Palaeodiets in the Pleistocene: evidence from the palaeoecology of Australasia
Channel: Canberra Skeptics
Date: 2014-02-19

How much is the recent interest in palaeodiets the result of an understanding of what our distant ancestors consumed? Focusing on the Australasian region, Dr Mat Prebble (ANU) will examine fossil records from the region in order to outline what foods were available to humans in the Pleistocene. Were grains, legumes, dairy products, salt, refined sugar and processed oils excluded from the diet? The central question revolves around evidence for the consumption of large amounts of carbohydrates sourced from grains, the modern world's staple food. In the Australasian region, tubers (e.g. yams, taro etc.), palm trunks (sago), fern trunks and roots formed the most widely available (non-cultivated or wild) carbohydrate sources. Grass grains and legumes were available but not necessarily in the quantities which would sustain sedentary societies. In some parts of Melanesia, fern products are often looked on with disdain  as 'poisonous' or as 'famine foods', in yet palm and fern starch were plentiful, limited in toxicity and easily processed from areas where little other starchy foods or meat were available. In this lecture, Dr Prebble will argue that contrary to palaeodiet advocates, carbohydrates were a major part of the Pleistocene palaeodiet in this region.