The ancients ate snails 170,000 years ago. This conclusion was reached by archaeologists in South Africa, after discovering fragments of the shells of giant land molluscs that changed due to heating, according to the study. published in Quaternary scientific journals.
Molluscs were part of the diet of human ancestors along with many other representatives of flora and fauna. Until recently, the oldest finds indicating the consumption of land molluscs (snails) were considered to be those found in Africa and Europe, which are 36 and 49 thousand years old, respectively. However, the discovery made by South African archaeologists may dramatically change scientists’ understanding of when people’s ancestors started eating snails.
In 2015-2019, during excavations in the famous cave Border Cave, located in the province of KwaZulu-Natal (South Africa) near the border with Eswatini (formerly Swaziland), scientists discovered numerous fragments of giant snails belonging to the Achatinid family, the largest land snails in the world, whose size can reach 16 centimeters. The cave has been studied since the 1940s. During decades of excavations, remains of people of modern anatomical type, numerous stone and bone tools and animal bones have been found there.
Shell fragments were found in large numbers in layers between 70,000 and 170,000 years old and had different shades – “from bright beige to brown and dull gray”. Scientists have suggested that the molluscs were used as food by the cave dwellers, and the shells changed color due to heating in the fire. To test this hypothesis, scientists took shells of modern snails from the same family, crushed them into fragments and exposed them to high temperatures for 5 minutes to 36 hours.
It turned out that the strongest and longest heating makes the fragments of light snow-white, and the beiges and browns become light and gray. In addition, the heat causes the shells to lose their luster, this is due to the destruction of the organic matter which creates this effect.
“Microscopic analysis of modern heated shells and archaeological specimens from Border Cave showed similarity in their properties due to heating, namely microcracks and the appearance of a matte surface,” the study authors explained. . – Excluding alternate versions, we concluded that people routinely brought giant African snails to this place, fried them and ate them, from the era of 170,000 years ago, and more often between 160 and 70,000 years. Border Cave is now the oldest recorded site for this method of cooking.”
