On Wed, 7 Feb 2001, Philip Thrift wrote: > Like I've said, I think of our species as hunter/cookers :-). I agree with that, but in addition I suspect that plant foods were cooked for a long time as well. As Wrangham and others have argued, cooked plant foods leave fewer durable traces, so the archeological record has a "bias" toward signs of cooked meat -- charred bones, for example. Parched grains wouldn't last long, and neither would stone-baked tubers. And of course soaking is even simpler than cooking. All that is needed is a vessel, such as an animal stomach or bladder, and some water. I don't argue that this justifies a bean-and-grain based diet, but I do believe that these goods were part of the paleo diet, even if not a dominant part. It's not all or nothing. Todd Moody [log in to unmask]