Cro-Magnon & Neanderthal made bread and vegetable soup

[Maciamo]

Cavemen Ground Flour, Prepped Veggies

* People started grinding flour at least 30,000 years ago, new evidence suggests.
* Prehistoric humans, and possibly Neanderthals, likely made bread and soup out of cattail flour.
* The findings suggest that starches and vegetables played an important role in Paleolithic diets.

There are still (lay) people out there who think that cavemen were idiotic brutes who spoke in grunts and only survived through hunting. This should be enough evidence to demonstrate that people 30,000 years ago had similar capabilities to modern humans.

The way I see it is that Homo Sapiens first came across Neanderthals when they entered the Middle East some 50,000 years ago. A low degree of admixture might already have taken place there, although it would have been minimal (1-2%). The slightly hybridised Homo Sapiens then penetrated Europe and Central Asia 40,000 years ago, where they further interbred with Neanderthals. The new hybrids had inherited perhaps up to 10% of Neanderthalian DNA (later diluted by Near Eastern farmers), and became a new human race known as Cro-Magnons.

Neanderthals had a more developed visual cortex than Homo Sapiens, but Homo Sapiens had a bigger frontal cortex. Hybrids who inherited from both (dolichocephalic with high foreheads) would be uniquely gifted. It is around this time that the world's greatest cave paintings appear, in places like Lascaux. The world's oldest musical instruments as well as the world's oldest pottery, were found in central Europe and date back from 25,000 to 35,000 years ago.

Now, it appears that Cro-Magnons could already make flour from wild cereals and make bread 30,000 years ago. They were not merely meat-eaters, but cooked vegetables and ate bread. In other words, they already had a quasi-modern diet by European standards, except for dairy products that would be introduced by the pastoral Indo-Europeans some 6,000 years ago.

[Yorkie]

Cavemen Ground Flour, Prepped Veggies



There are still (lay) people out there who think that cavemen were idiotic brutes who spoke in grunts and only survived through hunting. This should be enough evidence to demonstrate that people 30,000 years ago had similar capabilities to modern humans.

The way I see it is that Homo Sapiens first came across Neanderthals when they entered the Middle East some 50,000 years ago. A low degree of admixture might already have taken place there, although it would have been minimal (1-2%). The slightly hybridised Homo Sapiens then penetrated Europe and Central Asia 40,000 years ago, where they further interbred with Neanderthals. The new hybrids had inherited perhaps up to 10% of Neanderthalian DNA (later diluted by Near Eastern farmers), and became a new human race known as Cro-Magnons.

Neanderthals had a more developed visual cortex than Homo Sapiens, but Homo Sapiens had a bigger frontal cortex. Hybrids who inherited from both (dolichocephalic with high foreheads) would be uniquely gifted. It is around this time that the world's greatest cave paintings appear, in places like Lascaux. The world's oldest musical instruments as well as the world's oldest pottery, were found in central Europe and date back from 25,000 to 35,000 years ago.

Now, it appears that Cro-Magnons could already make flour from wild cereals and make bread 30,000 years ago. They were not merely meat-eaters, but cooked vegetables and ate bread. In other words, they already had a quasi-modern diet by European standards, except for dairy products that would be introduced by the pastoral Indo-Europeans some 6,000 years ago.

They may indeed have had 'similar capabilities to modern humans' , and on reflection, perhaps the Neanderthals were seen as a distinct threat in terms of access to resources- maybe 'too similar' in fact. Our species was undoubtedly lighter on its feet, as Robin McKie has suggested. However, some such as Oxford's Paul Pettit [archaeologist] suggest a darker scenario. For Pettit, where modern humans and Neanderthals could not co-exist, the disappearance of the latter may have been the result of the human species' first and most successful, deliberate campaign of genocide. We tend to be rather good at that sort of thing.

[Maciamo]

They may indeed have had 'similar capabilities to modern humans' , and on reflection, perhaps the Neanderthals were seen as a distinct threat in terms of access to resources- maybe 'too similar' in fact. Our species was undoubtedly lighter on its feet, as Robin McKie has suggested. However, some such as Oxford's Paul Pettit [archaeologist] suggest a darker scenario. For Pettit, where modern humans and Neanderthals could not co-exist, the disappearance of the latter may have been the result of the human species' first and most successful, deliberate campaign of genocide. We tend to be rather good at that sort of thing.

Nevertheless, the completion of the Neanderthal genome this year has brought undeniable proof that modern Europeans carry up to 5% of Neanderthal genes in them. Cro-Magnons would certainly have had more, because modern Europeans received genes from Near Eastern immigrants from the Neolithic onwards, that surely lowered the percentage of Neanderthal DNA.

[Aristander]

Very interesting article, I was getting ready to post another link to the same finding that I found on Wired.com. The Discovery link is much more informative and goes into more detail, but just for completeness here is the Wired link.
Ancient Grains Show Paleolithic Diet Was More Than Meat
The thing that I very interesting in the Discovery link was the details on the effort that it took to process what we consider unconventional foods into an edible state.

[Yorkie]

Nevertheless, the completion of the Neanderthal genome this year has brought undeniable proof that modern Europeans carry up to 5% of Neanderthal genes in them. Cro-Magnons would certainly have had more, because modern Europeans received genes from Near Eastern immigrants from the Neolithic onwards, that surely lowered the percentage of Neanderthal DNA.

I wonder if there is an intra-continental breakdown on that 5% available? I have long suspected that the people of Mansfield in Nottinghamshire, England have a sizeable dash of Neanderthal dna. The womenfolk appear to have Steatopygia too.

[LeBrok]

Interesting news and in line with my understanding.
I'm just wondering how they made the soup or boiled veggies if they didn't have metal kettle or pottery. Maybe they just roasted veggies on the rock.

[Don Wiss]

Cavemen Ground Flour, Prepped Veggies

Now, it appears that Cro-Magnons could already make flour from wild cereals and make bread 30,000 years ago.

Nope. The article did not state that at all. No cereals. The abstract refers to small particles of starch rather than cereal grains. Of the nine plants mentioned one is a seed in the sedge family, the rest roots and bulbs.

There is a blog post that has a chart from the study listing just what plant matter they found evidence of. It is not my blog. But I'm not allowed to post its URL. You can find it at the huntgatherlove dot com blog.

[Aristander]

Interesting news and in line with my understanding.
I'm just wondering how they made the soup or boiled veggies if they didn't have metal kettle or pottery. Maybe they just roasted veggies on the rock.

They probably used the same method that Native Americans did before they had pottery or metal pots. They would take a piece of animal hide and make a sack out of it, fill it with whatever they were stewing or cooking and water, then heat stones in the fire and drop then into the liquid.
Many years ago we tried this in an Anthropology lab I took when I was in University. It worked amazingly well it did not take too long to get the water up to boiling.

[Maciamo]

Nope. The article did not state that at all. No cereals. The abstract refers to small particles of starch rather than cereal grains. Of the nine plants mentioned one is a seed in the sedge family, the rest roots and bulbs.

There is a blog post that has a chart from the study listing just what plant matter they found evidence of. It is not my blog. But I'm not allowed to post its URL. You can find it at the huntgatherlove dot com blog.

Ok, my mistake. Thanks for the precision.