Prehistoric cooking

No one will ever know for sure exactly when our ancestors first discovered that food was easier to eat – and tasted better – if it was cooked. Most likely the discovery was made by accident – as a result of game being burnt in a forest fire or grains roasted on a camp fire. At any rate, it is likely that fire had already been in use by hominids (human ancestors) for heat and light for many thousands of years before someone got the idea of using it for cooking as well.

The first fire
The archaeological evidence for the first controlled use of fire is still hotly debated. Some palaeontologists attribute it to Homo erectus around the time of the hominid dispersal from Africa one million years ago; they argue that control of fire was necessary for the migration into colder climate zones. Certainly, the Zhoukoudian site, in China, where the famous 'Peking man' remains were discovered, has produced evidence for the presence of fire over a long occupancy period. But the absence of hearths and other factors have cast doubt on whether this really was controlled use of fire or simply natural. Burnt bones found here, and first thought to be evidence of early cooking, may actually be the result of natural burning. The first definite controlled fires in the archaeological record date from about 300,000 to 400,000 years ago.

The development of what we would recognise as cookery today is even more recent. Early cooking techniques were probably limited to roasting spitted meats (and later steaming meat by wrapping it in wet leaves and placing it on hot embers); toasting wild grains on hot stones; and using skulls, shells, hollowed-out stones or whatever else came to hand to heat liquids. Not until the development of pottery and settled agriculture during the Neolithic period did cooking progress beyond these very basic techniques.

The first farmers
The first farmers emerged in the 'fertile crescent' of the Middle East around 10,000 years ago. (Flint sickles, dating from as early as 11,000 BC, have also been found in the region, but these were most likely used for harvesting wild crops.) The earliest detailed archaeological evidence comes from the ancient 'city' of Jericho, where domesticated crops included barley, einkorn and emmer wheat, and pulses such as lentils, peas and chickpeas. Domesticated goats and sheep are known to have been present from at least 8,000 years ago, by which time settled agricultural communities can be found throughout the region.

In Britain and northern Europe, the shift from hunter-gathering to farming took place much later – probably in response to environmental changes and increasing populations. The first crops date from about 4,000 BC, but in Britain at least the early farmers were primarily concerned with keeping livestock (cattle and pigs) until the Bronze Age, when the first evidence of grain crops and field systems appears. An idea of the kind of cultivated grains that would have been introduced during this period can be found from the excavation of lake dwellings in Switzerland, where the waterlogged conditions have preserved detailed evidence of what everyday life was like. Grains found there include barley and einkorn and emmer wheats, as well as peas, lentils, poppies and flax.

Beer before bread?
Our ancient ancestors didn't only cultivate grain for food. At Barnhouse, Orkney, excavated by Colin Richards in the 1980s, barley lipids were identified on prehistoric grooved ware, while Caroline Wickham Jones tentatively identified ale residues on Neolithic pottery at Rhum in the Western Isles. There have been similar discoveries elsewhere, and research by Melinda Corkery into the recreation of Neolithic ale suggests that they may have brewed a form of beer using meadowsweet, a herb that is common throughout rural Britain today and has excellent preservative characteristics.

In fact, fermenting grain to make alcohol is almost certainly as old, and may even be older than the cultivation of grain to make bread. Ancient Mesopotamian texts from the third millennium BC refer to no fewer than 19 different varieties of beer. And a model found in a 2000 BC Egyptian tomb, in which a bakery and a brewery are joined together, is testimony to the longstanding link between the use of yeasts in both brewing and baking.

Until recently, it was often thought that Iron- and Bronze-Age peoples would have eaten only tough, unleavened breads. In fact, yeast has been used in making bread since at least the late Neolithic period, and the Roman writer Pliny even described the Celtic peoples of Gaul and Spain as producing a 'lighter kind of bread than others' by adding beer to the flour before cooking.

Indeed, it is a common misconception that the prehistoric diet would have been unremittingly dull, repetitive, tough and tasteless. It's a misconception that has been challenged by, among others, experimental archaeologist Jacqui Wood, who laid on the 'prehistoric feasts' for the Time Team programmes at Goldcliff in the 2004 series, at Throckmorton in 2002, as well as demonstrating how prehistoric people made hot drinks and cooked for the Blackpatch.

Prehistoric recipes
You can try some of Jacqui Wood's recipes, taken from her book Prehistoric cooking (Tempus, 2002, &15.99) here.

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