Human consumption of seaweed and freshwater aquatic plants in ancient Europe
Stephen Buckley cs 2023
Nature Communications 14, 6192

In Mesolithic Europe, there is widespread evidence for an increase in exploitation of aquatic resources.
In contrast, the subsequent Neolithic is characterised by the spread of farming, land ownership & full sedentism,
this lead to the perception of marine resources subsequently representing marginal or famine food or being abandoned altogether even at the furthermost coastal limits of Europe.

Here, we examine bio-markers extracted from human dental calculus,
we use sequential thermal desorption- & pyrolysis-GCMS, to report direct evidence for widespread consumption of seaweed & submerged aquatic & freshwater plants across Europe.
Evidence of consumption of these resources extends through the Neolithic transition to farming, into the Early Middle Ages:
these resources, now rarely eaten in Europe, only became marginal much more recently.
Understanding ancient foodstuffs is crucial to reconstructing the past, while a better knowledge of local, forgotten resources is likewise important today.

Human consumption of seaweed and freshwater aquatic plants in ancient Europe
Stephen Buckley cs 2023 Nature Communications 14, 6192
In Mesolithic Europe, there is widespread evidence for an increase in exploitation of aquatic resources.
In contrast, the subsequent Neolithic is characterised by the spread of farming, land ownership & full sedentism,
this lead to the perception of marine resources subsequently representing marginal or famine food or being abandoned altogether even at the furthermost coastal limits of Europe.
Here, we examine bio-markers extracted from human dental calculus (sequential thermal desorption- & pyrolysis-GCMS):
we report direct evidence for widespread consumption of sea-weed & submerged aquatic & freshwater plants across Europe.
Evidence of consumption of these resources extends through the Neolithic transition to farming, into the Early Middle Ages:
these resources, now rarely eaten in Europe, only became marginal much more recently.
Understanding ancient foodstuffs is crucial to reconstructing the past, while a better knowledge of local, forgotten resources is likewise important today.

This morning I read a book-review:
"De wereldgeschiedenis in twaalf bonen" ("world history in 12 beans")
Joël Broekaert 2023 Atlas Contact 144 pp.
It says: c 4 ka (19th cent.BC), beans/lentils/peas...(=protein) allowed the transition from carni+omnivory to sedentary agriculture: in the Middle East, mid-America, Africa, China...: beans... + rice/wheat/maize/pinda/soya/barley...(=CHO).
Rice is still freshwater...
Did beans etc. (also) allow the transition from aquatic to terrestrial plants?