We almost always associate the ancient human diet with one of excessive meat, with a few berries mixed in here and there. It’s mostly true that early humans ate a diet of what they could safely get their hands on, while avoiding crossing paths with a saber-toothed cat and also making sure that they didn’t starve to death.
But it’s also true that they ate a balanced diet when they could, which included any number of vegetables. A new study published last month in the journal Science points to new clues in 300,000-year-old wooden tools found in Southwest China that appear to have been used for processing vegetables.
Read More: Early Humans Didn't Follow A Diet, They Ate For Survival
How Do We Know What Ancient Humans Ate?
Of course, it’s difficult to know for sure, but clues in the shape of the tools uncovered show us that they were more likely used for digging up tubers underground rather than spearing a mastodon, says study author Xing Gao, a professor at the Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology at the Chinese Academy of Sciences in Beijing, China.
“They contrast sharply with the long, slender wooden spears from Schöningen, Germany, designed for thrusting or throwing at horses, and are ill-suited to hunting,” says Gao.
Additionally, residue found on the tools indicates that they were used for digging up underground tubers. “[S]tarch grains extracted from this matrix confirm that the implements were used to dig up underground plant[s],” he adds.
The fact that 300,000-year-old wooden tools were preserved so well is somewhat miraculous in itself, and this is due in large part to the environmental factors at the Early Paleolithic site in Gantangqing, China, where they were found.
The area where archaeologists found the tools, on the shore of Fuxian Lake, is repeatedly sealed and resealed with thick, water-saturated sandy clays. The setting was “oxygen-poor, constantly wet, geologically stable matrix that protected large quantities of organic material,” says Gao. Making it ideal for these tiny wooden tools to last hundreds of thousands of years.
What Vegetables Did Ancient Humans Eat?
Early humans would have inevitably paid a price within the group when a member ate something poisonous and didn’t survive. However, that knowledge would have been slowly acquired and passed down through generations. Over time, they began to know the environment that they were living in and the foods that were safe to eat.
For ancient humans, there were the added concerns of finding food, hunting or processing that food, and then, in many cases, making sure that the food wasn’t poisonous. They also ate what was close at hand.
“Analysis of charred seeds and pollen shows that the surrounding landscape yielded edible pine and hazel nuts, kiwifruit, raspberries and other Rubus berries, grapes, Toddalia fruit, as well as stems and leaves of herbaceous plants and ferns,” Gao says.
Additionally, underground storage shows that early humans ate grasses as well as corms and rhizomes, which are nutrient-rich tubers often found underground.
“Yunnan’s modern inhabitants still dig and eat wild tubers such as kudzu; [so] it is reasonable to assume that Palaeolithic foragers behaved likewise,” he adds.
This finding not only shows that ancient humans exploited plant resources, but it also shows that they already had an understanding of the seasonality of certain foods in the landscape. Before this, researchers have often been focused on how humans used weapons and spears to hunt and what they hunted, and now we’re beginning to have a wider understanding of their whole diet and survival.
It shows us that our ancestors did not survive on meat alone and that it was a combination of hunting, gathering, and foraging. Plants, however, usually decay, so it’s often difficult for paleontologists to have a window into this aspect of their world.
“Gantangqing’s exceptional organic preservation illuminates this blind spot,” says Gao.
Read More: Our Ancient Ancestors Loved Eating Grasses, and It Eventually Transformed Their Teeth
Article Sources
Our writers at Discovermagazine.com use peer-reviewed studies and high-quality sources for our articles, and our editors review for scientific accuracy and editorial standards. Review the sources used below for this article:
- Science. 300,000-year-old wooden tools from Gantangqing, southwest China
- Penn State Extension. Bulbs, Corms, Rhizomes and Tubers
