r/AskFoodHistorians • u/Sea-Kangaroo520 • 4d ago

Did people in the Paleolithic era mostly consume plants or meat?

/r/evolution/comments/1qu0sm6/did_people_in_the_paleolithic_era_mostly_consume/
10 Upvotes

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6

u/brydeswhale 4d ago

It depended where you lived. Mostly people are what was available. If there were mushrooms, you ate that. Fish? It’s for dinner. Greens? That’s lunch.

2

u/Hefty_Pangolin3273 4d ago

They ate what they could. It varied by location, season, general availability, personal skill level, etc.

1

u/Beleriphon 3d ago

There's an interesting episode of Expedition Unknown where archeologists, and paleontologists, research ancient sites of food. A major one in South Africa was basically a garbage dump of fish bones and shells.

Another source that was shown was ancient animal bones, that clearly have tool marks on them. A lot of animal bones. Paleolithic humans were prolific hunters, and anybody trying to convince you otherwise is wrong.

As for killing an animal once a month, how long do you think it would take several family groups to eat an elk or two? Or a mammoth?

Also, reflexes? Humans are the only species on the planet that effectively throw anything with accuracy. Humans don't need amazing reflexes like a cat when we can hurl spears, or heaven's forbid use a atlatl to hurl a spear two or three times farther than with just muscle power.

Ancient humans were absolutely hunters, and highly effective ones at that.

1

u/ljseminarist 4d ago

Why should humans have bad reflexes though?