The oldest cooked meal ever discovered: A recipe of biscuits created by Neanderthals and Homo sapiens around 70,000 years ago

A week ago I told you about the oldest cooked meal ever found, a very good looking flatbread that is thought to have been created by Neanderthals around 70,000 years ago. Chris Hunt did not let us down after we were told that we had to see that recipe. Here are theedited details, which I am sharing on the understanding that you will send me your photos and reviews of your own efforts. Hunt says that the lentils and grass seeds from the recipe are quite nutty and toasty.

Peas, vetch, nuts and seeds were often combined with beans, lentils, or wild mustard. To make the plants more palatable, the plants were soaked, crumbled or stoned to remove their husk.

While the space was home to Neanderthals, and to early modern humans, the researchers studied the plant remains from 70,000 years ago.

Despite the distance in time and space, similar plants and cooking techniques were identified at both sites — possibly suggesting a shared culinary tradition, said the study’s lead author Dr. Ceren Kabukcu, an archaeobotanical scientist at the University of Liverpool in the United Kingdom.

Based on the food remains researchers analyzed, Neanderthals, the heavy-browed hominins who disappeared about 40,000 years ago, and Homo sapiens appeared to use similar ingredients and techniques, she added, although wild mustard was only found at Shanidar Cave dating back to when it was occupied by Homo sapiens.

A breadlike substance was found at the Greek cave, although it wasn’t clear what it was made from. The evidence that ancient humans pounded and soaked pulses at Shanidar Cave 70,000 years ago is the earliest direct evidence outside Africa of the processing of plants for food, according to Kabukcu.

Kabukcu said she was surprised to find that prehistoric people were combining plant ingredients in this way, an indication that flavor was clearly important. She had expected to find only starchy plants like roots and tubers, which on face value appear to be more nutritious and are easier to prepare.

She said that research suggested prehistoric humans foraged a variety of different plants and tried to understand their different flavor profiles, showing that living in the Stone Age was not just a brutal fight to survive.

The Neanderthal diet of hunting a lot of game meat has changed greatly as we move away from the idea, according to John’s Centre for the Archaeology of Human Origins.

“Even more intriguing is the possibility that they did not deliberately extract all the unpalatable toxins. Some were left in the food, as the presence of seed coatings suggests — that part of the seed where the bitterness is especially located. A Neanderthal flavor of choice.”

A separate study into prehistoric diets that also published Tuesday analyzed ancient humans’ oral microbiome — fungi, bacteria and viruses that reside in the mouth — by using ancient DNA from dental plaque.

Quagliariello and his team were able to identify trends in diet and cooking techniques, such as the introduction of fermentation and milk, and a shift to a greater reliance on carbohydrates associated with an agriculture-based diet.

“What the study also does is support the growing idea that the Neolithic was not the sudden arrival of new subsistence practices and new cultures as it was once thought to be. It appears to be a slower transition,” McNabb, who wasn’t involved in the study, said via email.

The Neanderthals Cooked in a Sweaty World: Influence on Children and Young Peoples Hospitalizations for Seasonal Influenza

The food cooked by the Neanderthals was similar to this recipe. Flu causes a huge jump in child hospitalizations in Canada and ankylosaurs might have been able to woo their mates with their enormous tail clubs.

Clinicians and parents in Canada are watching with concern as paediatric hospitalizations for seasonal influenza have reached more than ten times the normal rate for this time of year. The vast majority of flu samples gathered have been A(H3N2) — a subtype that is more severe than other common strains and is less susceptible to vaccines. The good news is that the deaths in children from flu are very low. And Australia’s 2022 winter flu season — which provides an early sense of how the Northern Hemisphere’s season might play out — suggests that an early surge can peter out after a vaccination push.

The United States is still the most popular destination for international students. Foreign graduate students were responsible for most of the rebound. Concerns about the United States that could influence future trends include the high cost of living, abortion bans, racism and the possible impact that the 2024 US election might have on immigration policy. Political tensions between the United States and China contributed to an ongoing decline in the number of students choosing to study in the United States.

Source: https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-022-04459-w

The Legacy of Ankylosaurs: The Artemis I mission to the Moon rekindled as a challenge for black mothers in the United States

Ankylosaurs might have used their enormous tail clubs to bash each other in battle over potential mates, rather than to ward off predators such as Tyrannosaurus rex. Researchers who analysed several Zuul crurivastator fossils (translation: ‘Zuul the shin-destroyer’) discovered that the spikes covering the animals’ bodies were often broken and half-healed around the hips. The tail clubs may have been used for combat, like how deer use their legs, since these scars were found only where another club could have reached.

Throughout her whole career, obstetrician Kecia Gaither had seen what systemic racism looks like for Black mothers in the United States: they receive lower-quality health care and are more at risk of complications and death during and after pregnancy. She points to cardiovascular screening programmes, longer-term postpartum care and enhanced anti-bias training as ways to reduce maternal death rates. The need is for more physicians and researchers that look like us. “Data show that Black patients fare better when they have Black doctors taking care of them.”

The three-person crew of Apollo 17 made the last visit to the Moon fifty years ago. NASA’s Artemis I mission — which successfully returned to Earth on Sunday — aimed to rekindle the space-race spirit of lunar exploration. But as was the case during the cold war, US geopolitical prestige, rather than science, is the driving force, argues Alexandra Witze, Nature’s Earth and planetary sciences correspondent.

Source: https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-022-04459-w

Exploring threatened cliff-dwelling plants with botany-bots: The flavor of terebinths and pistachios

Intrepid scientists are using drones to survey threatened cliff-dwelling plants in Hawaii. The technology can spare researchers from dangerous rappelling excursions and find samples that are unreachable, even to scientists on the end of a climbing rope. Admire some of the delightful discoveries made by high-flying botany-bots in this richly illustrated feature.

Cook with care, as the sides brown on their own. “Better for 15–20 minutes on a low heat rather than getting things really smoking!” advises Hunt, who sounds like he speaks from experience here.

Fast-forward 30,000 years and there is evidence from Shanidar that food was more diverse, including fruit from the terebinth (related to the pistachio), a wild precursor of the fava bean and mustard seeds, as well as wild grasses and wild lentils. There is some evidence that Neanderthals ate almonds. Chris says that you will discover the taste significantly more interesting with modern versions of these. It is also legitimate to combine it with grilled goat or fish. Sorry but there’s no salt.