Staffan Lindeberg <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
>
> Doug Ginsberg wrote:
[regarding cooking/detoxifying methods]
> >...and were any of them used by paleolithic hunter-gatherers?
>
> I don't think there is any evidence of that. I suppose they would need
> pottery which they apparently did not use.

We do have hunter-gathers using pottery in the Jomon culture of Japan for
several thousand years, but not in Palaeolithic cultures (any culture
which had pottery would probably not be labelled Palaeolithic!).  The
Jomon is usually considered to be similar to the Mesolithic of Europe.

On the other hand we do have farming cultures, notably the Pre-pottery
Neolithic of the Near East, where there is clearly massive reliance on
cereal crops but no pottery in which to cook them.  They clearly needed to
cook their crops, but we have little idea of how they did it.

Andrew Millard

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 Dr. Andrew Millard                              [log in to unmask]
 Department of Archaeology, University of Durham,   Tel: +44 191 374 4757
 South Road, Durham. DH1 3LE. United Kingdom.       Fax: +44 191 374 3619
                      http://www.dur.ac.uk/~drk0arm/
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