On the subject of ancient people we have a new study that challenges long held view about the Palaeolithic diet. The cave man diet as some might say. I thought the old idea that they primarily were meat eaters had long been doubted bnut perhaps it lingers on in the minds of some. See https://phys.org/news/2025-12-archaeological-paleo-diet-revealing-humans.html … However, this one has a new dimension. It wasn’t just that our ancient ancestors ate a lot of roots, tubers, seeds and plant leaves, but that they actually processed that kind of food. In what one may describe as a modern like manner. Our dallying with playing around with ingredients in order to make our food more appealing is nothing new.
The research is published in the Journal of Archaeological Science – often a source of excellent articles. The full article can be accessed at https://doi.org/10.1007/s10814-025-09214-z … and comes courtesy of Australian and Canadian scientists. Rather than relying on a heavily meat oriented diet our ancient ancestors were also eating a good proportion of plant material. Grinding wild seeds for example, pounding and cooking starchy tubers, and detoxifying bitter nuts. And so on. It wasn’t just pigs that ate acorns, for example, and no doubt they made use of natural sweeteners. The ability to process plant food unlocked key calories and nutrients.
At https://phys.org/news/2025-12-archaic-humans-strategic-picky-hunters.html … and this one was published in Scientific Reports. Neanderthals and Homo erectus did not engage in mass hunting adventures we are told. At least, not in the Levant around 120,000 years ago. In other words, focussing on one community. We are told that at this key site in what is now modern Israel these ancient people preferred selective and repeated hunting of wild cattle. They even appear to have been protecting the ability of the herd to continue yielding the meat they preferred by selecting aged and wounded animals over the big macho bulls that were the apex animals of the herd. It makes sense to us but would it have made sense to Homo erectus? Apparently, the paper authors think so. Aurochs, the wild ancestor of domesticated cattle, were prominent in their diet. Seems like our taste for beef has remained in vogue. Aurochs were a major part of what looks very much like a butchery site.The hunters seem to have picked out aged female animals, for example, preferentially. We might not go much on a tough old cow nowadays but people back then