Ancient Foodie Finds

As often occurs, the Timucuan people who lived on the east coast of Florida long before the Seminoles, left their trash behind for archaeologists to sift through. A recent find was made by people clearing a vacant lot in St Augustine for development.  Uncovered were cooking vessels and trash pits from 1100-1300 AD containing the bones of raccoon, rabbit, deer and fish, as well as oyster and clam shells.

This Florida rubbish is virtually modern, relative to what US and Israeli scientists uncovered in a neolithic house in the Jordan Valley. Carbonized figs dated to between 11,200 and 11,400 years old of a variety that can grow only with human involvement seem to indicate exceedingly early cultivation, older than that of wheat, for example. On the other hand, carbonized domesticated rice kernels dating back 15,000 years have been found in Korea, according to the BBC News account.  The date palm, too, has always been considered one of the earliest domesticated plants.

Resarchers wrote up their figgy account in the journal, Science.

"This sort of find helps us to learn about human behaviour at the beginning of the Neolithic revolution," said ( Harvard) Professor( Ofer) Bar-Yosef.

"Before this, you had about 2.5 million years of hunters and gathers in various locations around the world.

"But the Neolithic revolution was all about changing the relationship between humans and nature. Instead of just being consumers of whatever was growing in the wild, we started to plant and cultivate and corral animals, and so on."

And eat raccoon, apparently, down the road and across the water. ( The raccoon is a native  of the Americas but has been introduced into Asia and Europe.) Once we learned that raccoon tastes like lamb, Foodie found this recipe for Roast Raccoon and Yams at Backwoodsbound.com  for all you omnivores and devourers of adorably-visaged critters. The raccoon's name is derived from a Virginia Algonquin word, aroughcoune, meaning "he/she who scratches with his/her hands." Which could apply to many of us. In Kiowa the raccoon is seip-kuat, " pulls out crayfish with hands."  ( More raccoon nomenclature here.)

(Raccoon pic--how could you eat this!?-- from gotpetsonline.com. Figs by Jonathan Reif, BBC News.)

Comments

[Foodie]

We are a remarkable species, indeed.

[KathyF]

From cultivated figs to olestra in less than 12,000 years! Aren't humans amazing?