Starch-rich plant foods 780,000 y ago: Evidence from Acheulian percussive stone tools

[Primum Sapienti]

https://www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/pnas.2418661121

Significance
Despite their potential implications for
hominin diet, cognition, and behavior,
only rarely have plants been considered
as drivers of human evolution, in part
because they are less archaeologically
visible. We report the discovery of
diverse taxa of starch grains, extracted
from basalt percussive tools found at the
early Middle Pleistocene site of Gesher
Benot Ya’aqov. These include acorns,
grass grains, water chestnuts, yellow
water lily rhizomes, and legume seeds. The
diverse plant foods vary in ecological
niches, seasonality, and gathering and
processing modes. Our results further
confirm the importance of plant foods in
our evolutionary history and highlight the
development of complex food-related
behaviors.

Abstract
In contrast to animal foods, wild plants
often require long, multistep processing
techniques that involve significant
cognitive skills and advanced toolkits to
perform. These costs are thought to have
hindered how hominins used these foods
and delayed their adoption into our diets.
Through the analysis of starch grains
preserved on basalt anvils and percussors,
we demonstrate that a wide variety of
plants were processed by Middle Pleistocene
hominins at the site of Gesher Benot
Ya’aqov in Israel, at least 780,000 y ago.
These results further indicate the advanced
cognitive abilities of our early ancestors,
including their ability to collect plants
from varying distances and from a wide range
of habitats and to mechanically process them
using percussive tools.

[JTEM]

Post by Primum Sapienti
Abstract
In contrast to animal foods, wild plants
often require long, multistep processing
techniques that involve significant
cognitive skills and advanced toolkits to
perform. These costs are thought to have
hindered how hominins used these foods
and delayed their adoption into our diets.
Through the analysis of starch grains
preserved on basalt anvils and percussors,
we demonstrate that a wide variety of
plants were processed by Middle Pleistocene
hominins at the site of Gesher Benot
Ya’aqov in Israel, at least 780,000 y ago.
These results further indicate the advanced
cognitive abilities of our early ancestors,
including their ability to collect plants
from varying distances and from a wide range
of habitats and to mechanically process them
using percussive tools.

They also found tobacco & cocaine in ancient
Egyptian mummies:

https://www.researchgate.net/publication/226721575_Presence_of_drugs_in_different_tissues_of_an_egyptian_mummy

My point is that the "Findings" aren't as important
as the underlying science. In the case of the
Egyptian mummies, for example, it's ludicrous to
assume that the findings are correct. The tests
results are solid, they simply do not mean what
people insisted they meant.

Something that /May/ be true on a two month old
sample, or is /Likely/ to be true, isn't necessary
true on a 2,000 year old sample... forget about a
780,000 year old sample.

More importantly: WHY are they doing this? This
isn't science, it's WokeTardia. We know they were
meat eaters. It looks more like politics than
science...

[Mario Petrinovic]

Post by Primum Sapienti
https://www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/pnas.2418661121
Significance
Despite their potential implications for
hominin diet, cognition, and behavior,
only rarely have plants been considered
as drivers of human evolution, in part
because they are less archaeologically
visible. We report the discovery of
diverse taxa of starch grains, extracted
from basalt percussive tools found at the
early Middle Pleistocene site of Gesher
Benot Ya’aqov. These include acorns,
grass grains, water chestnuts, yellow
water lily rhizomes, and legume seeds. The
diverse plant foods vary in ecological
niches, seasonality, and gathering and
processing modes. Our results further
confirm the importance of plant foods in
our evolutionary history and highlight the
development of complex food-related
behaviors.
Abstract
In contrast to animal foods, wild plants
often require long, multistep processing
techniques that involve significant
cognitive skills and advanced toolkits to
perform. These costs are thought to have
hindered how hominins used these foods
and delayed their adoption into our diets.
Through the analysis of starch grains
preserved on basalt anvils and percussors,
we demonstrate that a wide variety of
plants were processed by Middle Pleistocene
hominins at the site of Gesher Benot
Ya’aqov in Israel, at least 780,000 y ago.
These results further indicate the advanced
cognitive abilities of our early ancestors,
including their ability to collect plants
from varying distances and from a wide range
of habitats and to mechanically process them
using percussive tools.

So, agriculture is only 10,000 years old? Bloody idiots.
Yes, 2 million years ago humans were just as smart as today's humans.
What made today's civilization is predominantly ground stone technology,
which allowed for hotter fire (because with stone axes you could cut
tree trunks. No, it wasn't the "divine spark", or any similar idea that
comes out of Vatican.

[Primum Sapienti]

Post by Primum Sapienti
https://www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/pnas.2418661121
Significance
Despite their potential implications for
hominin diet, cognition, and behavior,
only rarely have plants been considered
as drivers of human evolution, in part
because they are less archaeologically
visible. We report the discovery of
diverse taxa of starch grains, extracted
from basalt percussive tools found at the
early Middle Pleistocene site of Gesher
Benot Ya’aqov. These include acorns,
grass grains, water chestnuts, yellow
water lily rhizomes, and legume seeds. The
diverse plant foods vary in ecological
niches, seasonality, and gathering and
processing modes. Our results further
confirm the importance of plant foods in
our evolutionary history and highlight the
development of complex food-related
behaviors.
Abstract
In contrast to animal foods, wild plants
often require long, multistep processing
techniques that involve significant
cognitive skills and advanced toolkits to
perform. These costs are thought to have
hindered how hominins used these foods
and delayed their adoption into our diets.
Through the analysis of starch grains
preserved on basalt anvils and percussors,
we demonstrate that a wide variety of
plants were processed by Middle Pleistocene
hominins at the site of Gesher Benot
Ya’aqov in Israel, at least 780,000 y ago.
These results further indicate the advanced
cognitive abilities of our early ancestors,
including their ability to collect plants
from varying distances and from a wide range
of habitats and to mechanically process them
using percussive tools.

        So, agriculture is only 10,000 years old? Bloody idiots.
        Yes, 2 million years ago humans were just as smart as today's
humans. What made today's civilization is predominantly ground stone
technology, which allowed for hotter fire (because with stone axes you
could cut tree trunks. No, it wasn't the "divine spark", or any similar
idea that comes out of Vatican.

This is not agriculture nor even a precursor to
it. It's still about gathering.


"We suggest that the characteristics of the
starches and their association with the
percussive tools provide direct evidence for
plant food processing. The variety of targeted
plants shed light on other issues related to
hominin evolution and behavior, including
seasonal round, diet, and the development of
technologies related to the gathering and
processing of plant foods."

If hominids at 2mya were just as smart as humans
today then they would have had cities and such

[Mario Petrinovic]

Post by Primum Sapienti

Post by Primum Sapienti
https://www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/pnas.2418661121
Significance
Despite their potential implications for
hominin diet, cognition, and behavior,
only rarely have plants been considered
as drivers of human evolution, in part
because they are less archaeologically
visible. We report the discovery of
diverse taxa of starch grains, extracted
from basalt percussive tools found at the
early Middle Pleistocene site of Gesher
Benot Ya’aqov. These include acorns,
grass grains, water chestnuts, yellow
water lily rhizomes, and legume seeds. The
diverse plant foods vary in ecological
niches, seasonality, and gathering and
processing modes. Our results further
confirm the importance of plant foods in
our evolutionary history and highlight the
development of complex food-related
behaviors.
Abstract
In contrast to animal foods, wild plants
often require long, multistep processing
techniques that involve significant
cognitive skills and advanced toolkits to
perform. These costs are thought to have
hindered how hominins used these foods
and delayed their adoption into our diets.
Through the analysis of starch grains
preserved on basalt anvils and percussors,
we demonstrate that a wide variety of
plants were processed by Middle Pleistocene
hominins at the site of Gesher Benot
Ya’aqov in Israel, at least 780,000 y ago.
These results further indicate the advanced
cognitive abilities of our early ancestors,
including their ability to collect plants
from varying distances and from a wide range
of habitats and to mechanically process them
using percussive tools.

         So, agriculture is only 10,000 years old? Bloody idiots.
         Yes, 2 million years ago humans were just as smart as today's
humans. What made today's civilization is predominantly ground stone
technology, which allowed for hotter fire (because with stone axes you
could cut tree trunks. No, it wasn't the "divine spark", or any
similar idea that comes out of Vatican.

This is not agriculture nor even a precursor to
it. It's still about gathering.
"We suggest that the characteristics of the
starches and their association with the
percussive tools provide direct evidence for
plant food processing. The variety of targeted
plants shed light on other issues related to
hominin evolution and behavior, including
seasonal round, diet, and the development of
technologies related to the gathering and
processing of plant foods."
If hominids at 2mya were just as smart as humans
today then they would have had cities and such

Not 2 million years ago, but 500 kya for sure. I mean, you will not
say that people in Africa are less smart than normal people, and they
still don't have cities, they live in tribes, with villages. Aborigines
in Australia also. See what happened in Tasmania.
When you gather food, you don't process it, you eat it immediately.
You think that they would gather apples, and not eat them? Why would
they do that? If they are hungry, they would go and eat the apples, and
leave the rest of it on trees. If you pick up apples and you don't eat
them, they will rotten. If you collect food, you have to have means to
store it. Woven plant basket would do, but you cannot transport this,
you have to have sedentary lifestyle for that. If you have sedentary
lifestyle, you have villages. Cities are different beasts, they are for
trade. We, definitely, traded for salt, that's true, whether this needs
cities, I am not sure? But, by 300 kya we definitely had very developed
societies, with abundant hematite going around. For this you need to
have mines. You don't open a mine if you already don't have rich market
for hematite. And all this was in place by 300 kya, which made Homo
sapiens. And sickles appear 500 kya, so this is a logical gradual
progression, developed seed agriculture by 500 kya, hematite (hence,
metal) market by 300 kya.
And not only that, but we had people living in the north (Europe) 800
kya. What are people doing there? Well, take a look at recent past, we
had people strolling over Canada, north of the USA. For what? For fur
trade, for god's sake. For fur trade you also need to have developed
market, and you need to have trading posts.
How you are imagining people lived 2 mya, going on around like flies
without a head, completely stupid and unaware of anything? This is
completely unrealistic view. Yes, they had brains, you now. And the fact
that those brains were small doesn't prove that they were stupid, you
should learn that by now (H.naledi, H.floresiensis).

[Mario Petrinovic]

Post by Primum Sapienti

Post by Primum Sapienti
https://www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/pnas.2418661121
Significance
Despite their potential implications for
hominin diet, cognition, and behavior,
only rarely have plants been considered
as drivers of human evolution, in part
because they are less archaeologically
visible. We report the discovery of
diverse taxa of starch grains, extracted
from basalt percussive tools found at the
early Middle Pleistocene site of Gesher
Benot Ya’aqov. These include acorns,
grass grains, water chestnuts, yellow
water lily rhizomes, and legume seeds. The
diverse plant foods vary in ecological
niches, seasonality, and gathering and
processing modes. Our results further
confirm the importance of plant foods in
our evolutionary history and highlight the
development of complex food-related
behaviors.
Abstract
In contrast to animal foods, wild plants
often require long, multistep processing
techniques that involve significant
cognitive skills and advanced toolkits to
perform. These costs are thought to have
hindered how hominins used these foods
and delayed their adoption into our diets.
Through the analysis of starch grains
preserved on basalt anvils and percussors,
we demonstrate that a wide variety of
plants were processed by Middle Pleistocene
hominins at the site of Gesher Benot
Ya’aqov in Israel, at least 780,000 y ago.
These results further indicate the advanced
cognitive abilities of our early ancestors,
including their ability to collect plants
from varying distances and from a wide range
of habitats and to mechanically process them
using percussive tools.

         So, agriculture is only 10,000 years old? Bloody idiots.
         Yes, 2 million years ago humans were just as smart as
today's humans. What made today's civilization is predominantly
ground stone technology, which allowed for hotter fire (because with
stone axes you could cut tree trunks. No, it wasn't the "divine
spark", or any similar idea that comes out of Vatican.

This is not agriculture nor even a precursor to
it. It's still about gathering.
"We suggest that the characteristics of the
starches and their association with the
percussive tools provide direct evidence for
plant food processing. The variety of targeted
plants shed light on other issues related to
hominin evolution and behavior, including
seasonal round, diet, and the development of
technologies related to the gathering and
processing of plant foods."
If hominids at 2mya were just as smart as humans
today then they would have had cities and such

        Not 2 million years ago, but 500 kya for sure. I mean, you will
not say that people in Africa are less smart than normal people, and
they still don't have cities, they live in tribes, with villages.
Aborigines in Australia also. See what happened in Tasmania.
        When you gather food, you don't process it, you eat it
immediately. You think that they would gather apples, and not eat them?
Why would they do that? If they are hungry, they would go and eat the
apples, and leave the rest of it on trees. If you pick up apples and you
don't eat them, they will rotten. If you collect food, you have to have
means to store it. Woven plant basket would do, but you cannot transport
this, you have to have sedentary lifestyle for that. If you have
sedentary lifestyle, you have villages. Cities are different beasts,
they are for trade. We, definitely, traded for salt, that's true,
whether this needs cities, I am not sure? But, by 300 kya we definitely
had very developed societies, with abundant hematite going around. For
this you need to have mines. You don't open a mine if you already don't
have rich market for hematite. And all this was in place by 300 kya,
which made Homo sapiens. And sickles appear 500 kya, so this is a
logical gradual progression, developed seed agriculture by 500 kya,
hematite (hence, metal) market by 300 kya.
        And not only that, but we had people living in the north
(Europe) 800 kya. What are people doing there? Well, take a look at
recent past, we had people strolling over Canada, north of the USA. For
what? For fur trade, for god's sake. For fur trade you also need to have
developed market, and you need to have trading posts.
        How you are imagining people lived 2 mya, going on around like
flies without a head, completely stupid and unaware of anything? This is
completely unrealistic view. Yes, they had brains, you now. And the fact
that those brains were small doesn't prove that they were stupid, you
should learn that by now (H.naledi, H.floresiensis).

BTW, if you think that people today live some very sophisticated
lifestyle, I assure you, not they don't (at least, I don't, :) ):