On Wed, 5 May 1999, Ray Audette wrote:

        BTW, fires used for cooking are obvious to scientists
        (and human trackers) because of their construction and
        wastes left by cooking itself.  Use of fire for warmth
        preceeded cooking by many thousands of years.  The tools
        (grindstones, pots, etc) necessary to cook the forbidden
        fruits are only found within the last 10,000 years.

This is incorrect. Some vegetables, such as small tubers, can be
roasted on a stick.  Plant processing tools as old as 700,000
years have been found (See New Scientist, March 14, 1998) .  A
common technique for cooking without pots is to bury the food in
an "oven" of heated stones.  Tubers again can be cooked in this
way; I've done it myself.  Soaked legumes can also be cooked this
way in baskets of wet reeds.  These techniques leave little trace
for archeologists to find.

Todd Moody
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