HORT10030: History of Human Diets

• HORT10030 covers plant-based diets for a changing climate.
• Lectures are on Wednesdays and Thursdays from 12:00-1:00 in G-08.AG and G-15.AG respectively.

History of Human Diets

• Humans evolved from ape-like ancestors 8 to 6 million years ago.
• Early human ancestors in Africa, six million years ago, likely had diets similar to chimpanzees.

Early Human Diets

• Chimpanzees consume fruits, plant parts (leaves, flowers, bark), nuts, and insects.
• Meat constitutes about 3% of a chimpanzee's diet.
• Incorporating meat and marrow from large animals into the human diet was a significant evolutionary change around 2.6 million years ago.
• The exact quantity and frequency of meat consumption in early human diets remain unknown.
• Modern hunter-gatherer diets vary significantly, with some consuming high amounts of meat, while others do not.
• Many are more accurately described as gatherer-hunters.

Modern Hunter Gatherers

• The Hadza of Tanzania are full-time hunter-gatherers.
• Their diet consists of game, honey, plants, including tubers, berries, and baobab fruit.
• The Inuit of Greenland primarily consumed meat due to the harsh landscape.
• They persist in their taste for meat, despite now having more variety in their landscape.
• The Bajau of Malaysia mainly fish and dive for food, living in houses on beaches or in boats.
• The Tsimane of Bolivia acquire the majority of their diet from rivers, forests, fields, and gardens in the forest.

Harnessing Fire for Cooking

• Definite evidence shows fire use by members of Homo between 2.0 to 1.7 million years ago.
• Controlled usage of fire is believed to have started 1.0 million years ago.
• Early fire practices included transporting fire to unburned areas and building enclosures like stone circles.
• Creating fire through friction involves rubbing hardwood against softwood.

Changes to Diet from Cooking

• Before cooking, the diet was restricted to simple sugars and carbohydrates found in seeds, flowers, and fleshy fruits.
• Stems, mature leaves, roots, and tubers were indigestible due to raw cellulose and starch.
• After cooking with fire, starchy and fibrous foods became edible.
• The diversity of available foods increased.
• Some toxin-containing foods, like cassava, were rendered safe by cooking.
• Cooking eliminated parasites and microbes and increased food safety.

Diets in Ireland

• Earliest archaeological evidence indicates Irish settlements from the Mesolithic period, around 10,000 years ago.
• Archaeological and archaeobotanical records offer insights into Irish diets from 8,000 years ago.
• Farming, trade, and the Industrial Revolution significantly altered food availability.
• Transportation and refrigeration greatly impacted food options.

Early Settlers- Mesolithic Period

• 8000 years ago, people Hunted, gathered and fished
• Uncovered wooden platforms and fish baskets in Meath.
• Featured plant from this period is Nuphar lutea or the yellow water-lily.

First Farmers- Neolithic Period

• 5700 years ago
• People farmed cattle, sheep, pig and grew wheat and barley.
• Early Neolithic settlement was discovered in Town Parks, Co. Meath, consisting of a rectangular house.
• Featured plant from this period is Triticum dicoccum L. or Emmer wheat.

Medieval Traders - Medieval Period

• 700 years ago
• This perios saw the export and import of foods like figs, grapes and walnuts
• A medieval farmstead was discovered in Mondaniel, Co. Cork, consisting of houses and fields uncovered by archeologists.
• The featured plant from the time is Chenopodium album L or Fat hen

Industrial Society - Post-Medieval

• 200 years ago
• This period saw industrialization and mechanization
• An early pre-19th century cluster of houses and farm buildings at Moyveela, Co. Galway, uncovered by archaeologists,
• The featured plant for this time period is Solanum tuberosum L, or potato

Modern Day - 21st Century

• This is a period of globalisation, diverse diet and year round availability of food, using outdoor temperature crops and hothouses.
• The featured plant is Capsicum annuum L, or chilli.

Future Diets

• The module will look at:
• Foods for the future
• Crop wild relatives as future food sources.