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Archaeology/Paleolithic Humans

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Expert: - 12/16/2008


Question
We know a lot about the hunter-gatherer diet of Paleolithic humans, but I'd like to find out how they ate. Did they sit down to large meals at regular intervals, or were they grazers who ate numerous small meals as they went along?

Answer
Hi John
This is one of those questions one has to answer with a non-answer.  Essentially we just don't know.  This is one of those behaviors that does not leave a clear and convincing archaeological signature.  The best we can do is assume there was variability in terms of the mode and tempo of eating, much as there is among recent humans -hunter/gatherer and otherwise.  I know this isn't a definitive answer of the sort you might have wanted, but it is the truth as we paleoanthropologists understand it.
Sincerely
John Shea

Archaeology

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John J. Shea

Expertise

Questions about Old World prehistoric archaeology (mainly Europe, Near East, and Africa during the Paleolithic period/Pleistocene Epoch). IMPORTANT: I do not give advice about colleges. I do not appraise the value of artifacts or fossils.

Experience

University professor of anthropology/archaeology since 1991. Dozens of publications in peer-review anthropology journals. Director of archaeological-paleontological expeditions and excavations in Israel, Jordan, Eritrea, Ethiopia, and Kenya. See my main profile under Allexperts` "Anthropology" section. Professional website: http://www.sunysb.edu/anthro/staff/jshea.shtml Personal website: http://www.sunysb.edu/anthro/Shea/Shea%20pers%20webpage.htm

Education/Credentials
>20 years as faculty at major research university

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