Our Ancestors Did Not Suffer From Caries, But Took
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26 September 2002




keywords
Archaeology, Food, History



When coming across ancient vessels the archaeologists
first of all search for any remnants inside. As a rule,
the vessels are crammed full with soil, the analysis of
which can help to learn about the content of the vessel.
In the course of excavation of burial mounds in Kalmykia
Natalia Shishlina (State Historic Museum) collected a
lot of soil samples from various vessels.
She applied for assistance to the Institute for
Physicochemical and Biological Problems of Soil Science,
Pushchino Scientific Center, Russian Academy of
Sciences. Organic matter contains a lot of phosphorus,
this element can be preserved in the soil for thousands
of years, by analyzing the phosphorus content the
researchers can identify the food that used to be in the
vessels.

The burial mounds in Kalmykia were left by the cattle-
breeders who lived there five thousand years ago. It is
assumed that they were ancestors of Indo-Europeans or of
the culture cognate to them. The mounds are erected to
mark the burial places, so they certainly contain
funeral food, nevertheless it gives some idea about the
ancient people`s diet.

Some vessels where animals` bones lay contained meat
broth, in the same vessels the scientists found the
remains of a tick which parasitized on animals` skin and
hair. The signs of the primary parasite, namely
echinococcus, signify that ancient people used to eat
animals` liver and entrails. Sometimes they used to cook
fish-soup - two vessels contained a lot of microplates
of river and lake fish.

If a vessel used to contain some plants, then the soil
preserves their pollen and phytolites, i.e. fossilized
cells. The content of the white water-lily pollen has
indicated to the scientists that ancient people used to
pour water from the local spring into the vessels. Other
vessels had some porridge flavored with the wormwood,
reed mace or goose-foot. The porridge had been made of
unthreshed grains of wild barley and blue oat grass:
their microcilia have been found in the vessels. The
pollen has proved that the pots contained the beverage
of the sage, mint and ziziphora herbs or honey. The soup
recipe dating back to five thousand years is as follows:
meat and liver broth seasoned with the coarse grinding
grains, fragrant spicy herbs and sorrel.

Several vessels have proved to contain phytolites of the
hemp. Herodotus wrote that the Scythian had been
familiar with the narcotic properties of this plant, but
it has turned out that the hemp was used already in the
Bronze Age. The scientists have also identified the
psychotropic plants - goose-foot, ephedra and wormwood.
But the variety of plant cookery has not been limited by
that: our ancestors used the amaranth, chicory, yellow-
cup and gromwell.

The amaranth flour was good for making porridge, flat
cakes, beverages , its seeds were fried. The gromwell
seeds cure the nephrolithiasis, bronchial asthma,
diarrhea. The majority of Ranunculus spcies are
poisonous, but it is known from ethnography that the
Indians eat some of their fruit uncooked, believing that
Ranunculus bread is more delicious than wheaten bread
and is absolutely innocuous.

Natalia Shishlina collected samples of the soil from the
area of the stomach of the dead, as some food remnants
could have remained there. In fact, the scientists have
found the phytolites of unknown plant in the stomach of
two skeletons - a man and a girl of 15, sacrificed to
him. Probably, these are the signs of the famous "soma" -
a narcotic liqueur of ancient Hindus. It is possible
that the sick man had taken the hallcinogenic decoction
as anaesthesia, and his sacrifice had been made drunk to
fall into a trance? The soma recipe has been lost, so,
by identifying the mysterious phytolite, Russian
archeologists may reveal one of the mysteries of ancient
history.

Like nowadays, ancient food was not always health-giving
and salubrious. Some of the dead had suffered from
gastrointestinal diseases - the researchers found
arthropoda parasites in their stomachs. The fungus
spores and the ticks testify that the products were
sometimes low-quality: the grain was infected by
bacteria, the meat was tainted. However, the teeth of
the Bronze Age people were very good, the dental tartar
being a result of bad water and metabolic disease.
Nevertheless, our ancestors used to live pretty long:
for 40 years, and quite often the burials contain old
people of 60-65. That means that their nutrition was not
bad after all.