Prehistoric human cuisine included roast tortoise, study finds

Prehistoric cave-dwellersenjoyed munching on tortoises roasted in their shells as anappetizer or side dish, Ran Barkai, an archaeologist at Tel AvivUniversity, said on Tuesday.

Barkai helped lead a research team who found400,000-year-old tortoise shells and bones in a cave in Israelthat showed hunter-gatherers butchered and cooked tortoises aspart of a diet dominated by large animals and vegetation.

Burn marks were found on the shells discovered in the Qessemcave, as well as signs they were cracked open and cut marksindicating the animal was butchered using flint knives.

"Now we know they ate tortoises in a rather sophisticatedway," Barkai said. "It would have been a supplement an
appetizer, dessert or a side dish to the meat and fat fromlarge animals."

Qesem cave was uncovered during road work in 2000 and wasbelieved to be inhabited for about 200,000 years. The site hasoffered scientists a rare insight into human evolution andaccounted for many research papers.

Bones scattered throughout the cave have already suggested acalorie-rich prehistoric menu of horses, fallow deer and wildox. A study last year, based on plaque found on teeth, showedthe cave's inhabitants also ate plant-based material.

The latest findings by Barkai's team, which included membersfrom Spain and Germany, were published this week in the journalQuaternary Science Reviews.

• Teeth may be oldest evidence of human remains