Prehistoric pots tells how humanity change through vegetables

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Sedentary lifestyle of humans today came from a simple way of living in caves thousands of years ago when humans eat more vegetables and grains than meat.

According to the article of The Saylor Foundation about the Origin of Human Civilization, at the end of the last ice age, the human population numbered only a few millions. The climate slowly changed from cold and dry to warm and wet. So, the Middle East became lush and timing with biodiversity due to a high humidity. Populations living need not to move around as much to survive.

However, by 9,000 years ago the climate may have begun to change again. People begun to plant seeds and harvesting the resulting plants. And over the years of less successful hunts, farming started to become common. These means people from these time eat more vegetables and grains.

Per ArsTechnica, researchers discovered 110 pottery fragments in Libyan Sahara. An extensive chemical analysis shows that humans living 10,000 years before today were eating more vegetables and grains than meat. The region where the pots found was once a humid savannah full of lakes, herd of animals and lush plant life.

Uan Afuda cave and the Takarkori rock shelter are the two archeological sites were the potteries are discovered.

A paper for Natural Plants written by the researchers states that there were 54% of the total residues recovered in the pots are predominantly plant source with the remainder comprising animal fats or mixtures of plant and animal products. Remains of leaves and stems are seen in some pots and grains and fruits in others.

The researchers also stated that the find is a high frequency of plant product processing unique among prehistoric pottery finds. Most of the plants seemed to be aquatic, gathered from lake and river edges, along with some grasses in dry lands.

Prehistoric cooks from Uan Afuda cave and Takarkori rock shelter may also make breads or grain mashes as well as stews and syrups. These makes the researchers concluded that the pots have been used not only for cooking but rather for storage and grain processing purposes.

Moreover, Koҫ University Archeologist Rana Ӧzbal also explains that Neolithic cooks dropped heated stones into pots to warm up their foods. The use of heat-resistant pottery also broadened the range of food sources including plants that are impossible to eat raw.