Early humans recipe for processing plants foods at Blombos Cave, South Africa (85-82 ka)

Abstract

We present the results of archaeobotanical research conducted into the plant diet of early modern humans who intermittently occupied Blombos Cave on the southern Cape coast of South Africa during the Middle Stone Age (MSA). Botanical samples were taken from two combustion events in the MSA sequence dated to 85 and 82 kya (kya = thousands of years ago). Analysis of these samples shows charred starchy plants had undergone processing sequences prior to cooking. The plant cells show evidence of having been pounded whilst still fresh and some of these fragments indicate pounded starchy plant food was mixed with pounded seeds prior to cooking. We infer that these samples represent the earliest known example of food processing and mixing in a ‘recipe’ as part of early human foodways. We consider these findings and their role in human evolution in the context of human behavioural modernity.