At 4:22 PM -0500 28/9/03, Keith Thomas wrote:

>For those who are seeking to emulate a Paleolithic diet, the choice
>regarding tubers is somewhat ambiguous.  _If_ we use the rule that says we
>should exclude foods that became available to Homo sapiens in amounts
>sufficient to be significant in natural selection only in the Neolithic or
>a short time before (and this would, by definition exclude all foods
>native to the Americas...

In the million or so years humans evolved, there have been several
major climate changes around the globe.

Who's to say that a nightshade fruit like tomatoes or a variety of
edible yam weren't once prolific in Africa but were wiped out by an
Ice Age?

Does anybody have any references from the archaeological record of what
types of edible plants were found in Africa/Middle East over the last
250,000 years or so?

 ...R.