Research What foods were people preparing 780,000 years ago?

It may seem incredible, but even 780,000 years ago, people knew what foods needed to be cooked in order to get tasty and healthy meals. Here are their main products!

A new study has found that the ancestors of modern humans were capable of preparing much more food than previously thought. Although researchers aren't sure when our ancestors first started cooking, a study published in the journal Nature and Ecology revealed what foods were in their staple diet about 800,000 years ago.

What foods did your ancestors eat?

During the study, the researchers analyzed the archaeological site “Gesher Benot Yaakov”, which is located in Israel. Communities that lived 780,000 years ago in this region used fire to cook the food they consumed. More precisely, people of those times cooked their food in a kind of improvised oven in the ground. Their menu included products such as game meat, fruits, vegetables and freshwater fish.

Fish is the mainstay of their diet.

One of the study's researchers, Irit Zohar, testified that fish represented a stable food source at that time, being even more affordable than game meat. “We found that fish was cooked at any time of the year, that is, it was an important component of the diet,” the specialist emphasized, reports Best Life.

Experts also believe that the shallow waters made it easier to catch fish without any special equipment: “I think they used their hands, just like people do today with river fish,” Zohar continued.

Cooking was an important step in human evolution. 1-2 million years ago, people had taller bodies and larger brains. Cooking and high-calorie diets are thought to have contributed to this change.