On Thu, 16 Oct 1997, Loren Cordain <[log in to unmask]> wrote:

> There is little doubt that pre-agricultural man would have consumed wild
> bird eggs when they were seasonally available, and for most of man's
> history they would have been consumed raw, because fire was not in use.

What is meant by "most of man's history"? If you mean the period of
existence of anatomically modern humans then there is good evidence for
the use of fire for most of that 100,000 year period.  For example at
Kebara and Hayonim Caves, where in teh middle Palaeolithic levels "there
are certain areas ... in which at least 3m of ... [ash derived] sediments
exist" and "it would take roughly tens of thousands of years for 1m or so
... to accumulate" (Schiegl et al.  1996).  If you wish to take the 2
million years or so of the genus Homo, then there are fairly good claims
for the use of fire for more than the lst quarter of that period, for
example, Schiegl et al. cite a number of studies in Africa, and there has
been recent press publicity about a 400-500,000 year old hearth at Beeches
Pit in Suffolk, England (Daily Telegraph 12 August 1997, available online
via http://www.telegraph.co.uk/).

It seems to me that you cannot deny that fire has been available for a
significant amount of evolutionary time.  Whether these early humans could
cook eggs is another matter.  Once they could boil eggs though I
have no doubt that this would be preferable: a boiled egg is a much
easier thing to carry for sustenance on a trip than a raw one!

Andrew

Reference

Schiegl, S, Goldberg, P, Bar-Yosef, O & Weiner, S (1996) Ash deposits in
Hayonim and Kebara Caves, Israel: Macroscopic, microscopic and
mineralogical observations, and their archaeological implications.
Journal of Archaeological Science 23 763-781

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 Dr. Andrew Millard                              [log in to unmask]
 Department of Archaeology, University of Durham,   Tel: +44 191 374 4757
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