Named unusual dishes prepared by Neanderthals

Stone Age cooks were surprisingly sophisticated, combining many ingredients and using a variety of methods to cook and flavor their dishes, as analysis of some of the earliest charred food remains has shown.

Plant material found in Shanidar Cave in northern Iraq, famous for its burial of a Neanderthal man surrounded by flowers, and Franhti Cave in Greece, showed that the prehistoric cooking of Neanderthals and early modern people was complex, consisting of several stages, and that the products that they used were varied, according to a new study published in the journal Antiquity.

Wild nuts and herbs were often paired with legumes such as beans or lentils, and sometimes with wild mustard. To make the plants more palatable, legumes, which have a naturally bitter taste, were soaked, crushed, or ground with rocks to remove the husks.

At Shanidar Cave, researchers studied plant remains from 70,000 years ago, when the space was inhabited by Neanderthals, an extinct human species, and 40,000 years ago, when it was home to early modern humans (Homo sapiens).

The charred food remains from Frankti Cave date back to 12,000 years ago, when it was also inhabited by hunter-gatherers Homo sapiens.

Despite the distance in time and space, similar plants and cooking methods were found at both locations, possibly indicating a shared culinary tradition, said study lead author Dr Seren Kabukku, an archaeobotanical scientist at the University of Liverpool in the United Kingdom.

Based on the food remains analyzed by the researchers, Neanderthals, bushy-browed hominins that disappeared about 40,000 years ago, and Homo sapiens appear to have used similar ingredients and methods, she added, although wild mustard was only found in Shanidar Cave when she was occupied by Homo sapiens.