-

  NUTS MAJOR PART OF ANCIENT MAN'S DIET 
   The remains of seven types of 78,000-year-old nuts have been found at the Gesher Benot Ya'aqov site in Israel's Hula Valley. The nuts and the stone tools found with them are the first evidence that various types of nuts formed a major part of man's diet 78,000 years ago. Hominins, or prehistoric men, developed an assortment of tools to crack open nuts during the Early-Middle Pleistocene period, according to researchers from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and Bar-Ilan University. The researchers say that the nuts were anaerobically preserved because the site has been waterlogged since its destruction. The findings are published in the proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences in the United States. Seven species of edible fruits covered with a hard shell were found at the site: wild almond; prickly water lily; acorns from the Q. calliprinos evergreen and the Mt. Tabor oak; Atlantic pistachio; pistachio; and water chestnut. The researchers say m! ost of them only can be cracked open by a hard hammer. All have a high nutritional value -- the pistachios and water chestnuts found at the site are similar to those available today in the Far East and northern Europe. 


Source: United Press International via arcmax.com