Turtle soup is among the many exotic delicacies enjoyed in modern Eastern Asia. But a recent scientific study determined that tortoises were a staple in our early ancestors’ diets according to a report in Tech Times.
The discovery was originally published in the journal Quaternary Science Reviews, which details that tortoises were supplemented into diets nearly 400,000 years ago. The evidence, found in Qesem Cave near Tel Aviv in Israel, countered former theses that our ancestors only dined on vegetal material and big game meats with suggestions that they used modern kitchen cooking skills and tools to prepare them.
Ran Barkai of the Tel Aviv University and correspondent author said, “Our discovery adds a really rich human dimension – a culinary and therefore cultural depth to what we already know about these people.”
Tortoise samples were unearthed throughout the cave within different strata, indicating that they were consumed over wide spectrum of time. The specimens revealed certain eating habits showing how tortoises were prepared and eaten.
But evidence of dental artifacts suggested that the ancient inhabitants of Qesem Cave were mainly omnivores. The findings will be added to a anthropologic canon, but the evidence is strange considering that big meats were also a primary food source. Cattle, wild horses, fallow deer were common because they provided necessary calories and fat needed to sustain themselves.
The specimens are also hint at a division of labor within the early cave society. Because turtles were a lot less labor intensive it’s hypothesized that children or the elderly prepared them. Markings show that tortoises were roasted in their shells. Researchers then began to check for bird bones in the cave.