old and new customs.
You know, does eat oats...
Crouissantiasis
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