Earliest evidence of plants cooked in unglazed pottery discovered

Scientists has discovered the earliest evidence of humans processing plants for food in 10,000-year-old unglazed pottery found Libyan Sahara.

The invention of cooking has long been recognised as a critical step in human development. Ancient cooking would have initially involved the use of fires or pits and the invention of ceramic cooking vessels led to an expansion of food preparation techniques. Cooking would have allowed the consumption of previously unpalatable or even toxic foodstuffs and would also have increased the availability of new energy sources.

Until now evidence of cooking plants in early prehistoric cooking vessels has been lacking. The researchers, led by University of Bristol in the UK, detected lipid residues of foodstuffs preserved within the fabric of unglazed cooking pots.

Significantly, over half of the vessels studied were found to have been used for processing plants based on the identification of diagnostic plant oil and wax compounds. 

The interpretations of the chemical signatures obtained from the pottery are supported by abundant plant remains preserved in remarkable condition due to the arid desert environment at the sites. 

The plant chemical signatures from the pottery show that the processing of plants was practised for over 4,000 years, indicating the importance of plants to the ancient people of the prehistoric Sahara.