"Neolithic Scandinavians ate water and gruel, not bread" Topic

"Early Neolithic farmers in what is now Denmark grew cereals and used grinding stones, but not to grind the cereals into flour to make bread. A new study has revealed that 5,500-year-old grinding stones discovered at the Early Neolithic Funnel Beaker site at Frydenlund on the island of Funen bore no traces of any of the grains found at the site.

The Funnel Beaker culture (4000–2800 B.C.) emerged in northern Europe in the Early Neolithic. They played an essential role in introducing farmed crops to the region, but our understanding of what food they grew and how they prepared it is limited by the scarcity of surviving plant remains (mostly preserved in waterlogged contexts). Microbotanical analysis opens up new avenues of information, as it draws information from small amounts of food residue, like charred crusts attached to pottery, food preparation artifacts, coprolites (fossilized poop) and even dental calculus.

The grinding stones found on Funen are some of the oldest examples in Denmark. They are the first to be subjected to the cutting edge analysis of microremains, traces of plant residue left in tiny cavities on the stone surface. Researchers were able to recover phytoliths (microscopic mineral deposits in plant tissues that remain after the plant has decayed) and starch granules from 14 stones…"

link

Armand

Those neolithic Scandinavians sure knew how to live…

(smile)

Armand

I like a good bowl of Cream of Wheat as the next man but no beer? Inconceivable!

Ha!…

Armand