ITALY

Around the World January 1, 2011

Once thought to be almost exclusively meat-eaters, Paleolithic people in Europe may have munched on flatbread as well.
SHARE:

ITALY: Once thought to be almost exclusively meat-eaters, Paleolithic people in Europe may have munched on flatbread as well. Grinding stones—from Italy, Russia, and the Czech Republic—are embedded with starch grains, suggesting that 30,000 years ago people processed roots from cattails and ferns into flour, a food option for lean hunting times. The find pushes the first use of flour back by 10,000 years and suggests that women played a role in food production at the time. Researchers report that simple bread made with cattail flour doesn't taste so bad. 

  • Features September/October 2026

    A Change in Fashion

    Hoards of lavish gold and silver neck rings buried on an English hill reflect dramatic social change

    Read Article
    Torc hoard
    Photo © 2026 The Trustees of the British Museum
  • Features September/October 2026

    Cultivating Fields of Stone

    Peru’s ancient farmers used intricate rock maps to plan for the future

    Read Article
    Courtesy Patricia Aparicio Martínez
  • Features September/October 2026

    Where Was Ancient Egypt Born?

    Archaeologists are reimagining a time before the first pharaohs

    Read Article
    Courtesy Robert Słaboński/Tell el-Farkha Expedition
  • Features September/October 2026

    2,000 Years Under the Sea

    The story of Greece’s famed Antikythera wreck is finally being revealed

    Read Article
    © ESAG/UNIGE