How ancient people fell in love with bread, beer and other carbs

[DGUtley]

How ancient people fell in love with bread, beer and other carbs

Well before people domesticated crops, they were grinding grains for hearty stews and other starchy dishes.

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On a clear day, the view from the ruins of Göbekli Tepe stretches across southern Turkey all the way to the Syrian border some 50 kilometres away. At 11,600 years old, this mountaintop archaeological site has been described as the world’s oldest temple — so ancient, in fact, that its T-shaped pillars and circular enclosures pre-date pottery in the Middle East.
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The people who built these monumental structures were living just before a major transition in human history: the Neolithic revolution, when humans began farming and domesticating crops and animals. But there are no signs of domesticated grain at Göbekli Tepe, suggesting that its residents hadn’t yet made the leap to farming. The ample animal bones found in the ruins prove that the people living there were accomplished hunters, and there are signs of massive feasts. Archaeologists have suggested that mobile bands of hunter-gatherers from all across the region came together at times for huge barbecues, and that these meaty feasts led them to build the impressive stone structures.

Now that view is changing, thanks to researchers such as Laura Dietrich at the German Archaeological Institute in Berlin. Over the past four years, Dietrich has discovered that the people who built these ancient structures were fuelled by vat-fulls of porridge and stew, made from grain that the ancient residents had ground and processed on an almost industrial scale¹. The clues from Göbekli Tepe reveal that ancient humans relied on grains much earlier than was previously thought — even before there is evidence that these plants were domesticated. And Dietrich’s work is part of a growing movement to take a closer look at the role that grains and other starches had in the diet of people in the past.

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https://www.nature.com/articles/d415...=pocket-newtab

[CCitizen]

One reason is simple -- as large game ran out, they had to settle for lower value foods.

Most of my 160 kg are of avian origin. In the summer, I mostly settle for pastry and fish.

[carolina73]

I still would like to know who had time to figure all this out and how to domesticate/alter the crops.

[CCitizen]

I still would like to know who had time to figure all this out and how to domesticate/alter the crops.

Necessity and scarcity forced people into drudgery of agriculture instead of hunting!

[CCitizen]

All of us, Humans, share common guilt. We have hunted many large game animals to extinction.
Here.

Cuvieronius was a giant elephant.

Macrauchenia had a somewhat camel-like body, with sturdy legs, a long neck and a relatively small head. It could have worked for us had it not been exterminated in pre-History.

Scelidotherium was an 850 kg sloth. It was eaten before it could be domesticated.

The Mexican horse; American camel. Now all horses and camels in America are of Eurasian descent.

The Moa bird should have been cultivated. It would still have been eaten today. Most of my 160 kg are of avian origin, and the latest three chickens would be ready in about two hours.