Found: The oldest evidence of cooking and starch consumption in humans

Starches have been staple foods for even more than it seemed possible. For the first time, archaeological evidence confirms that humans have been roasting and eating plant starches for 120,000 years, more than 100,000 years more than we could have grown.

An international team of archaeologists has identified traces of prehistoric starch consumption in the Klasies River cave, in present-day South Africa. Analyzing small, undisturbed foci inside the cave, the researchers found "fragments of charred starchy plant tissue" dating back about 120,000 to 65,000 years, making They are the oldest known examples of starches cooked and eaten by humans. The team recently published its findings in the Journal of Human Evolution.

The discoveries are not a total surprise, but rather a welcome affirmation of older theories lacking the corresponding archaeological evidence. In a press release, principal author, Cynthia Larbey of the University of Cambridge, stated that there had previously been only genetic and biological evidence suggesting that humans were eating at home. Starch for so long. This new evidence, however, takes us directly to the dinner table and thus supports the hypothesis that starch digestion genes have evolved as a "specific adaptive response to a starch-enriched diet." ".

The co-author, Sarah Wurz, an archaeologist at the University of the Witwatersrand in South Africa, said the starch remains show that these humans are "ecological geniuses" capable of intelligently exploiting their environment for proper nutrition and nutrition. maybe even for drugs. while we all aspire to rhizomes and tubers – we think of starches like ginger and potatoes – that these cave communities were grilling on their homes, they knew enough to balance their diet as best as possible, with proteins and fats from local fish and other animals.

This research is part of an ongoing investigation into how the middle stone age communities interacted with plants and used fire and used them. The survey dates back to the 1990s, when archaeologist Hilary Deacon suggested for the first time that these foci contained charred plants. (At the time, the proper methods for examining the residue were not yet available.) We now know not only that Deacon was right, but also that human beings have always been unwavering in search of their desires. "The starch-based diet is not something that happens when we started to grow," said Larbey. It's "as old as humans themselves."

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