The earliest direct evidence of humans cooking plants for food has surfaced. The proof was excavated by a group of international scientists led by researchers from the University of Bristol.
The collaborative study initiated by the Organic Geochemistry Unit at the University of Bristol's School of Chemistry was joined by researchers from Sapienza University in Rome and the Universities of Modena and Milan.
The unglazed cooking pots the researchers analyzed were more than 10,000 years old and was obtained from two sites in the Libyan Sahara. The vessels gave vital clues to the use of pottery in cooking as the activity was a critical step in human progress.
The study was published in the journal Nature Plants on Dec. 19.
Information on processing plants for food has been nonexistent, until now. Through a technique called organic residue analysis, the researchers discovered that the pots' molecular and isotope compositions showed that many plants were processed in the prehistoric cooking vessels. These included grains, leafy parts of land-based plants, and many aquatic plants.
Cooking Starts Before Farming
The findings are an assertion that humans resorted to the use of ceramic pots to cook wild plants more than 10,000 years ago - long before agriculture started.
The key to the conclusions was the presence of pottery, first invented in East Asia, 16,000 years ago and followed by North Africa, 4,000 years later. Lead author Julie Dunne of the University of Bristol said that their findings present the first direct evidence of cooking plants for food, which is presumed to have occurred at the same time humans invented pottery in North Africa.
The study also highlights the role that plants played in the diet of ancient hunter-gatherers.
"Until now, the importance of plants in prehistoric diets has been under-recognized but this work clearly demonstrates the importance of plants as a reliable dietary resource," Dunne said.
Pottery Analysis
The researchers analyzed nearly 110 fragments of unglazed pots extracted from two sites, Takarkori and Uan Afuda, in the Libyan Sahara. The Takarkori rock shelter is one of the few hot spots of evidence relating to the hunter-gatherers dating back to 8200 BC to 6400 BC. It is assumed that the areas might have been lush at the time the pots were used.
The cookware bore traces of wild grasses such as cattail and leaves of fig trees in addition to cinnamon, star anise, and nutmeg. It also confirmed the consumption of aquatic plants.
According to experts, cooking is a milestone in human evolution that broadened diet and opened up new sources of energy. One reason for cooking could be that raw plants might be poisonous or indigestible.
The paper's coauthor, Richard Evershed from Bristol's School of Chemistry, said the plant wax and oil residues obtained from the pottery render a different picture of early pottery use in the Sahara region, compared to other areas in the ancient world.
The new evidence is in sync with the theories that different plant and animal domestication patterns existed in Europe/Eurasia and Africa, he added.
