The Delicious Diets of Prehistoric Europe (Mesolithic, Neolithic, Bronze Age)
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- Опубліковано 22 тра 2024
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What did ancient Europeans eat between 10,000 BC and 3000 BC? In the Mesolithic era, the hunter gatherers of Europe were thriving in a range of environments across the Continent. From 7,000 BC Neolithic farmers spread across Europe bringing a new way of life, new languages, beliefs and social structures. Then around 3,000 BC, another great change came with the spread of cattle and horse herders from their homelands on the Pontic steppe all the way to the furthest corners of Europe, heralding the beginning of the European bronze age.
These three eras saw huge social, linguistic, and genetic changes but what exactly did prehistoric Europeans eat?
Artwork
Artistic reconstructions of the ancient European people are by The Beaker Lady in collaboration with The Chad Pastoralist.
For more reconstructions and information about early Indo-European culture, history, and genetics, please follow their work on Instagram:
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Video Sources
The Horse, the Wheel, and Language - David Anthony: amzn.to/3aD3Rhu
The Rise of Bronze Age Society - K. Kristiansen & T. B. Larsson: amzn.to/3r0xkdU
The First Farmers of Europe: An Evolutionary Perspective - Stephen Shennan: amzn.to/3wNDcqA
Plant Use in the Mesolithic: Evidence from Staosnaig, Isle of Colonsay, Scotland - Steven Mithen (1999)
Irish Cepaea nemoralis Land Snails Have a Cryptic Franco-Iberian Origin That Is Most Easily Explained by the Movements of Mesolithic Humans - Grindon & Davison (2013)
Plant Use in the Mesolithic and its Role in the Transition to Farming - Zvelebil (1994)
Hazelnut economy of early Holocene hunter gatherers: a case study from Mesolithic Duvensee, northern Germany - Holst (2010)
Experimental archaeological exploration of Mesolithic techniques for hazelnut roasting - Lage (2011)
A drowned Mesolithic shell midden complex at Hjarnø Vesterhoved, Denmark and its wider significance - Astrup et al (2021)
A late Mesolithic shell midden at Kilnatierny - Murray (2011)
Diet and Mobility in the Corded Ware of Central Europe - Sjögre, Price, Kristiansen - (2016)
(and more)
*The above links include affiliate links which means we will earn a small commission from your purchases at no additional cost to you which is a way to support the channel.*
Video Chapters
00:00 What did ancient people eat?
01:25 Video Sponsorship
02:56 The Mesolithic Diet
06:24 Mesolithic Hazelnut Processing
07:50 Mesolithic Proto-Farming
11:38 The Neolithic Diet
13:29 Neolithic Dairy Consumption
14:57 A Fish Eating Taboo?
16:49 Neolithic Feasting
18:05 What did Steppe Herders eat?
20:16 Broader Bronze Age Diets
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Not a very diverse thumbnail. Try harder Mr. Davis... Author! 😉
Dude, you make some of the best videos. I've watched all of them repeatedly. I'd pay for a couple of hours long video.
Ok 0t😢😢😢
Pears and apples? Weren't we told that these came with the Romans???? 😮
Would you consider making a similar video tracking the paths of fishing/agriculture/herding
up the Irrawaddy, Salween, Mekong, Red, Pearl, ChangJiang, HuangHe rivers?
One of my university lecturers always called hazelnuts the 'trail mix of the stone age'. People loved their hazelnuts
Together with dried berries, jerky, and dried fish, i have even tasted jukkola (dried pike) as a snack, and it is pretty good tasting.
There are a few reasons hazelnuts were probably so popular with ancient peoples:
1. The nut production is very low to the ground compared to other nut producing trees (hickory/pecan, walnut, chestnut, etc.)
2. Nut production occurs very early in the tree/shrub's life cycle. Only a handful of years after propagation, compared to decades for larger tree varieties.
3. Thinner hulls/shells compared to things like walnuts make them easier to process.
4. Thinner shells/hulls in relation to the amount of meat makes them more efficient both in weight and in bulk when gathering and transporting.
What you say is correct, but I would just point out that hickory and pecan are North American plants so not available at all to ancient Europeans. Likewise the walnut only grew in Asia at that time and the chestnut was only available in the Mediterranean areas of Europe, not in the north.
So northern Europeans simply didn't have those as options, hazelnuts were often the only good choice.
@@SporeMurph My point wasn't about those specific species of nut bearing trees, it was about nut bearing trees in general. Those species are just examples of "taller" nut producing trees with which I'm familiar, versus the lower growing "shrubby" hazelnuts.
While those specific species may not have been available in Europe at the time, they had analogous species (taller nut producers) that were.
Perhaps I should have used European SPECIFIC species, like European Beech or European White Elm, which WERE available nut/mast bearing trees of the region at the time.
My relatives in Serbia harvest hazelnuts and they have barrels overflowing with hazelnuts. I think they make cakes with it, or just eat it raw. I often choke eating raw hazelnuts.
They taste good
I do love hazelnuts too I guess if they are roasted they are easier to eat. Look at the popular hazelnut spreads..
"I will make a video on the possible fish-eating taboo in the future." are words I never thought I'd be excited to hear.
As a fisherman myself I'd be interested in seeing a video on ancient fishing methods as well as the taboo surrounding it among some ancient cultures.
Me too. I love fish due to my heritage (Filipino) and cannot think of life without fish. My favorite fish are milkfish, salmon, swordfish/sailfish, and tuna.
As a Balkaner, to me, fish are nasty and north of greece in the balkans most people can't abide it, mostly because of the smell. even if the smell isn't there, the taste and texture lack a certain something that triggers a "satisfaction" sensation, even if the body feels energised and healed afterwards. its respected as a food, but very few people eat it regularly, while shellfish are despised (though they are beloved in some parts of croatia). i feel camaraderie with the isrealites in the bible who are told that "it is abomination" (ie its disgusting). maybe we just have a lot of early neolithic farmer within us.
@@nullifye7816 in the Bible, fish can be eaten just only certain type can be eaten.
"The Taboo" is just a theory he made. Doesnt mean the people there had such taboo. Also it differed from people in one area or the other.
@@JJ-fq4nl try using your Bible in a real survival situation
The Vikings were very strong and bigger than the rest because of eating lots of seals and fish.
Even the Romans said the germanica were much larger than them including the women
The fact bears were brought to Ireland by Mesolithic hunters floored me. Had no idea!
I didn't realize how large a part of the diet bears are, i would love to hear more. I know "bear" is actually derived from the indo European for "brown", the word for the animal appears to have been Taboo. I also know in native American culture Bears are often considered the spirits of Humans.
It makes me wonder if this was as much a dietary reason as suggested, or maybe (purely spit balling) something like a fear that one wouldn't be able to reincarnate in a land without Bears. Ancient Egypt never expanded greatly because those who died outside egypt couldn't go to the afterlife.
The drive to be able to reach an afterlife make more sense to me than putting a bear in your canoe to eat, particularly when its going to eat the same berrys, nuts, and animals as you would have.
@@neolithictransitrevolution427 religion is a powerful motivator! There are certainly easier prey to hunt than bears, so one has to think there was more to it than simply a different flavor of meat.
@@neolithictransitrevolution427 I think we have a winner. Makes zeros sense to me until this. Especially since it would be a competition. And yea there are known bear cults in mainland Europe.
I had never thought about it before, but this makes sense. We humans love to tinker with our environments, and while bears and boars aren't necessarily as portable as Lunchables, I can understand wanting to bring along something that is a flavor from your home range. And the idea that hunter-gatherers practiced some sort of animal and plant management makes utter sense to me, as well. After all, the Neolithic farmers couldn't have just arisen out of nowhere. Someone had to sow the seeds for such a dramatic lifestyle change.
@@neolithictransitrevolution427 plausible modern hindus don't perform their sacrifices in a land without deer
7:25 Charring a whole batch of community hazelnuts that large is such an epically "bad day at the office", it still elicits sympathy thousands of years later lol
It was the intern
The story that they did not eat fish is completely untrue, there was no taboo. In Lepenski Vir (6000 BC) a tool for hunting fish was found, it is assumed that they also used a boat or some kind of raft. It would be really idiotic to live 20 meters from the Danube and not feed on fish.
@@user-lf2jh2ru9f did you mean this comment to be for another thread?
Mr Davis you raise UA-cam to the level of the old history channel before the aliens stuff! Your voice is so impactful, your knowledge runs deep, and your topic choices are so specific and unique. The presentation is magnificent and attention grabbing. I absolutely love your channel and I’m not even into history that much but you make it soooo damn good!
Look. I need to know Hitlers secret alien dinosaur Mayan codex files. As it pertains to ancient Bigfoot alien hunting.
@@CCootauco Well, there's another channel for that. Please leave this one as is for the rest of us!!
he promotes disinfo and the toxic globalist vegan agenda
@@cathjj840do you know humour?
Gaud is an alien though
After four months of researching what prehistoric people ate, whilst living out in the wilderness subsisting only on a prehistoric diet, Dan Davis returns to tell us what he has discovered.
I met a guy once in central Maine who had been living off the land all summer. He didn't know how to trap animals or fish. He was surviving on a diet of fresh water mussels and blueberries and looked like a skeleton. I remember telling him to walk out while he still had the strength.
@@michelleeden2272 why the hell didn’t he learn how to fish at the very least?
@@diomedes39 No idea. The lake had trout, landlocked salmon, bluegills and probably catfish. My guess would be that he was from a city (ignorant af) and had a romantic intuition about "naturalness" that ignored the importance of culture. It's funny, but I still think about that fool from time to time, wondering what ever became of him.
@@michelleeden2272how did he not learn???
Orthorexia
I've gathered hazelnuts and roasted, made flour, baked bread with them and so on. But if you find that many together in a pit that has to be an orchard producing them. You can't just gather a hundred thousand nuts in the wild.
A theory of pastoralism for Eastern HG: The EHGs abducted women (as you do), who knew how to take care of the animals. Bride stealing has been pretty common (practically universal) between neighboring peoples of different subsistence strategies, and once the woman has children, it is in her interest for her new community to prosper. When the practice of bride abduction is ongoing for generations, it becomes normalized in both cultures, and it is not unusual for "stolen" brides to achieve high status in their new communities. This sort of thing happened as recently as the 19th century in the American West. There is a very good book, "Empire of the Summer Moon", about Quanah Parker, a Comanche leader whose mother was a white abductee. I recommend it. The book, not bride stealing.
If you've seen any of those voluptuous Cucuteni-Trypillia women then you'll not doubt it for a moment.
@@DanDavisHistory or the voluptuous descendant females found mainly in southern Europe.
The only really CHG or farmer like yamnaya found is a woman and she was in Bulgaria which is right next to cucuteni. The yamnaya proper were a genetically homogenous people and only started mixing en masse when they migrated into farmer territories.
Also I havent seen the actual skeletons but I'm fairly sure yamnaya women were more voluptuous than Cucuteni women, as Yamnaya DNA in Marnetto's et al's study on estonians correlates with wider hip and waist circumferences
This such a powerful dive into our ancient diets
The Mesolithic, Neolithic and Bronze Age videos are unmatched on UA-cam keep it up. :D
Thank you so much 🙏
Thanks for not using an annoying dramatic voice. And thank you for not using way to loud music. Subscribed.
3:46 I used to leave near one such midden in California, today only marked by the streetname, "Shellmound Dr.".
I Just graduated in archaelogy, my thesis was about the demographic distribution and the exploitation strategies of Natural resources during the paleolithic, mesolithic and neolithic in the north-eastern part of Italy. Getting to know what people ate in others parts of Europe makes me happy. Keep up with the good work you are doing, greetings from Italy.
keep in mind that he doesn't present any evidence to support his claims. just like today 2 billions people eat BUGS but fail to mention that the bugs account for only 2% of their diet.
Interesting
Your discussion of fish and seafood not being eaten by the more inland farming culture reminded me that most of those I knew in the Midwest of the US growing up disdained fish, except in the form of fish sticks. I always loved fish, and when I asked others why didn't, they just wrinkled their noses, or shrugged, giving no particular reason.
Every fish I had as a kid in the Midwest was horrible...had that smell and fishy taste. Much later, I learned that means the fish is rancid and maybe it will suck if you try to eat it. Amazing. We all thought thats was fish were like. Since moving to the coast, people seem to know how to use fresh fish and cook them correctly and now I love fish and seafood in general.
not hungry enough
We had fish during lent and it was usually frozen and then fried. We grew up on lake Erie, but it was filthy then so we didn't consider eating anything from there. I live in Asia and am 5,9 and 175 while my relatives back in the midwest are 5,9 and 215. Lots of processed foods.
@@josephkelly6681 Ooh, I remember when Lake Erie was so awful. Every other day huge machines would scrape all the dead fish off the beach. From tiny guppy-sized to monster big fish, the stench was stomach churning.
The scientific and public opinions veered between disconnecting Lake Erie from the other Great Lakes to what could be done to clean up the toxins.
Cleaning it up won. Some years later, Lake Erie was the written up as the cleanest of all the Great Lakes. Gave us hope.
Don't know what its status is now.
@@delphinazizumbo8674 Hahaha! True. Probably many other choices, too. Peanut butter was big then.
The Lewis and Clark Expedition also ignored fish even though they were on a river most of their journey. It was the hunter/gatherers among them (Sacajawea for example) that ate fish while the men from a farming and herding background relied almost exclusively upon hunted venison and beef.
The same thing with the vikingsettlers of Greenland. They settled in the southern Greenland where they could do limited agriculture and fishing. And only hunted walrosses for the tusks for making ivory goods to sell to mainland Europe, but ignored the highfat diet of the inuits. So when the climate in Greenland got colder and the crops failed and the cattle died. The settlement died out too.
19:53 He is happy he spread his seed around the world.
Bravo sir. I remember in grade school being taught that no civilization ever started without close access to water. It’s obviously because of the food sources it provided. So it seams seafood was a massive part of our early ancestors diets. Side note : My father has diabetes and he has found that the only food that doesn’t boost his sugar levels are grilled and broiled seafoods. Thank you for your work.
A note about fish eating taboos.
My Irish grandmother referred to seafood as "famine food".
Could there have been some kind of class distinction going on ?
As in "only those hunter gatherer types would eat that as they're all half starved unlike us with our sheep and barley"?
Ironically the hunter gatherers were physically a lot healthier than the farmers so its hard to believe that the farmers thought it was unhealthy. Whats even weirder is many later farmers have 30-40% WHG DNA and WHG male lineages implying they come from WHGs who mixed with farmers, yet they still retained the fishing taboo. It might have been religious , like how muslims wont eat pork
There seems to have been a taboo, and its relfex persists to this day. I even find a lot of seafood disturbing almost, despite finding dried squid and shell fish tolerable
Could the taboo have its origin in that some seafood can be potentially deadly, if expired or wrongly prepared?
As any fellow foragers will know it makes total sense to spread seeds and nurture useful plants. Also curious how many useful plants and fungi there are which love growing in disturbed soil left by us. Most plants we consider garden weeds are in some way edible or medicinal. Bit of co-evolution going on there.
There were many weed crops that "came along for the ride" with wheat as they were spread over the millennia and archeobotanists track evidence of these as well. So they know that crops like rye and oats started out as weeds amongst the wheat.
A mostly protein rich diet mixed with the random berries and root vegetables is good enough for me and for my Neolithic and "Stoned Age" ancestors.
As a hunter (in Ireland of game) I'm alarmed by the huge divide that has opened up between city folk and hunters. Up to the 2000s many city folk hunted with their country friends and cousins but now not so much. Hunting in the wild is a vital source of protein and general nutrition and it is a very skill-based practice. I'm 70 years of age now and all through my life I helped to keep the family supplied with wild ducks, woodcock, snipe, rabbits, hares etc. Society is getting more and more out of touch with the wild environment and I'm convinced that Homo Sapiens will eventually regret this.
I’m about your age , Martin and grew up on a farm in Wiltshire . Things have changed in our lifetime . Hardly ever see a rabbit or a hare , I am guessing all the buzzards and kites that are now around pick off all the young ones . Snipe and woodcock are fast diminishing and it would now be a travesty to shoot those that remain pretty much the only shooting that takes place round our way now is organised shooting of huge numbers of reared pheasant and partridge for super rich city folk accompanied by their vacuous little trophy wives . Before I became sickened by it I used to beat on these shoots . 300 birds a day killed between ten guns at £50 a bird . At the end of the day the keeper could not give them away and used to bury them in the wood . Britain is an almost entirely urban based culture now . Take the TV Program “ country file”. The country looked at through the eyes of the urban media . They rarely feature any real country people , probably scared of what they might get told . Usually it’s about someone who has recently moved from the city bought a few acres and a handful of charming little animals and is now making much more of a success of it than anyone who has been in farming all their lives! Yes people are becoming more out of touch with nature country life and farming and probably reality in general
@@barkershill
Interesting to get a rural English perspective. To be honest I and my friends only ever got involved in wild game hunting. The practice of "driven shooting" is not common here in Ireland.
Threatened species should certainly be preserved.
Ironically, the reduction of game hunting here is often due to the clearance of woodland, marshes, mixed forests etc for the feeding of dairy herds and sheep and for the planting of coniferous forests and is thus detrimental to wildlife, including game species. The future lies with the massive urban populations who's "double-shots" will always be in a glass and never on a pair of woodcock or snipe. Take care.
Hunting feels far better than relying on the meat industry to me.
why do you have internet if you're not "city folk"
@@islamtoghuj Because he thinks he's "special", who have "special skills"
salt production, both historically and now world wide, is a fascinating study.
many techniques i read about from the middle ages are in current practice for artisan salts , for instance.
4:50 minutes, the sideeye of that seal when you´re talking about him as lunch....
I come from a more linguistic background so it's absolutely fascinating to have a channel like yours flesh out the culture and customs of people like the PIE's but other prehistoric peoples as well. Love your videos!
There's a video about Geronimo, the famous wild American Indian rebel. In it Geronimo is quoted as saying, "We never ate fish or reptiles. We found the idea disgusting..." Cultural taboos could definitely explain why certain tribes did not consume sea food. Even more interesting would be the reasons such taboos arose in the first place. Looking forward to that video.
Wow
I find the reptile thing strange. There wasn't much else out there at times.
Dan you make fantastic content. But. These bronze age videos you make are the absolute best. You're the only person ive seen who makes easily digestable long form content like this. Thank you!
Thank you so much.
True. I watch all of his videos, but bronze age era stuff seems to be better delivered/produced than the medieval ones. Seems like he is more passionate about this period despite being a history buff in general.
You're welcome
@@DanDavisHistory And we love it because learning about our ancestors is so important.
I love this video. Ancient food sources is absolutely the most interesting subject.
There was a beaker midden found near Boddam by Peterhead in the north east of Scotland from around 7000-6000BCE which showed evidence of pottery having been traded from Ireland. I find it fascinating that trading between that kind of distance across the sea was occurring even back then, so far north.
I find the meeting point between farmers and hunter gatherers a fascinating topic. I've often wondered how long hunter gatherers survived in Britain and whether, in fact, there may have been pockets of people living in that manner in wilder areas until relatively recently alongside the established history of settled peoples abiding by the dominating cultures we visualise.
I wonder too about diplomacy and trading between these groups. The offering of milk to maintain relations with folkloric entities (such as hobs, an illusive tutelary spirit seen to act as guardians of localities in the North of England with counterparts right across Europe) is a recurring theme and I wonder whether these beliefs may have been derived from the means by which settled pastoralists kept surrounding hunter gatherers on good terms, and perhaps persuaded them not to hunt their livestock [since milk is one thing a hunter gatherer cannot find by other means].
Thanks for the insights you share here, I very much appreciate your middle-road approach, well researched yet sharing your own thoughts too.
We do have some recent evidence of what it may have looked like. When we settled North America, South America, Australia, and even today all over the world there are some nomadic people groups... We have historical accounts of nomadic peoples interacting with past civilizations.
It would seem as though nomadic kind of groups are slowly absorbed into the surrounding established communities, or are pushed off into very remote or restrictive areas. Nomadic society lacks the resources (including number of people), organization, and planning to really challenge more anchored societies. This puts nomadic societies into the position of having to acquiesce most of the time rather than outright rival.
The pros of nomadic society do not outnumber the pros of anchored societies... Although the unique pros of nomadic society CAN lend to a longevity that can make them outlast many anchored ones, due to the inherent flexibility of such a way of living. When multiple nomadic groups can organize or confederate in some capacity we have seen some very capable forces of nature, such as the Mongols.
Most of the time though you're going to see these societies trading as anyone would especially knowledge of areas or natural resources, and simple resources like herbs or animal by products in return for tools or other resources.
Oh, absolutely.
That is where we got our tales of the elusive fringe-dwelling Brownies from. Modern genomic analysis reveals that contemporary Irish people have unique hunter-gatherer genetic traces found nowhere else in Europe.
I have also come to believe that those barrow-building Neolithic farmers came down to us in mythology as the fair folk or fairies: the very Tuatha De Dannan. They were mostly esteemed by the steppe incomers, who mourned their dwindling and passing in a great plague of zoonotic disease, and tried to keep their knowledge and culture going as best they could, putting their own spin on it.
Of course, this is mere fanciful speculation. Yet I have been scraping and scratching to this insight for decades. Make of it what you will, and run with it if you so desire.
; - )
@@Tipi_Dan Likewise, long been one of favourite arenas to speculate upon. I need to read some more Irish Folklore, I was brought up in the N. York Moors so my folkloric knowledge is rooted in those tales from that area - Hobs have long been a muse of mine, otherwise known as Boggarts, Red Caps on the continent and perhaps Brownies too... though I can't remember if brownies were a slightly different character... the character attributed to Hobs in the N.Y.Moors describes them as being very loyal, more to the location than the farmer perhaps, but very secretive, remaining hidden - you should never spy on them; one particularly intriguing detail being that they are said to take great insult to being given clothes. Similarly the contract between farmer and Hob must be maintained through regular offerings of cream and as long as that is respected, they're loyal helpers - though not commanded, they choose their tasks and perform them with miraculous ability - but, break the contract and they'll bring ruin upon the farmer. There's a hob attributed to most locations in the moors here, to streams and caves and the like, farms likewise (my old man's farm was overseen by the Hob of Hodge Beck, I wonder on occasion if I was possessed by him 😉). But, that description is a perfect fit, to my mind of the relations which could well evolve in periods where farming settlers were moving into an area and meeting "indigenous" folk with long experience and knowledge of the local ecosystem.
Selling coals to Newcastle there no doubt, but aye, not sure - is there a contemporary to that character in Ireland? - they're said to be small, hairy men - much like hobbits in appearance, with a temperament that, rather amusingly, might put them somewhere on the autism spectrum today i.e. brilliant technical ability, not given to socialising and rather 'absolute' in their judgement (I say that being as I have a couple of old, close friends that way out who I couldn't help but think reflected the description of Hobs quite well - minus the hair and clothes part). ...Given to think I'm conversing with someone not frightened of going out on a limb here hence not pretending this an academic hypothesis.... just floating thoughts over the years around the topic.
But, aye, I intend to read up on the Tuatha De Dannan. A point of particular interest to me at present is Doggerland and its final disappearance around 5500BC... which is shockingly recent and an occurrence doubtless noted by those who occupied that land and, presumably then traversed it on their migration West onto the now British Isles... I heard a few snippets recently of tales of a great flood and sunken lands in old Irish legends and so that's again a strong contender for derived tales if they do indeed appear in that lexicon. Mind boggling that we have our very own neolithic Atlantis right there... I knew of it for a long time but it never really sank in how significant that was, or recent - pretty sure there is dolmen or two dated to that era - circa 5000BC, so it's really within the bounds, or very close to our epoch of 'civilisation' here... which I find mind boggling.
Mmm. Argh... could blabber all day on that subject, fascinating arena to consider.
@@JesseP.Watson A game of toss with food for thought! Best wishes for further mental (or spiritual) explorations!
@@Tipi_Dan And to you Mr Tipi, all the best.
The wood of hazel is also useful for basket-making. Slaughter of animals in Northern Europe was surely in early winter, because of the difficulty of feeding them during the winter. I have just discovered this channel, and have of course subscribed. So interesting! Thank you.
As a botanist, I really appreciate your view on the impact of indigenous people on the landscape.
It's often assumed that native populations (such as those of the Americas and Australia) were inept at manipulating their environment.
It's pretty well established that the idea of an "untouched wilderness" is unheard of.
For most parts of the world, humans have manipulated the environment for the better part for 50,000 years
Some people in Finland still have a practice what must have survived since hunter-gatherers started thousands of years ago: noting spots where they find desirable wild mushrooms, they disturb the earth to encourage further crops to grow the following year(s). I imagine hunter-gatherers also encouraged wild plants to grow by maintaining favourable conditions, such as cutting down trees and maintaining fields, as is still told in American natives' Labour cacao cultivation. hunter-gatherers movements are often seasonal, so they would be returning to places of a desirable harvest
Mushrooms and tubers were certainly included in hunter-gatherers diet but evidence of them would be hard to find. These food sources could be dried and carried around when other food sources were scarce: not every hunt would have been successful or provide enoigh meat for the whole tribe. It is likely that mushrooms and dried plants and seeds became even more important during winter. Perhaps winters were also incentive for starting to farm grain, because it was easier to grow and store for long periods.
someone kinda appreciate the presence of landsnails in holocene Ireland 10:05
ever tried freshwater snails ?
apparently also a thing back then, for their shells were found in larger quantities in kitchen dumps at several mesolithic-early neolithic sites near inland bodies of water....like in Bukova Pusta for example the ratio was about 4 to 1 in favour of freshwater snails (mainly Viviparius)
Yeah I said in the video the shell middens were often filled with whelk and periwinkle.
@@DanDavisHistory yes you indeed did, but those belong to the realm of tasty and still consumed seawater creatures
periwinkles are actually quite okay to eat, but picky moderners like me have to remove the guts and lid from every tiny morsel of meat, which is kinda offputting
whelks regularily feast on carcasses = gross !
another protein source from rivers and lakes for them were painter's mussels (other members of the Unio genus too) and these freshwater mussels are also something you wouldn't find on the menu in any european region today, me guess
if somehow possible, higher frequenzy of uploads please
good history content that isn't either too shallow, sensationalized or dry is otherwise hard to come by
the wild challenges and seasonally changing lifestyle of the reindeer hunters in late paleolithic times might be worth a tale
Loved it, Food is such a huge part of life. Im very interested in native plants and how we 'forgot' to use them over the ages.
When I lived out on the coast I remember thinking how easy it would be to forage at low tide. As a kid I liked catching small crabs and such before letting them go.
I had a handful of toasted hazelnuts before sitting down and seeing what was new on UA-cam. I knew they would be mentioned a few times.
Once again, I have learned a topic that I have long wondered about but didn't have the time to learn about. I have tremendous respect for your researching a presenting skills.
Fantastic video as always! As an anthropologist with a focus on the southwestern US, I love getting this kind of information on a part of the world that's very foreign to me. Love the idea of Irish snail farmers, simply the thought makes me smile.
The idea of a seafood taboo is also very interesting to me, and calls to mind something from my own experiences. I'm Apache and Akimel O'odham thru one side of my family and Minnesota Norge on the other. The Norwegians love seafood but turn up their noses at river fish (I've heard often how catfish taste muddy, etc). My native family treat fish as exotic and strange, and really only like it breaded and fried. I do wonder if this has something to do with preservation, as others have suggested in the comments. People whose environments would cause fish to spoil faster may have found them gross and associated them with illness, whereas coastal populations tended to eat them fresh, sometimes immediately upon catch. I could definitely see this leading to a historical taboo.
Another thing to cap off this long comment: the proto-farming of hazelnuts is similar to sites we've found out here which suggest the same was done in the American West with the agave plant. Mostly outside cave entrances, there's evidence of large patches of agave transplanted there and likely returned to seasonally. Within the caves we find corn, pinenuts, and other such things which could be kept dried (I had to exciting opportunity to handle one of the ancient maize cobs found in New Mexico, still had solid kernels after all those years). The resourcefulness of human beings is one of my favorite recurring themes in this line of study, and it really is impressive what we were able to shape from the raw environments we found ourselves in.
I'm grokking on what event would have caused enough distraction to scorch a batch of hazelnuts? Big game sighted? Huge batch of shellfish hauled in? Earthquake? Invasion? Aliens! Thanks Dan! I really enjoyed this one. The coastal hunter-gatherer looks like the men folk of my family lol
Given my harvest of exactly TWO hazelnuts from my two large trees/bushes, having been beaten to the punch by grey squirrels, I do wonder about the humans' competition for those delicious tidbits! So now I buy those harvested in Turkey.
ADHD. 😝
@@mothmaiden how did you guess? I have ADD, so its not outside of the realm of possibility that my ancestral forebearers had one too many projects goin' at the same time! Saved the biscuits from the fire, but burned their hazelbutts!
@@grovermartin6874 they would have kept the squirrels numbers down by hunting them heavily. Same thing with birds. In amerindian tribes this was a chore given to young boys. It honed their archery skills and kept them well fed. And they didn't need arrowheads to do it (which were precious)
Maybe they were trying to stop a bad insect infestation
You don’t understand how excited and happy I get when you post a new video!!!! Thank you I am so grateful and appreciative. Thank you so much
Incredible how diverse ancient diets were. Another great video Dan 👌
Where were you when I was doing my undergrad studies in the 90s! I am learning more about the Stone, Bronze and European medieval ages than the four years I wasted at the University of Nevada! Keep up the excellent work!!! I love your books too!! Cheers from the USA!!
Absolutely fascinating. I never knew boar and bears were introduced to Ireland by humans.
'Hazelnut processing sites'. Import and farming of snails...👀
What an amazing glimpse into the far past.
Also amazing to consider, that at least some groups/societies had the necessary resources to spurn certain foodstuffs. I mean, not eating something, that is not just edible, but very nutritious, is a luxury you have to be able to afford.
The fish-eating taboo has also been suggested in The Odyssey when there's much grievance brought up over being forced to eat fish at one point in the story. Though that does not explain other instances where Greeks had no aversion to fish, such as the recorded Iron Age culture.
I’m fascinated that they grew poppies.
Easily one of your top three videos, with your channel being one of my top three channels. Spectacular work. Cheers, Mr. Davis: this was simply fantastic!
Wow, thank you my friend 🙏 So glad you enjoyed it.
I'd rank it up there with the Tumulus culture and Cucuteni-Trypilla, you?
@@neolithictransitrevolution427 The first Koryos video and the Maykop video are my other two favorites
Would you consider doing a Part 2, looking at Middle Palaeolithic (i.e., Neanderthal) & Upper Palaeolithic diets? This was a supremely interesting topic!
Neanderthals were cannibals
Thank you. Perhaps although I haven't read much about the Paleolithic so would need much more research on my part.
I remember that there was an Irish legend about magic salmons and the possibility of it resulting in a fish-eating taboo, which could be evidence for it considering the large ENF-impact on early Ireland.
The Salmon of Knowledge! A childhood favourite of mine, interesting possible link there
Yeah, my people also had beliefs that some animals are not to be killed....
Thank you for doing this video. This is in my opinion, one of the most important history subjects for modern people. Because what our ancestors ate is important to guide what WE should be eating 🙂
Excellent video Dan. Thank you!
12:41 Zeus was a Neolithic bodybuilder
Amazing work again Dan
YASSSSS
Thank you for another great piece!
Iodine is the most important mineral for humans. And it's very difficult to find in terrestrial foods, which is why humans crave shellfish and seafood when we don't have access to it, like in modern "iodized salt". In fact, iodized salt exists because so many people in the western world had iodine deficiency that governments decided they needed to add it to salt to keep their people alive. The Romans were actually so successful because they found a way to get iodine while still living away from the coasts... via their most popular sauce, garum. Garum was basically fish sauce, very high in iodine, and people living inland craved it, so it was massively popular in the Roman empire.
I don't know where you get the idea that iodine is the "most important" mineral for humans; this claim is total nonsense. What does it even mean? How would you go about proving it?
The rest of your discussion does not at all jive with what we know about ancient human populations and diets, or even those of more recent humans. Sure, iodine deficiency has been problematic in certain times and places, but I've never seen anyone suggest that the millions of people who lived far from any body of water were all crippled by iodine deficiency. It's a very bold claim about the history of human civilization, and requires massive evidence, not just back-of-the-envelope reasoning that sounds true.
Never heard about this magical innate human craving either. Why do our closest relatives not ever eat any seafood of any kind? Why don't we also crave seaweeds, also high in iodine? And how do you explain the cultures described in this very video that ignored these foods? How do you explain other more modern cultures who ignore it? Two other things I just learned researching: plants growing in iodine-rich soils contain significant iodine, and iodine supplementation has actually led to some cases hyperthyroidism.
@@HuckleberryHim Everything I said is backed up by evidence and studies. Iodine deficiency is the single most common endocrine pathology in the world, affecting 2 billion people worldwide; and it's also the number one preventable cause of intellectual disability in the world. Almost 3% of the total world population has extreme deficiency (to the point of having a palpable goiter). See: The Lancet's paper "A Systematic Analysis for the Global Burden of Disease"
Also, 70% of test subjects in the UK were iodine deficient, despite the fact that the UK is a "well-fed" western country with legally required addition of iodine to its table salt. The importance of iodine and the realization that many populations were deficient no matter how well they ate is what originally led to many western countries adding iodine to salt. See: The World Health Org's paper "Iodine Deficiency in Europe: A Continuing Concern"
And it DOES jive with what we know about ancient human populations, the most successful of which tended to live in littoral or coastline regions. Shell middens are EVERYWHERE in the archaeological record.
Our closest primate relatives don't need iodine because they don't have our brains. Iodine was a prerequisite to our massive brains. I don't understand your weird zealotry about this... you do realize that iodine was added to salt in the western world because of massively widespread iodine deficiency, right? Do just a little research before you comment. It's not a major concern in the first world BECAUSE of iodized salt. In pre-modern societies, it would have been the single most important nutritional issue.
"In areas where there is little iodine in the diet, typically remote inland areas where no marine foods are eaten, iodine deficiency is common. It is also common in mountainous regions of the world where food is grown in iodine-poor soil."
"In iodine-deficient or mildly iodine-deficient areas of Europe, iodine deficiency is frequent during pregnancy DESPITE the widespread use of iodised salt, posing risks to the neurodevelopment of foetuses. In one study performed in a mildly iodine-deficient area, iodine deficiency was found to be present in more than half of breastfeeding women" See: "Maternal and Neonatal Urinary Iodine Status and its Effect on Neonatal TSH Levels in a Mildly Iodine-Deficient Area"
If this is happening in the modern world, in areas WITH iodized salt... imagine what pre-modern man had to deal with.
"In areas where there is little iodine in the diet, typically remote inland areas and semi-arid equatorial climates where no marine foods are eaten, iodine deficiency gives rise to hypothyroidism, symptoms of which are extreme fatigue, goiter, mental slowing, depression, weight gain, and low basal body temperatures.
Iodine deficiency is the leading cause of preventable mental retardation, a result which occurs primarily when babies or small children are rendered hypothyroidic by a lack of the element. The addition of iodine to table salt has largely eliminated this problem in the wealthier nations, but as of March 2006, iodine deficiency remained a serious public health problem in the developing world.
Iodine deficiency is also a problem in certain areas of Europe. In Germany it has been estimated to cause a billion dollars in health care costs per year. See: ""Iodine: deficiency and therapeutic considerations"
A modelling analysis suggests universal iodine supplementation for pregnant women in England may save £199 (2013 UK pounds) to the health service per pregnant woman and save £4476 per pregnant woman in societal costs. See: "Costs and benefits of iodine supplementation for pregnant women in a mildly to moderately iodine deficient population"
Those are all modern societies with the ability to add iodine to salt and cattle feed. Now... think about pre-modern man and their difficult lives. Yeah... exactly.
@@I_leave_mean_comments EVERYTHING you said? You didn't even address your most ludicrous claims. There is an innate craving for seafood in humans, iodine is the "most important mineral", it is difficult to find in terrestrial foods... you just completely glossed over these claims to go on an extremely long tirade quoting sources about uncontroversial facts. The supplementation of salt with iodine is very common knowledge, and you spend paragraphs discussing it as if I've never heard of this.
Lots of deficiencies are bad and quite widespread. No one is denying that iodine deficiency is serious or that it was relatively common. I am denying your paradigm of human nutritional history, which seems to hold iodine as the end-all be-all. You never manage to explain how so many populations (in fact, the majority of them) seem to get on well enough without consuming significant quantities of seafood, or how some cultures (again referenced in this very video) managed to purposefully eschew seafood entirely.
Well as I understand it many societies have lived successfully since the paeleolithic generation after generation without going anywhere near the sea or eating anything that came out of it . Probably some did not know the sea existed. I mean look at a world map . The remains of ancient cultures have been found hundreds ,probably thousands of miles from the sea .
@@barkershill iodine used to be in our soil but it is true out bodies require it
This is an excellent video. Every time I think you might lead us astray you come back with the true point like with the importance of plant gathering or wild ecosystem management. Our role in our ecosystem after all is very similar to the beaver, we are ecosystem engineers
This channel needs so much more exposure. You do such an excellent job.
Awesome, as always!
Great video! Can't get enough!
It's always a pleasure to see a new video notification from Dan Davis coming up and as usual, he delivers exemplary. Thank you for your thorough and well documented videos Dan, I've been hooked on them ever since I discovered your channel.
Thank you, Mr. Davis. You've done it again! I look forward to very few drops on the Tube but you are definitely at the very top of the list. Such a fascinating topic and you as always condense so much useful information into these wonderful nuggets of education. Everyone else tells you the same thing but i must join the chorus to pat you on the back and thank you from the bottom of my history nerd heart. Thank you.
Another fascinating production, thank you.
What a fantastic video. Nice work.
I don't think it's any coincidence that many of the old tales of Ireland seem to revolve around rustling and/or cattle in general. On his channel, the scholar Crecganford has shone a light on how such acts have almost certainly helped to create some of the oldest myths, etc.
He's worth a look.
My thoughts? >>> A collab between you two would prob break the internets.
Yeah he's great.
One of my favorite historical facts is that monuments like Stonehenge and Newgrange werent built by druids, but by cowboys.
@@grimble4564 ?proto-pastoralists?
You, sir, are a man of culture.
@@grimble4564 😂you have been watching Professor Hutton ,I think? I dont think he meant cowboys literally.
Dan Davis, the one channel whose videos you can safely like before watching the video. I'm a lecturer in archaeology and rate this work very highly
Awesome, thanks very much, John.
@@DanDavisHistory in fact there is an image from one of my papers in this one! We are returning to this Danish submerged midden site in a few weeks
Thanks, Dan! Thanks for the content! Love your writing as well.
Beautifully done video. Thank you.
I read in the Lewis and Clark expedition that when they got to the Astoria Oregon area, they nearly starved. I always wondered why. This area is renowned for its sea food.
The Spanish has the same problem in New Mexico, wouldn't eat bugs.
I don’t know how true this is, but I had read somewhere that the L & C crew encountered a native group who basically lived on salmon. Salmon everything. Constantly. To the point of ruining their teeth from always eating soft stuff & never eating anything crunchy that cleaned them.. I can’t remember where I read that, but the native group was talked about living on a coastal river that was basically choked up solid with salmon..
..another anecdote was that those back in the day white dudes who were wayyyy out of their familiar comfort zones so far into the wilds, were struggling without “provisions” because they were really used to their ‘civilized foods’, besides shooting an animal and cooking meat, they were at a loss for a WHILE..
wish I could remember what I read that in 🤔
I’ve always been fascinated with foraging, and I’d do pretty good on the North East coast.. but the vegetation is different enough in the NorthWest that I’d probably struggle..
Superbly researched and put together, I know the Prehistory Guys think highly of your work, and I'd have to agree.
Another great, high quality upload. Thank you very much! 🌸
Dan Davis videos are up there with the best. Love the material.
Amazing video. I think the three dietary directions are detectable even today. The biggest percentage of Neolithic genetics are present today in South Italy, Greece, Turkey, Levant. The diets there provide a bigger percentage of crops and on the contrary to common believe people there are not really fish-eaters although it is so easy available. There are studies about the Iliad, which is a rich source of information about the lifestyle of the pre- classical era in Greece that people back than didn't eat fish.
If you go towards Russia and deep inside North Asia you realize that there are only two kinds of food. Dairy and Meat. On the other hand on the Atlantic side you see the love to Seafood.
Thanks for this episode and waiting for more. I have always been curious about and impressed by how people survived the mesolithic and neolithic era. But with reading difficulties it is difficult. Videos are of course short and choppy, but I am grateful for this and have followed everything I find for several years.
👍👍
Carsten
Love this one. Keep them coming.
The best the best the best! I love this video! It's so cool to see the direct comparisons across cultures.
I love your channel, my friend. Your approach to other peoples scientific research is admirable :) Keep it up :)
Such a fascinating topic! Very interesting that the hunter&gatherers actually developed the land and animals, first time I hear of that and would definitely like to learn more - do you have any recommendations? Also, thank you for showing actual reconstructions of the people, unlike the BBC and the rest of them, who pretend everybody everywhere looked like modern African...
Super happy I ran into your channel Dan. You do an amazing job!
Love your work, sir!
I know you have use stock footage to create the videos. Interestingly, many of the species shown are from North America. For example, lodgepole pine and a moose at 5:13 and the oak used at 6:02 . The oak is a red oak, Quercus rubra, specifically. It is a member of the red oak group, which is not native to Europe at all, and exclusively a New World subsection of the Quercus genus. The white oaks were dominant in Europe until red oaks were introduced. Not to nitpick, I just think some people might find that interesting. Enjoyable work, as always!
Thank you. And yes you're right, getting the right footage takes me days of looking and the vast majority available is from North America. Ultimately the images are meant for illustrative purposes.
Oh but they did eat Alces alces, by the way.
I guess you're talking about the combination of the Moose and Lodgepole Pine rather than just the Moose itself, because those have existed in Europe for a long while😅
@@martijn9568 yes, the pine, not the moose. I had no inclinations about the moose.
@@DanDavisHistory Ah. I guess I shouldn't have mentioned the moose, as I had no idea either way.
In southern germany, they found huge amounts of stone tools at certain places, up to several hundreds. They were perfectly fine to use, which means nobody grinded their skills there like in an RPG and they really seemed to be depots maybe for trading.
I love it that even in the earliest days of humanity there was an tendency for efficiency and "industrialization" of processes. You think those guys gathered some berries for their next meal but no, you had to fulfill your daily quota of collecting nuts or would be sacrificed to the local rain deity.
This is a Great video! Thank you for sharing!😊
Thank you Dan great video
Brilliant - I have been addicted to your vids for at least a couple of years and you have constantly provided quality, thought provoking insights - wish I could sub twice though I know it wont any difference. So impressed by your body of work here on YT
In Canada a lady finally ASKED local old Chiefs just how the fishing gear was used. They had it in museums but couldn't figure out HOW the tackle was employed!! Halibut rigs especially .
It's interesting what you say about the possible fish eating taboo. In Ireland and to this day fish eating is much much more widespread around the coast. Compared to Spain we consume a lot less fish. I don't think it was taboo though, I think it was just that there was an abundance of cattle.
Oh, I already subscribed! Otherwise, after this video, I would have subscribed. Your videos are so, so, so interesting! Thank you so very much! I am working on Mohenjo-daro and a video like this one is totally in connection with my work. I also come from a linguistic point of view, especially Indo-European languages. And that too comes right on spot with my work.
Yes they were changing the environment. Star Carr is interesting because it looks like at one point in the past the reeds were being burnt back in mid summer and this was possibly done by the people living there. There are several reasons why this was done. The reeds would have time to grow back again and because the primary shoot had gone the secondary shoots, five in total, would start growing to replace the primary shoot. Because there was now five shoots growing instead of the original one it meant the reeds were much denser making a very good thatch for any shelter the people would use over winter.
The new shoots now had an increased sugar content the smell of which would attract game to the lake. You get the same effect with grass which when new mown grass smells sweet. The native populations of Australia and America would also burn back grass to attract animals. This is why there are so few trees on the American prairies. The reeds are edible by humans as well so would have been a good source of sugar.
Roasting Hazelnuts would preserve them and they would last for six months. While studying archaeology I noticed that the hazelnut tree was the most widespread of all trees which had me think that this could have been done deliberately by the people living there.
People would naturally become lactose intolerant at the age of two when the stopped being feed by their mothers. But the keeping of cows changed that as they would drink the milk and became more tolerant of the lactose. But this did not happen in all the places where they kept cows. This is why the people of southern Italy will only drink one milky coffee a day while those of northern Italy can drink more.
The first recipe for bread was probably similar to what we now know today as Poolish. This is a simple recipe of flour and water which would be mixed together and baked on one of the hot stones which was next to the fire. You have to wonder how long it was before someone crushed a few hazelnuts and added them to the bread, or maybe a few berries. Good for carrying during the day when you are busy and needed something to eat.
I recently read an article about hunter gatherers which pointed out that they only needed to work 15 hours a week to get all that they needed. You can see why ancient peoples regretted becoming farmers.
Awesome as always
I think there was a slight missed opportunity to talk about the differences vetween silvaculture and agriculture although you did mention many of the difference i think a dedicated section might have helped those less familiar with them a bit better since they are pretty similar
Was wondering if you were working on a new video, and here it is! Your work on ancient cultures is top-notch, bringing the lives and beliefs of people thousands of years ago to life. It's long been asserted that the more nomadic people ate healthier than their more settled brethren due to a wider and more nutritious diet, but at the cost of spending far more time/effort procuring that food than their farming cousins. An odd aside I've discovered over the decades is that I eat far less and enjoy my food more if I cook/forage it myself as opposed to having a"stockpile" of supplies on hand or "ready to eat" meals. Perhaps it is that age old "Things earned are far more valuable than things given" concept, but putting a little effort into my food just makes it taste better to me.
Actually, I think the farming life is more demanding, requirng constant mid-level attention, quantitatively rewarding but qualitatively monotous, needing vigilance of every second as there are also stocks to be preserved and protected from voracious predators, be they bug, beast or man.Hunter gathers know intensive burst of activity but tend to follow the age-old proportion of 20% of time dedicated to 'work'. Farming means more people, but more people means more and more work and a new life balance. And as the video mentioned, people les healthy thus less apt to furnish the optimum.
@@cathjj840 However, having more people and also a food production system that requires less people, created the situation that allowed dedicated non-food producers, such as tool makers and record keepers, which paved the way for what we know as civilization.
Ooohhh baby. This was exactly what I needed for my after work chores. Can't wait to dive in.
Loving your channel, it’s right up my street.
Interesting that you touched on possible food prohibitions based on cultural or belief systems.
Don't mind me, just sacrificing a comment to the algorithm gods. Best pre-historic videos on YT imho.
Ireland and the islands in the Aegean are much further apart so the human intervention sounds very logical, in Croatia however, bears often swim across the sea to nearby islands
I think it was Boars in the Aegean, not bears.
Bears, boars, same thing, they both swim from the mainland to the islands in the Adriatic and wreak havoc
@@Zaeyrus Well, they're different when they're in your canoe though (even knowing bores are savage)
So interesting and the editing is beautiful, great images and background music. Very relaxing and stimulating intellectually at the same time. My favourite blend. Thank you so much, it helps my anxiety a lot.
I absolutely love you videos Dan!