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Putrid Meat and Fish in the Eurasian Middle and Upper Paleolithic: Are We Missing a Key Part of the Neanderthal and Modern Human Diet?

“Putrid meat and fish in the Eurasian Middle and Upper Paleolithic:  Are We Missing a Key Part of Neanderthal and Modern Human Diet? “ is a fantastic article written by Dr. John D. Speth.

We hope that these small quips will entice you to read the full article.

Fermented foods “are ubiquitous, desirable, and nutritionally important components  of forager diets”

“Fermented and rotted animal foods are—or at least were until quite recently—key dietary staples that were absolutely vital to the viability and success of these northern foraging groups.”

 “many….have concluded that life in northern environments might not have been possible without frequent recourse to fermented animal foods”

“fermentation of meat and fish accomplishes outside the body much of what would normally happen to these foods in their unfermented state inside the body after one has ingested them”

Professor Speth has been so kind to grant GPP permission to post and share this paper with our community. It is a historical perspective of food from an Anthropologist point of view, as it relates to human existence and health. 

Professor Speth is Emeritus Arthur F. Thurnau Professor of Anthropology, Emeritus Curator of Archaeology, Department of Anthropology University of Michigan.

Click here for more quips from the article (Word document)

Click here for the full article “Putrid meat and fish in the Eurasian Middle and Upper Paleolithic:  Are We Missing a Key Part of Neanderthal and Modern Human Diet? “

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