How the Neanderthals cooked – Knowledge

A kind of flatbread, lentils, peas, pistachios and mustard: The cuisine of the Neanderthals and that of modern humans as early as the Palaeolithic Age was apparently more sophisticated than previously thought. This is shown by finds of plant food remains in Iraq and Greece that are between 75,000 and around 12,000 years old. They are the oldest evidence of their kind for the preparation of food in Southwest Asia and in Europe, writes a research team led by archaeologist Ceren Kabukcu from the University of Liverpool in the journal antique.

“Our finds are the first real evidence of complex cooking – and thus food culture – in Neanderthals and also in early modern humans, long before agriculture and restaurants,” said co-author Chris Hunt of Liverpool John Moores University. For cooking, the researchers counted the preparation of plant seeds, such as soaking, pounding, seasoning, and heating. Using various microscopy techniques, the team analyzed charred remains of the hunter-gatherers’ plant food, which also provided clues to the respective preparation methods.

Findings from the Franchthi Cave in Greece, which are around 12,000 years old, allow conclusions to be drawn about the culinary art of Palaeolithic Homo sapiens. Researchers discovered various charred seeds and even the remains of food resembling flat bread. The seed shells found are characteristic of lentils, vetches and other legumes. They were even able to pinpoint one species: the lentil vetch (Vicia ervilia). It contains bitter substances and must be processed before eating.

From the smooth edges of some seed fragments, the researchers conclude that they were pounded or coarsely ground. Other structures suggest soaking whole dry seeds or using fresh seeds with high moisture content. The researchers emphasize that the Franchthi finds are the oldest such plant remains in Europe.

In the Shanidar Cave, located in the autonomous region of Kurdistan in northern Iraq, Homo sapiens prepared food as early as 35,000 to 42,000 years ago. From that time, the researchers found, among other things, crushed and fused remains of vetchling and peas. Wild mustard and pistachios were probably also included, they write.

Neanderthals had previously lived in the cave and prepared legumes and grasses as early as 70,000 to 75,000 years ago, as charred and crushed plant remains show. Previous studies of the tartar of Neanderthals from Shanidar Cave had already shown that their diet was varied and they heated wild grains. So far, however, there has been no clear idea of ​​what their food looked like.

Prehistoric people apparently intentionally left bitter substances in their food

The soaking of wild legumes followed by pounding or coarse grinding, as suggested by the Franchthi and Shanidar finds, reduced bitter-tasting compounds in the seed coats, the researchers write. As a result, the food became tastier and contained fewer harmful substances. However, the seed coats were not completely removed. Using fragments of seed coats, the researchers conclude that low levels of plant chemicals such as tannins and alkaloids may have been intentionally retained in food preparation. This points to the development of culinary cultures in which flavors were important from a very early date, Kabukcu said.

The researchers can only speculate about the exact way the food was heated. According to Kabukcu, the samples showed that the seeds had a high moisture content when they were exposed to heat, so that was during or after soaking. “We saw small hearths in the archaeological deposits in Shanidar Cave and think it’s possible they cooked some items on hot stones,” the archaeologist said. “Since Neanderthals didn’t have pots, we assume they soaked their seeds in a suitably folded animal skin,” Hunt told dem Guardians.

The results show that food choices and cooking methods predate the earliest evidence of plant cultivation by tens of thousands of years. Agriculture only became possible later due to a better climate.