>    From:    Todd Moody <[log in to unmask]>
>
>    ...Some beans, such as
>    lentils, can be made edible by soaking, which involves
>    essentially the same low-level technology, i.e., an animal
>    bladder to hold water and the stuff being sprouted or soaked.

Hmmm. Is this actually being proposed? How about giving it a
field trial and let us know the results before carrying this
topic any further? Mmmmm... urine-flavored soggy lentils.

>    
>    ...lentils grew wild in
>    the Fertile Crescent and could be made edible by the relatively
>    trivial process of soaking...
>    
Many other plants no doubt grew there >10K years ago, but
in the absence of evidence (coproliths, mummified remains etc)
there's no reason to believe they were consumed in significant
quantities in pre-Neolithic times.

The culture of gathering, drying & storing large amounts
of wild seed/legumes for use beyond the season would be a
precursor to the Neolithic, and therefore post- or transitional-
post Paleolithic.