[Science] Ancient humans planned ahead and stored bones to eat the marrow later – AI

By Layal Liverpool Qesem cave in Israel contains the remains of animal bones that ancient humans saved for their marrowJACK GUEZ/AFP/Getty Images Ancient humans had the foresight to store bones from animals so they could eat the fatty marrow later. This is the first evidence that these populations delayed eating food and indicates they could plan ahead. “This is a game changer for our modern conceptions about our ancestors because it is believed that early hominids were not capable of or not accustomed to delayed consumption,” says Ran Barkai at Tel Aviv University in Israel. Barkai and his colleagues analysed over 80,000 animal bone specimens from Qesem cave in Israel to determine precisely how ancient humans accessed the bone marrow. Humans lived in this area during the Middle Pleistocene, around 200,000 to 400,000 years ago. Advertisement The team identified characteristic cut marks on 78 per cent of the bone surfaces, consistent with bone preservation and delayed consumption. These marks result from the increased effort required to remove dried skin from bones that had been preserved. Read more: Our ancestors mated with the mystery ‘Denisovan’ people – twice The researchers also tested how bone marrow degrades over time to determine whether it would have remained nutritionally beneficial to eat. They exposed 79 bones from the limbs of red deer to natural outdoor conditions, as well as a simulated indoor environment meant to reproduce conditions in the area they were found. Then they experimented with removing the skin and flesh from these bones at various times during nine weeks of storage. The number of short incisions and marks left behind increased when this removal was done after four or more weeks, leaving a similar pattern to those seen on the bones from the cave. The team found that the skin-covered bones could withstand nine weeks of exposure during autumn without losing a significant amount of nutritional value, but the fat within them degraded after the third week in spring and indoor conditions. This is the first archaeological and experimental evidence of food preservation and delayed consumption in Middle Pleistocene times. It shows that ancient humans had the cognitive capacity to forecast and plan. “This gives us a view of them as very similar to us and not as some primitive human creatures,” says Barkai. Bone marrow is rich in fat and was an important food source for human communities with limited access to carbohydrates, whose diet depended largely on animal products. The collection and storage of animal bones for delayed consumption of marrow has also been observed among modern Nunamiut communities in Alaska, where bones are stored during winter. Barkai says his team’s next goal is to investigate whether early hominids also preserved food for longer time periods. Journal reference: Science Advances, DOI: 10.1126/sciadv.aav9822 More on these topics: archaeology humans