How ancient humans obtained food

We know that primitive man, who had just come out of the animal state, could be used as an instrument of labor only by his hands and feet, with the exception of his hands, or occasionally with the help of branches or stones. For this reason, primitive man's food acquisition activities were initially limited to the acquisition and possession of natural products to sustain their lives, so most of their food was taken from the plant kingdom.

The leaves, fruits, bark, stems, roots, and tubers of the trees are at most only to hunt young beasts.

With insects only. Subsequently, after countless years and centuries, primitive man knew how to use man-made faculties (i.e., tools of labour) as instruments of power, adapted to his ultimate purpose, and acted on objects of familiarity to strengthen or supplement the efficacy of his own faculties. For example, to strike at a distance, he uses a club to extend his bottom arm; To strengthen the boxing, he holds a sharp stone.

The invention of these tools, no matter how primitive, but with them, primitive man was able to hunt wild beasts.

and important labour materials for improving food.

Thanks to the invention of tools, although the range of food for primitive people was expanded from picking plants to hunting animals, it was not possible to mix and enjoy the collected things in order to use fire at that time. Therefore, all the natural objects caught are just eaten alive, only the hard shell of the bottom of the fruit is peeled off with teeth and hands before eating, or the small animals caught are torn into small pieces in advance, and then eaten raw.

The most primitive time: fruit picking, group hunting.

Redevelopment: Hunting with sticks or stones.

Later: learned to use sharp stones to cut prey.

Later: Roast food over fire (first with natural fire, such as a wildfire caused by thunder, some wild animals will be burned to death.) Later invented drilling wood for fire).

Continue to develop: If there is more prey, do it when you can't finish eating.

Circle. Raising (this is how dogs, sheep, etc. start in captivity).

Later: ...... with bows, arrows, spears, etc

Picking wild fruits, hunting for food, living in caves, and clothing on animal skins.

1. Access to food.

Food is mainly obtained by fruit picking, hunting, or fishing. At that time, people lived in caves or partly in groups on trees, feeding on the fruits, nuts and rhizomes of some plants, while hunting wild animals and catching fish and mussels from rivers and lakes to survive.

2. Original houses.

Primitive human beings lived in caves or trees in order to avoid the cold and summer, prevent insects, snakes and beasts, and this is the so-called "burrowing" and "nesting" (nesting on trees). After unruly evolution, the ancients began to build houses.

According to archaeological excavations, the earliest house construction in China was produced in the Neolithic Age, about six or seven thousand years ago.

At that time, there were two main types of houses, one was the northern architectural model represented by the Banpo site in Xi'an, Shaanxi Province - semi-crypt houses and ground houses; The other is the architectural model of the Yangtze River basin and the south of the Yangtze River represented by the Hemudu site in Yuyao, Zhejiang.

Originally it was mainly scavenging and eating wild fruits. It's miserable, and then I learned to use tools for some easier hunting, and then I learned to make tools, so that I can do some more difficult but rewarding hunting, and then later, I found that some wild grains can be artificially planted, and humans began to farm, and since then they no longer have to migrate for food, and began to settle down, and then then humans have mastered the domestication technology, and some wild animals have been domesticated and artificially cultivated, so as to enrich human nutrition**, The evolution of the brain is also becoming more and more perfect.

Hope my answer will be helpful to you!

In modern society, almost everyone can meet the basic needs of food and clothing, which is simple happiness. Chinese food has a long history and culture, and friends are more curious about what ancient people ate every day and how they cooked ingredients? Let's take a look. <>

Because the origin of China's agricultural civilization is relatively early, there are already hail skin millet and rice cultivation techniques at a very early age. But their cooking skills are not very good, just simple rice porridge with wild vegetables. Later, in the Western Zhou Dynasty, people's rice became richer, and there was meat porridge.

In the Tang and Song dynasties, people's living standards have improved, Zhang Sai has been sent to the Western Regions, bringing back many rare fruits and vegetables, such as pineapples, peppers, tomatoes, etc., at this time people have learned to stir-fry, and even have learned a variety of pastries. In the Qing Dynasty, the three daily meals of the ancients became more refined, especially Cixi's meal, which needed to be extraordinarily exquisite. Therefore, there was a gathering of chefs from the north and south, so that he had the opportunity to exchange food, and there was a full banquet of the Manchu and Han Dynasty in the palace, which was not inferior to the banquet food of modern society.

In the early days, ancient stoves were mostly made of bricks and stones, and the fuel was hay and wood. In ancient times, people mainly used bronze cooking utensils for cooking. With the passage of time, the variety of seasonings and ingredients of the ancient people became more and more abundant.

As long as people want to survive in the world, they can't do without "eating". From ancient times to the present, our ancestors have left us many classic delicacies, and have even become the representative cuisine of every place. When you are in a bad mood, you can eat delicious things, as if your troubles will disappear immediately, and you should learn to enjoy life once in a while and taste more Chinese food.

Ordinary people eat some grains and wild vegetables when the year is bad, and they can also eat meat in peacetime. The ancients usually cooked food more simply, and they generally used Liangshen peppercorns, star anise, and pepper to cook.

When ancient people ate a lot of rice, noodles, millet porridge, corn paste, vegetables, and meat; The ancient people also had cooking utensils, which is similar to the practice in our village now, if it is a rich place, the cooking method is better than many ordinary families now. Return.

In ancient times, most of them ate some mutton, chicken and fish, and pork was not eaten, because his banquet types looked down on pigs, and most of the staple food was made of porridge; Sometimes there is no oil, and they can only use three methods of boiling, stewing, and steaming to cook the ingredients.

In ancient times, people often ate some grains, such as beans, wheat, millet, rice, hemp and other grains; They use a lot of slate for a series of cooking.

01 Research shows that in the early stages of human evolution, human survival and adaptability were still relatively weak, and humans at that time did not have the ability to make and use tools and use fire. Therefore, paleoanthropologists speculate that before Australopithecus, ancient humans obtained food by gathering, and the food composition was mainly plants.

Since the day of human existence on Earth, human beings have faced the competitive pressure of survival. Obtaining food in sufficient quantities of nutrients was necessary for ancient humans to survive and reproduce. Ancient humans lived in the distant past, and the materials preserved are very limited, only fossils formed by the petrification of their bones and teeth, tools used to make them, sites of living activities, and remains of survival activities (such as evidence of using fire, various traces left on animal bones by hunting or eating animals) and other materials.

The amount and variety of these materials or evidence preserved at each ancient human site varies, and the earlier the ancient man, the less has been preserved. Paleoanthropologists can only speculate about the food composition of humans at that time based on the study of these fragmentary materials.

Studies have shown that in the early stages of human evolution (Australopithecus australopithecus and earlier), human adaptability was still relatively weak, and humans at that time did not have the ability to make tools and use fire. Therefore, paleoanthropologists speculate that before Australopithecus, ancient humans obtained food by gathering, and the food composition was mainly plants. Studies of the living environment of Australopithecus africanus also confirm that the climate was warm and humid and the forest vegetation was abundant.

It is conceivable that ancient humans at that time should have easily picked plant fruits and used them as food. The study of the wear marks on the occlusal surface of the teeth of Australopithecus australopithecus by electron microscopy showed that there were many fine lines on the wear surface of the teeth of Australopithecus australopithecus, which was consistent with the characteristics of chewing plant fibers. Australopithecus australopithecus, on the other hand, are omnivorous and eat small animals.

About 2.5 million years ago, humans who had reached the stage of homo sapiens were already able to make and use simple stone tools. In the vicinity of Gona, Ethiopia, where the world's earliest stone tools were excavated, animal bones that had been chopped and cut have been found. Experts believe that these broken animal bones are evidence that people can knock bones and suck the marrow.

However, some scholars believe that it is a complex tool made in the south, which can be used for fishing and hunting activities, and it is estimated that some cooking processing can be carried out.

In the Holocene, 10,000 years ago, humans began to cultivate crops and domesticate domestic animals, and the composition of food underwent fundamental changes, which became closer and closer to the food of modern humans.

The methods commonly used by the ancients to store food are:

1) Cellar method: According to different geographical environments, cellars or warehouses are used to store food. This method is mostly used to store large quantities of grains, fruits or vegetables.

Generally speaking, the dry soil in the north is thick, and the cellar method is mostly used, while the groundwater level in the south is high, the climate is humid and hot, and warehouses are mostly set up on the ground. When using the warehouse method to store food, it is necessary to solve the basic problems such as moisture prevention and insect prevention, among which the moisture prevention method mainly adopts the method of drying and ventilation, and the insect prevention method adopts the sun drying method and the natural insecticide method.

2) Sealing method: Under the condition of sealing, the food continuously consumes oxygen in the environment due to respiration, and produces a large amount of carbon dioxide, which in turn inhibits the respiration of the food, so that the consumption of nutrients is reduced, so as to maintain the freshness of the food. The storage object of the sealing method is mainly fruit, and containers, sand mud or wax can be used, such as digging holes in live bamboo, putting fresh fruits such as cherries in, and sealing the holes after being filled, which can be stored for a long time without deterioration.

3) Drying method: the growth and reproduction of microorganisms are inseparable from water, when the moisture in the food is reduced to a certain proportion or less, it can inhibit microbial activity and help the storage of food. Dry food can be preserved by natural light and wind, such as cutting beef into thin strips, hanging it in a ventilated place in the sun, and drying the meat into jerky.

When natural drying can not meet people's needs, it will also use heat energy to evaporate the water in the food, such as the ancients will first dry the lychee in the sun for several days after picking the lychee, until the color of the lychee changes, the lychee core is also relatively dry, and then heat it with fire until the core is very dry and hard, and then store.

4) Salt method: Salt or other ingredients are used to marinate fresh food. This method mainly uses the high osmotic pressure of table salt, which can reduce the water activity of food and thus inhibit the growth and reproduction of microorganisms.

The salt preparation method mainly focuses on vegetables and meat, such as various pickles, pickled fish, pickled meat, etc.

5) Sugar method: It is mainly used in the storage and processing of fruits, usually made of whole fruits or lumpy pulp through salting, candied and honey frying. Foods such as candied fruits and preserved fruits are very typical products that achieve food storage through this method.