VIENNA, AUSTRIA—According to a statement released by the Public Library of Science, evidence of pre-processed plant food has been uncovered at Prigglitz-Gasteil, a site in the Eastern Alps where copper was mined between the eleventh and ninth centuries B.C. Andreas Heiss of the Austrian Academy of Sciences and his colleagues found cereal plants that had been ground and dehulled, but little chaff or tools used to process grain. The researchers suggest that the cereals were processed and maybe even cooked before they were transported to the miners. Further research is needed to determine where the grains might have been grown and processed. To read about determining medieval lead pollution levels from an Alps ice core, go to "History in Ice."
