When you think of the Stone Age, your mind is probably filled with images of rock tools,
thick brows, and wooly mammoth dishwashers. What you probably don’t think about are
surgeons. Or dentists performing operations thousands of years before medical textbooks
were even a possibility.
Over the years, archaeologists have found more than 1500 Neolithic-era skulls in Europe,
Asia, and the Americas that have holes in them. Some researchers have concluded that
this is evidence of a primitive form of trepanning, a once-common procedure in which a hole would
be drilled or cut into a person’s skull to relieve pressure after an injury.
New bone growth around the edges of the holes suggests that some of these patients actually
lived for months or years after the procedures. Archaeologists have even found a cow skull
with a similar hole in it, suggesting that there were either Stone Age vets at work or
that the bovine was used for practice.
Scientists observed evidence of brain disease or head injuries in some of the skulls, which
might explain Caveman, MD turning to such a procedure. Other times, though, there was
no previous trauma to be found, leading many to believe that some of these procedures were
performed solely as rituals.
Prehistoric societies might have also attempted to take care of their teeth better than we
once assumed. In 2017, an international team of researchers wrote about two teeth they
found in Italy dating back 13,000 years. The two incisors had holes chiseled into them
and had diseased tissue scraped out, likely with the help of a sharp stone. The teeth
were then packed with bichumen, a type of waterproof tar. If that sounds a little bit
like your last trip to the dentist, it should -- while there’s no way of knowing for sure,
the researchers theorize that this could have been an early attempt at filling a cavity.
Just be thankful we at least have anesthesia now.
I’m your host, Justin Dodd, and today we’re heading back in time to debunk some of the
most popular myths about the Stone Age in this prehistoric edition of Misconceptions.
The Stone Age encompasses more than 95 percent of human history. It began at least 2.6 million
years ago, when researchers found the earliest evidence of humans using stone tools, and
lasted until about 3300 BCE with the birth of the Bronze Age and the use of metal tools.
To simplify things, we break the Stone Age into three distinct periods: the Paleolithic
Period, or the Old Stone Age; Mesolithic Period, or Mid Stone Age; and Neolithic Period, or
New Stone Age.
Because of just how long ago it was, we tend to think there wasn’t a whole lot that connects
our modern world to our ancestors’. But as we’ll see, most of our basic needs haven’t
changed much, especially when it comes to satisfying our craving for some savory meats
and wonderful carbs.
It turns out that prehistoric meals might not have been all that different from your
last takeout order. In 1991, a 5300-year-old mummy was discovered in a glacier in Europe.
When the mummy, who scientists nicknamed Ötzi, had the contents of his stomach examined,
they found the remains of some goat meat. That in itself wasn’t strange, but then
they realized the meat wasn’t cooked; it was dry-cured. Or, to put it another way,
Otzi’s last meal was basically goat bacon.
We also know that late Stone Age chefs were cooking with many of the spices in your cabinet
today. Fossilized turmeric, capers, and coriander have all been found in prehistoric cooking
vessels, along with charred meat and fish. Predating even that, pots found in Germany
from around 6000 years ago have traces of garlic mustard seeds, and possibly deer meat.
According to researchers, this is the earliest evidence we have of spices being used in food.
Archeologist Hayley Saul, who led the study, emphasized that the discovery of the spices
helped change the way we perceive our ancestors. She told NPR that these meals weren’t just
about delivering calories; early humans were also enjoying their food and exercising a
bit of creativity to find new flavors.
You might assume, from the Paleo Diet, that people of that time ate mounds of meaty steak
and no grains, but that's another myth. Figuring out what prehistoric peoples ate is an ever-evolving
field of study, and considering we’re talking about thousands of years, trends surely changed
over time—there probably isn’t any one “paleo” diet. I mean, people today enjoy
mocking recipes from the 1950s, and that was less than a thousand years ago, by my math.
But the available evidence from the time period shows that grains were on the menu. Ötzi
had einkorn wheat in his stomach, and there’s new evidence that some cultures were making
bread as far back as 14,000 years ago, predating the birth of agriculture by about 4000 years.
At a dig site in Jordan, archaeologists discovered charred breadcrumbs in large circular fireplaces
inside two buildings. In terms of taste, think of it like a multigrain flatbread. Slap some
roasted gazelle on it, and you’ve got yourself a Paleolithic wrap.
On the subject of bread: since it required so much time and involved ingredients that
were harder to come by, scientists theorize that it was usually made for feasts and other
celebrations. That’s because while it’s easy to imagine Stone Age life as an endless
barrage of hunting, hunger, and violence, there was more than enough room for some partying
along the way.
During the late Neolithic period, the areas surrounding Stonehenge may have played host
to massive feasts and celebrations that included travelers from all over what is today the
United Kingdom. Archaeologists have unearthed tens of thousands of animal bones from the
area, many of which were young pigs around 9 months old that showed clear signs of butchery
and scorch marks, likely from being roasted.
Further analysis concluded they were probably eaten as part of a midwinter celebration.
It’s believed that a tenth of the population of Britain at the time might have attended
this massive feast, with some of the pigs coming from as far as Scotland. In addition
to celebrating the midwinter festivities, the food was probably eaten by early humans
as they built the mysterious megaliths of Stonehenge.
With all that roast pig, you’d probably want a beer to wash it all down. Well, that
could have been a possibility, too. See, the discovery of beer usually gets lumped into
the early days of the Bronze Age some 5000 years ago, but a team of scientists, led by
Li Liu of Stanford University, believe they found traces of prehistoric suds at a Natufian
burial site in a cave near Haifa in Israel. This rudimentary alcoholic drink was apparently
made of wheat and barley that was stored in 25-inch-deep stone mortars that were likely
used for storing food around 13,000 years ago. The scientists say it was weaker and
more gruel-like than beers of today, but it was still a fermented, grain-based alcohol
that was wetting whistles thousands of years before the previous historical record could
account for.
It’s not necessarily a misconception that Stone Age people lived in caves and grunted
and carried around big honkin’ clubs. They most certainly did some of those things at
some point. But that doesn’t account for the entire 2-plus-million-year timespan of
the age. In the early Neolithic period -- so, around 4000 to 3600 BCE -- people constructed
their own freestanding homes, complete with fireplaces. We even know that many helped
make grand halls of timber for their communities, remnants of which have been found throughout
the UK.
One house, discovered in North Yorkshire, dates back more than 10,000 years, when Britain
was still part of the European mainland. According to a report out of the University of Manchester,
scientists concluded that generations of hunters occupied the house for anywhere from 200 to
500 years, and that it underwent repairs and rebuilds at various points.
The findings were reported in 2010, and it illustrates how some of these seemingly nomadic
hunter-gatherers after the last Ice Age may have actually stuck around in single communities
and had more of an attachment to their land than we thought.
In 2018, a team of archaeologists in Peru found the skeletal remains of what looked
like a prehistoric male hunter who was buried alongside weaponry and other hunter-gatherer
tools around 9000 years ago. The team originally assumed they had simply discovered the resting
place of a high-ranking chief, which would have been a nice find, but nothing worthy
of too many headlines … until they observed that the bones were lighter than usual.
After more examination, they found the skeleton was actually that of a young woman anywhere
from 17 to 19 years old, which means it’s likely that at least some women were involved
in bringing down game in different Stone Age societies.
This young hunter isn’t alone; we’ve found other skeletons of women across the Americas
who were buried with hunting tools, suggesting that our conception of men as the only hunters
in Stone Age societies is an oversimplification, at best.
Even when Stone Age societies shifted toward agriculture during the Neolithic era, women
still provided an integral, physical role in their communities’ survival. And whatever
they were doing on those early farms must have been rigorous, because when scientists
tested a group of skeletons of women from a prehistoric agricultural society who lived
around 7400 years ago, they found that their arm bones would have been 11 to 16 percent
stronger than the women on Cambridge’s 2017 championship rowing team.
There’s a picture of Neanderthals that our modern culture just can’t seem to shake
-- it’s of the short, thick-browed brute who walked hunched over and was covered head
to toe in matted, mud-caked body hair.
Turns out, there's a lot that's wrong about that image—or at least less certain than
you might believe.
A 2019 study out of the University of Zurich used computer modeling of a Neanderthal skeleton
found in La Chapelle-aux-Saints, France in the early 20th century. Their analysis suggests
that this Neanderthal had the same lower back and neck curvatures as we do today. This means
he likely stood as upright as our more recent homo sapiens ancestors. And Neanderthals might
have done so without all that excess body hair you got to know while watching Captain
Caveman -- in fact, they might not have been much hairier than we are today.
Neanderthals’ hairiness, furriness, or relatively close resemblance to modern humans is an open
question in the field. One 2003 study speculated Neanderthals had a sparse covering of 1.5
inch hairs across the entire body, which might have been as warm as a light layer of clothing—perfect
for those Ice Age nights, but not as hairy as some would have it. It’s quite plausible
that we’ll never know exactly how they looked, since we just can’t seem to stumble upon
any perfectly preserved Neanderthals.
But remember, while humans didn't evolve from genetic mutations within Neanderthals, many
of us do have some Neanderthal DNA in us today, due to the forbidden dance of interspecies
romance. Unless you’re solely of African ancestry, chances are you have about 1 to
4 percent Neanderthal DNA in every cell. And scientists have discovered that some of these
gene variants can have an impact on plenty of stuff you’re dealing with on a daily
basis, such as whether or not you pick up smoking, get sunburned often, or are prone
to depression.
So next time you turn lobster red after standing outside in the sun for a few minutes, just
put the blame on your ancestors’ neanderthal booty call.
If you have an idea for a future episode of Misconceptions, you should keep it to yourself.
I’m sorry, I’m being informed that’s a misconception—you should apparently leave
it in the comments? Seems weird, but...Thanks for watching!