Did our Paleolithic ancestors of over
twelve thousand years ago enjoy a 500 calorie meal like this?
Surprisingly, the answer is 'sort of.
The Paleolithic Period coincides
almost exactly with the Pleistocene epoch of geologic time, which
lasted from 2.6 million years ago to about 12,000 years ago. This
epoch experienced important geographic and climatic changes that
affected most human societies. The ice age was drawing to a close and
the planet was getting warmer which resulted in increased migrations
of these people across the continents.
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| Definitely the wrong dietary direction... |
How these people lived is sketchy. Nearly all of our knowledge of
Paleolithic human culture and their way of life comes from
archaeology and ethnographic comparisons to modern hunter-gatherer
cultures such as the Kung San who live similarly to their Paleolithic
predecessors. The economy of a typical Paleolithic society was a
hunter-gatherer
economy. Humans hunted wild animals for meat and gathered food,
firewood, and materials for their tools, clothes, or shelters.
Human population density was
very low, around only one
person per square mile. This was most likely due to low body fat,
infanticide, women regularly engaging in intense endurance exercise,
late weaning of infants and a nomadic lifestyle. Like contemporary
hunter-gatherers, Paleolithic humans enjoyed an
abundance of
leisure time unparalleled in both Neolithic farming societies and
modern industrial societies. At the end of the Paleolithic,
specifically the Middle and or Upper Paleolithic, humans began to
produce works of art such as cave paintings, rock art and jewelry and
began to engage in religious behavior such as burial and ritual
Paleolithic hunting and gathering
people ate varying proportions of vegetables (including
tubers/roots), fruit, seeds (including nuts and wild grass seeds) and
insects, meat, fish, and shellfish. However, there is little direct
evidence of the relative proportions of plant and animal foods.
Although the term "paleolithic diet", without references to
a specific time frame or locale, is sometimes used with an
implication that most humans shared a certain diet during the entire
era, that is not entirely accurate. The Paleolithic was an extended
period of time, during which multiple technological advances were
made, many of which had impact on human dietary structure. For
example, humans probably did not possess the control of fire until
the Middle Paleolithic, or tools necessary to engage in extensive
fishing.
On the other hand, both these technologies are generally
agreed to have been widely available to humans by the end of
the Paleolithic (consequently, allowing humans in some regions of the
planet to rely heavily on fishing and hunting). What is generally
agreed upon is that the average human of that time was; muscular and
lean, suffered zero heart attacks or strokes, had no dental problems
and died rather young only due to injury or predation by wild
animals. Not a bad role model for modern man to try and follow.
