Not The Heat Treatment! Our Ancestors Were Raw Foodists

Video: Not The Heat Treatment! Our Ancestors Were Raw Foodists

Video: Not The Heat Treatment! Our Ancestors Were Raw Foodists
Video: The Ancestral Human Diet | Peter Ungar | TEDxDicksonStreet 2024, December
Not The Heat Treatment! Our Ancestors Were Raw Foodists
Not The Heat Treatment! Our Ancestors Were Raw Foodists
Anonim

Our ancestors were raw foodists. 1.2 million years ago, no one even thought about heat treatment of food.

The ancients did not use fire to cook. They consumed the meat directly - raw and unprocessed. Archaeologists from York University have reached this indisputable conclusion. Scientists have studied tartar extracted from fossils by a member of one of the species of hominids (humans) during the Pleistocene.

Fossils from the heir of Homo erectus - Homo antecessor, were discovered in 2007 in the Sima del Elefante cave in the Atapuerca region in northern Spain. The unique find includes a lower jaw and several teeth. The humanoid remains were then found in close proximity to the remains of small rodents and ferrets.

Not the heat treatment! Our ancestors were raw foodists
Not the heat treatment! Our ancestors were raw foodists

The analysis of the tartar showed the presence of animal tissues, granules of starch, pine pollen and parts of insects on it. No matter how hard they tried, the scientists found no evidence of meat processing. There are no signs of a fire or any cooking-like activity.

The scientists conclude that after leaving Africa and moving to Europe, the ancients were not yet dedicated to the use of fire. Although the technology of heat treatment of food appeared less than 1.2 years ago, the first real evidence of its mass use dates back 800,000 years - stones and tools, found in the Spanish cave Kova Negra, inhabited by Neanderthals. There, scientists found more traces of heat and burnt bones.

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