World Grain - February 2011 - 8

from the editor-in-chief

New research proves an even earlier milling start

o food industry has greater reason for pride in its long history of providing sustenance to humankind than ﬂour milling. With some humor intertwined with other human activities, the claim is often heard that milling is the world’s oldest or second oldest business. Archaeology exhibits include mortar and pestle devices as evidence that primitive humans knew how to grind grain into ﬂour, an activity usually tied to the ﬁrst crop cultivation in the Middle East. Most research about pre-history food has focused on the likelihood of plants not being important to the diet until 10,000 to 15,000 years ago. It has been believed that early people subsisted on meat. Those views are being revised by research pointing to ﬂour being milled 30,000 years ago. This is a ﬁnding adding luster to milling’s longstanding importance in the diet. The newest ﬁnding, published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, reﬂect research conducted at three European archaeological sites, in Italy, in Russia and in the Czech Republic. The main researcher on the project is Anna Revedin, professor on the staff of the Italian Institute of Prehistory and Early History in Florence. She was joined by experts from European universities. These scientists investigated the belief that Paleolithic diets were meat-based, a conclusion derived from studies showing early people as hunt-

ers. Prior work on Paleolithic lives also was inﬂuenced by studies of bone chemistry and dental microwear that seemed to afﬁrm the overwhelming role of meat. That opinion is now on the verge of dramatic change due to starch granules from various wild plants being found on the surfaces of grinding tools. The importance of this is underscored by the statement that food processing, “and possibly the production of ﬂour,” was “a common practice, widespread across Europe from at least 30,000 years ago.” The new research paper adds, “It is likely that high energy content plant foods were available and were used as components of the food economy of these mobile hunter-gatherers.” Wheat, as the raw material of ﬂour, does not appear for millennia after this ﬁrst milling. Microscopic examinations indicate that narrow leaf cattail might have been the primary material along with various grasses that are easy to grind and were known to grow in environments similar to those ancient sites. Another likely raw material was ferns with a starch-rich root that is easy to grind. The point also is stressed that the material found on the grinding implements is only the last used and might not be the major source. Indeed, this earliest “ﬂour” was made from numerous plant species. Grinding itself was done on mortar and pestle. Analysis of use-wear ﬁnds that

grinding and pounding of wild food plants were performed early in the Upper Paleolithic. What is called “cattail rhizome ﬂour” would have been an excellent source of energy to these early people, the researchers conclude. The plants also supplied protein and dietary ﬁber. Milling was a multi-step process that included root peeling, drying and then grinding. After this, the ﬂour needed to be cooked (not necessarily baked) for well-being and to make calories available. “Raw food does not supply sufﬁcient calories,” it is stated. The researchers conclude that people across Europe some 30,000 years ago knew how to mill starch-rich portions of edible plants along with having “the ability to transform them to produce a complex dried product (ﬂour).” In contrast to the belief that meat was the primary early food, the research shows that knowing how to make ﬂour gave Paleolithic people greater independence from environmental and seasonal ﬂuctuations. That milled ﬂour contributed signiﬁcantly to the survival and prospering of early human beings should not only be a source of pride for modern-day milling. It also should spur the industry to capture a similar role in what is a totally different, but still highly challenging, human environment. Morton I. Sosland Editor-in-chief

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World Grain - February 2011

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