Stone Age Seafood-Based Diet Was Full Of Toxic Metals

Forbes ^ | Leap Day, February 29, 2020 | David Bressan

[SunkenCiv]

In 2015, researchers reported that cod caught off the North American coast around 6,500 years ago by Stone Age hunter-gatherers contained more than 20 times the levels of mercury recommended for humans today... They analyzed the chemical composition of bones of animals, like Atlantic cod and harp seals, disposed of in ancient garbage pits, and so preserved to this day. Both species were among the main ingredients in the diet of the local people, even if the early hunter-gatherers, based on cut marks found on the bones, also successfully hunted for haddock, whale, dolphin, reindeer and beaver.

The analyzed bones of the cod at these sites contained more than 20 times the maximum level of cadmium and up to four times the highest level of lead that today food safety authorities consider safe. Cadmium can cause kidney, liver, and lung diseases, while lead attacks the nervous system. The studied seal bones contained up to 15 times the recommended levels of cadmium, up to four times the recommended levels of lead, and high levels of mercury. Mercury can cause kidney problems and also damages the nervous system...

During the Last Glacial Maximum, about 20,000 years ago, sea levels were more than 900 feet (300 meters) lower, exposing large parts of the shelf areas of the continents Weathering and erosion caused rocks to break down, releasing heavy metals into the soil. At the end of the last ice-age, between about 14,000 and 6,000 years ago, the sea levels rebounded. The previously exposed areas were inundated and the metals became dissolved in the seawater. Over time the heavy metals will accumulate in the marine food chain, with humans acting as apex predator and getting the highest potentially toxic levels.

[SunkenCiv]

• Recently at Discovery News I told you about Neanderthal-made shell jewelry that suggests these hominids were as smart and creative as modern humans were at the time the jewelry was made, 50,000 years ago. University of Bristol archaeologist Joao Zilhao, who led the project, told me about some other interesting discoveries he and his team made about Neanderthals. One concerns how they harvested shellfish for consumption... Note that the Neanderthals didn't wear their dinner discards, just as we don't today. (Or usually don't. Maybe someone out there has made a necklace out of last night's oyster or lobster remains.) The Neanderthals instead chose different shells based on beauty for use as jewelry/body ornamentation. These species included Pecten (pilgrim shell), Glycymeris (dog cockle) and Acanthocardia (Moroccan cockle). The shells accumulate on sea bottoms "where wave action throws them onto the beaches where Neanderthals could harvest them, must as you or I would when holidaying in the summer," Zilhao said. Getting back to the shellfish as food and not art, for consumers even today, shellfish pose challenges. As Zilhao and his team point out, "They rot very rapidly and must be eaten or cooked extremely fresh." By packaging the harvested shellfish in water-soaked algae, the Neanderthals helped to preserve the shellfish from the point of collection to the place where they ate them, such as Aviones Cave in Spain. This cave is right near the entrance of Cartagena harbor, so it provided "rooms" with a view as well as water resources. Algae remains were found among the shells within the cave. We always hear about the big game hunting talents of Neanderthals, but this new research suggests that at least some groups enjoyed surf and turf meals. Or surf one night and maybe turf the next.

  Because they were worth it? Research finds Neanderthals enjoyed makeup

• Neanderthal make-up containers discovered
• 2010 preview: Arise, Neanderthal brother

[SunkenCiv]

---

The Cycle of Cosmic Catastrophes: Flood, Fire, and Famine in the History of Civilization by Richard Firestone, Allen West, and Simon Warwick-Smith

---

[SunkenCiv]

join or quit view topics view or post blog bookmark post new topic subscribe

[SunkenCiv]

[SunkenCiv]

• Didn't catch that cold going around? You just may be part Neanderthal, study suggests. | Dan McLerran | Thursday, August 25, 2011

[Paine in the Neck]

Huh. I was told that mercury in fish was because of runoff from evil human industry...

[oldasrocks]

I don’t eat fish. They marinate in the putrid waters. Especially like the fish imported from china. I know what my beef and chickens eat.

[teeman8r]

cadmium? you mean the easter egg candies? yum

[Carpe Cerevisi]

[Truthoverpower]

Most of the mercury in the environment right now comes from those stupid “fluorescent” lights which are actually mercury vapor lights

These stupid curly cue pieces of crap which are all made in China , and have 40 to 300 mg of mercury vapor or gas inside those vacuum tubes, everybody just throwthem in the trash and all that mercury gets into the environment

And you thought I was gonna blame the big bad coal industry didn’t you?

Oh and by the way the vaccine industry is pure evil

Talk about injecting people with mercury!

[Wuli]

I am wondering if the same process - breakdown of the metals in rocks through long erosion of the rocks via water - is true for deep groundwater that supplies wells used for human water supplies.

It at least makes me wonder how well and how often residential well water is tested, in general, on average.

[BenLurkin]

Interesting.

[aynrandfreak]

Like they had the luxury of thinking, “how many times have I had tuna this week?”

[Mr Ramsbotham]

They were as smart as we are; maybe smarter. They just didn’t know as much.

[Candor7]

During the Last Glacial Maximum, about 20,000 years ago, sea levels were more than 900 feet (300 meters) lower, exposing large parts of the shelf areas of the continents Weathering and erosion caused rocks to break down, releasing heavy metals into the soil. At the end of the last ice-age, between about 14,000 and 6,000 years ago, the sea levels rebounded. The previously exposed areas were inundated and the metals became dissolved in the seawater. Over time the heavy metals will accumulate in the marine food chain, with humans acting as apex predator and getting the highest potentially toxic levels.>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

This is a bit of a reach. This level of toxicity had to come from huge amounts of toxins being leached into the earths water, but more likely would have to come from precipitants out of the atmosphere. This could only come from explosions or large scale scouring of the earth by plasma gouging of the earth’s surface as described by Electric Universe theory:

https://www.everythingselectric.com/product/michael-steinbacher/

[GreyFriar]

From this article I’ve drawn this conclusion: The higher the sea level, the lower levels of natural contaminants in sea food. Thus we have a benefit from the rising of the oceans.

[RubinBoomer]

Huh. I was told that mercury in fish was because of runoff from evil human industry.

Yes, so they need to make this fit, without any proof. May I suggest that stone age man unknowingly used mercury to treat furs and syphilis, building a vast, now lost, industrial complex that imploded into itself due to global climate change caused by burning wood.

I don't have a degree in anthropology, but I can BS better than most of them.

[Balding_Eagle]

Neanderthals were MUCH healthier than we are today, they just didn’t live as long.

[fso301]

I doubt they lived long enough for it to have mattered.

[GOP Poet]

Bookmark