Lydia Spencer-Elliott
RESEARCHERS at the University of Alcala have found evidence that humans would boil their food in hot springs before discovering fire.
Early human archaeological sites were unearthed alongside the hot springs in Olduvai Gorge, a valley in Northern Tanzania.
The proximity of the remains and the hydrothermal features has raised the probability that these springs were used as a cooking resource.
But exactly how early humans began to cook with hot springs has been undecided.
Researchers posit that our ancestors may have butchered animals and dipped the meat in the hot springs to make them taste better.
This may also have been done with root vegetables, in a similar fashion to how we boil potatoes today.
Animals may have also fallen into the bubbling waters where humans discovered them and fished them out.
“If there was a wildebeest that fell into the water and was cooked, why wouldn’t you eat it?,” said the study‘s lead author Ainara Sistiaga.
A multinational effort, the team consisted of archaeologists, geologists, and geochemists from the University of Alcalá and the University of Valladolid, in Spain; the University of Dar es Salaam, in Tanzania; and Pennsylvania State University.
