Hunter Gatherers Who Lives In South America 9,000 Years Ago Had A Plant-Based Diet, Study Says

(Photo : Getty Images/ MARTIN BERNETTI)

New archaeological discoveries in South America demonstrate that early human hunter-gatherers largely ate a plant-based diet.

This contradicts the prevalent idea that they relied on a high-protein, meat-heavy diet.

Wild Potatoes And Root Vegetables

The bones of 24 people from two burial sites in the Peruvian Andes, dating back between 9,000 and 6,500 years ago, reveal that wild potatoes and other root vegetables may have been the primary source of nourishment prior to the transition to an agricultural lifestyle.

"Conventional wisdom holds that early human economies focused on hunting - an idea that has led to a number of high-protein dietary fads such as the paleo diet. Our analysis shows that the diets were composed of 80% plant matter and 20% meat," said Dr Randy Haas, an archeologist at the University of Wyoming and senior author of the paper.

The study concentrated on bones recovered from the Wilamaya Patjxa and Soro Mik'aya Patjxa burial sites, which are roughly a mile apart in the Andes mountains. The scientists examined the bones, comparing the molecular forms of carbon and nitrogen to those found in the surrounding plants and animals.

The study found that plant items made up the majority of people's diets, with meat playing a secondary role.

The assumption that prehistoric humans were mostly meat eaters has resulted in practices such as the paleo diet, which aims to replicate the dietary habits of ancestors who lived during the Paleolithic epoch, which lasted around 2.5 million to 10,000 years ago.

Today's paleo diet focuses on meat, fish, vegetables, nuts, and seeds while excluding grains, legumes, and dairy products.

Macho Caveman

Some have previously believed that the shift to an agricultural economy was caused by overhunting, but the most recent studies point to a more gradual transition from foraging to farming.

The researchers also discovered burned plant remains at the sites and unusual patterns of tooth wear on numerous individuals' upper incisors, indicating that tubers, likely wild potatoes, were the most common dietary source.

The study also revealed that large mammals, such as deer or llamas, accounted for the majority of the meat in the diet, rather than smaller mammals, birds, or fish.

According to Haas, the belief that early people ate primarily meat was common in archaeological circles.

This viewpoint was influenced in part by the archeological record, which favors evidence of meat-eating since stone tools and butchered animal bones are far more likely to be preserved than plant remains.

According to Haas, the biases of mostly male archeologists from western cultures, in which hunting is viewed as a masculine pursuit, are also likely to have contributed to the perpetuation of a "macho caveman" stereotype of early human society, and similar biases may have colored research into early human diet in other parts of the world.

"In western culture, hunting is the purview of males, which has likely led to an over-emphasis on hunting in the interpretation of early human economies. The convergence of these various factors has misled us to overestimate the role of meat in early Andean diets," he added.