Forget ‘hunter-gatherers’: Early humans should be known as ‘gatherer-hunters’ because they were mainly VEGETARIAN, study claims
- Archaeologists have long believed that early humans’ diets were meat-based
- But new analysis suggests meat made up just a fifth of their food intake
Talking about early humans conjures up images of cavemen sitting around a fire and chewing meat off the bone.
But the commonly used description of ‘hunter-gatherers’ should be changed to ‘gatherer-hunters’, experts argue.
That’s because early humans’ diets actually consisted of 80 percent vegetables.
Archaeologists have long thought that early humans’ diets were meat-based – with Stone Age populations hunting deer, wild boar and even mammoths.
But analysis of the remains of 24 individuals from cemeteries in Peru suggests that meat made up only a fifth of their food intake.
Talking about early humans conjures up images of cavemen sitting around a fire and chewing meat off the bone. But the commonly used description of ‘hunter-gatherers’ should be changed to ‘gatherer-hunters’, experts say (stock image)
The team looked closely at the composition of human bones from 9,000 to 6,500 years ago.
They revealed that plant-based foods made up the majority of individual diets, with meat playing a minor role.
Burned plant remains have also been found at the sites, and clear tooth wear patterns on the individuals’ upper teeth suggest that tubers – or plants that grow underground, such as potatoes – were likely the most prominent food source.
Author Randy Haas, from the University of Wyoming, said: ‘Conventional wisdom holds that early human economies focused on hunting – an idea that has led to a number of high-protein diet fads such as the Paleodiet.
‘Our analysis shows that the diets consisted of 80 percent plant material and 20 percent meat.’
Analysis of the remains of 24 individuals from cemeteries in Peru, including Wilamaya Patjxa (pictured), suggests that meat made up only a fifth of their food intake
The researchers said their findings, published in the journal Plos One, show for the first time that early humans – at least in one part of the world – ate mainly plants.
Lead author Jennifer Chen, from Penn State University, added: ‘Many archaeological frameworks on hunter-gatherers, or foragers, focus on hunting and a diet high in meat – but we find that early hunter-gatherers in the Andes were mainly ate. plant foods such as wild tubers.
“Given that archaeological biases have long misled archaeologists – including myself – in the Andes, it is likely that future isotope research in other parts of the world will similarly show that archaeologists have been wrong elsewhere as well.”