On Thursday, Jun 24, 2004, at 22:18 Asia/Tokyo, Todd Moody wrote:

> William wrote:
>
>> Thomas Bridgeland wrote:
>>
>>> http://scientificamerican.com/
>>> article.cfm?chanID=sa003&articleID=0005F2EC-2A15-10D7-
>>> AA1583414B7F0000
>
>
> It's actually pretty significant, since 23,000 years ago is certainly
> within the paleolithic period, and at least 10,000 years before
> agriculture.  This in fact squarely refutes the claim that wheat and
> barley consumption started in the neolithic.

Well, we still don't really know that, they could as easily been
gathering grasses to make their beds, or for thatch roofs, or even as
fodder for sheep. They didn't find grinding stones or ovens or anything
like that, at least it wasn't mentioned in the article. They did
mention that many of the grasses were small seeded types, not what we
eat today. Hard to harvest I would think.