2024-08-30 04:00:02
The origins of cooking, a gesture so seemingly innocuous today, could well be the key to our evolution as a species. By allowing our ancestors to consume calories more efficiently, it may have contributed to the development of our brain. But when did this ritual really begin? The answers, although vague, can be found at crossed of archaeology and biology.
Archaeologists have discovered grains of starch cooked in 50,000-year-old teeth. This suggests that cooking was already practiced at that time. But for earlier periods, the evidence becomes uncertain. The first evidence of controlled fires, which may have been used to cook food, dates back to about a million years. For example, in the Wonderwerk cave in Africa of Sudthe presence of ashes so deeply buried suggests that this feu could not have been of natural origin. However, some sites show even more precise evidence of cooking, such as at Gesher Benot Ya’aqov in Israel, where remains of heated fish and stone circles suggest the mastery of fire as early as 780,000 years ago. These discoveries challenge the idea that cooking is a recent invention in our evolutionary history.
On a biological level, the evolution of the human body also offers clues. Humans are biologically adapted to eating cooked foods, as evidenced by the smaller size of our digestive system compared to that of primates. This adaptation would have started with The man stood uparound 1.9 million years ago, a period that coincides with a reduction in the size of jaws and teeth, suggesting a diet that was easier to chew.
However, without clear archaeological evidence of the use of fire by The man stood upthis theory remains debated. Researchers continue to explore this enigma, and it is likely that the mystery will persist for a long time to come.
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