Discoveries in Israel Cave Reveals that Prehistoric People Snacked on Whole, Roasted Turtles

Some years ago, researchers found evidence in Israel that indicated how prehistoric humans did not only feast on vegetal material and huge animals, their diet also included small reptiles like tortoises. In 2016, archeologists uncovered scattered tortoise remains at Qesem Cave near Tel Aviv, a 400,000-year-old site, Science Daily reported. This finding sent shockwaves through the scientific community as it reversed the previous assumptions about food consumed by prehistoric humans. Findings regarding the tortoise remains in the cave have been published in Quaternary Science Reviews.

The same cave in the past has also been the site of multiple other late Lower Paleolithic period discoveries. According to examinations, the cave had been inhabited by Paleolithic humans for around 200,000 years. The tortoise specimens from the cave were exhumed and sent for analysis. The evaluation revealed how early humans prepared and ate the turtles. The results indicate that the reptile was butchered and burnt by early humans to make it ready for eating. "According to the marks, most of the turtles were roasted in the shell," Prof. Ran Barkai of TAU's Department of Archaeology and Ancient Near Eastern Civilizations and a contributor to the study stated. "In other cases, their shells were broken and then butchered using flint tools. The humans clearly used fire to roast the turtles."

Researchers were surprised by the discovery as tortoise meat is not known to provide as many calories as other prehistoric animals. Being hunter-gatherers, this group had a much larger energy requirement than the tortoise could provide. "We know by the dental evidence we discovered earlier that the Qesem inhabitants ate vegetal food," said Prof. Barkai. "Now we can say they also ate tortoises, which were collected, butchered, and roasted, even though they don't provide as many calories as fallow deer, for example."

Experts believe tortoises could be a resource that then-humans were storing for the future. "In some cases in history, we know that slow-moving animals like tortoises were used as a 'preserved' or 'canned' food," explained Dr. Ruth Blasco of the Centro Nacional de Investigacion Sobre la Evolucion Humana, who contributed to the study. "Maybe the inhabitants of Qesem were simply maximizing their local resources. In any case, this discovery adds an important new dimension to the know-how, capabilities, and perhaps taste preferences of these people."

The findings have made experts speculate how hunter-gatherers operated in the group while catching the tortoises. "Which part of the group found and collected the tortoises?" Prof. Avi Gopher of TAU's Department of Archaeology and Ancient Near Eastern Civilizations hypothesized. "Maybe members who were not otherwise involved in hunting large game, who could manage the low effort required to collect these reptiles -- perhaps the elderly or children."

This revelation also helped experts get some more information about the culture of Paleolithic humans and their culinary preferences. "Until now, it was believed that Paleolithic humans hunted and ate mostly large game and vegetal material," said Prof. Barkai. "Our discovery adds a really rich human dimension -- a culinary and therefore cultural depth to what we already know about these people."