Stone Age Humans Ate Meat And . . . . . Bread!

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Mention stone age and the image of a grizzly human, wearing an animal skin and chomping down on a raw hunk of meat, immediately comes to mind. However, paleontologists have recently discovered that while the first two may be accurate, the cavemen's diet may have been more balanced - one that included even bread.

The notion that humans who lived 30,000 years ago survived only on meat, was an assumption made because grains are hard to grind and cook and also require tools - skills that scientists did not believe the early human possessed.

In fact, scientists considered the invention of bread and other grain-based products, as a sign of human evolution - the earliest of which was spotted, on 20,000 year-old grinding stones found in Israel.

Now, thanks to powerful telescopes, signs of grains have been discovered under the grinding stones found in Italy, Russia and the Czech Republic that belonged to humans who lived at least 30,000 years ago - forcing scientists to re-evaluate their original thesis.

Scientists think that the stone-age humans, peeled carbohydrate-rich roots like cattail and fern, ground and mixed them with water and then cooked the resulting paste over a hot stone. The end-result resembled a crunchy pita or flatbread that was probably not very tasty, but then the cavemen's taste buds were probably not as sophisticated or fussy as those of modern humans.

This is not the first time these pre-historic humans have surprised us. In 2007, paleontologists discovered that these enterprising men and women used fire to make tools - 50,000 years earlier, than we had originally thought. They were obviously much smarter and more sophisticated than we give them credit for!

Sources: dailymail.co.uk, news.yahoo.com

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236 Comments
  • nerdabout 10 years
    cool article
    • alison riveraabout 10 years
      asome
      • Hackerabout 10 years
        The picture of the chicken is fake and the caveman was drawn out too
        • Jacob Parraabout 10 years
          vere=y interesting
          • Random nameabout 10 years
            It's realy not cool what are u ppl nerds
            • osm kidalmost 11 years
              its cool....
              • No Namealmost 11 years
                I had no idea that Paleolithic (Old Stone Age) hominids (early humans) ate bread! You would think our ancestors would start eating bread after inventing agriculture. Interesting………...
                • Jamesalmost 11 years
                  that is so cool this is so important to see how the paleolithic people lived!
                  • Mikealmost 11 years
                    cool
                    • coolalmost 11 years
                      cool