The discoveries represent the oldest evidence for flour preparation and plant food processing. Since the techniques were already well established during the Mid-Upper Paleolithic Period, it's likely that modern humans, and possibly even Neanderthals, incorporated far more plant products into their diets than presently believed.
Cavemen were apparently expert cooks too, so enjoyment of tasty prepared food is not unique to modern times. It also boosted the diners' health.
"Cooking enhances digestibility and also the taste of starch is improved by cooking," lead author Anna Revedin explained to Discovery News, adding that it also helped to fuel the active lifestyle of hunter-gatherers.
"We are quite convinced that flour enhanced their mobility capacity, since it ensured a good source of energetic food during their travels," explained Revedin, a researcher in the Italian Institute of Prehistory and Protohistory.
She and her colleagues analyzed mortar and pestle-type stones that were found at three sites: Bilancino II in the Megello Valley of Italy, Kostenki 16 at Pokrovsky Valley, Russia; and Pavlov VI in southern Moravia, Czech Republic. Since modern humans as well as Neanderthals inhabited these regions, the researchers think it's possible that either or both groups had cooking know-how.
The food preparation tools were found to contain the remains of starch grains from various wild plants, including cattail rhizomes, cattail leaves, moonworts, the ternate grapefern, lady's mantle, burdock, lettuce roots, rye, burr chervil root, parts of edible grasses, edible seeds and more.
Flour made from cattails -- which tastes a bit like the plant's distant cousin, corn -- seems to have been particularly popular.
"Our experiments suggest that it is possible to mix this flour with water to obtain a sort of flat bread cooked on hot stones," Revedin said. "It is also possible that the flour was used in a mixed soup."
Read more at Discovery News
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