Cavemen ‘warmed up with porridge’

It has been often hailed as one of the best starters for the day. But porridge may have been a breakfast favourite for far longer than previously thought,say scientists.

An international team,led by University of Calgary,claims to have found evidence that cavemen and women may have been eating porridge 100,000 years ago — in fact,evidence of breadmaking means they may even have followed it with toast.

“This is proof of an expanded and sophisticated diet much earlier than we believed,” team leader Dr Julio Mercader of the university was quoted by leading British tabloid the ‘Daily Express’ as saying.

Story continues below this ad

In fact,tools and plant remains from a cave in Mozambique suggest that our ancestors were grinding wild grass grains at the start of the last ice age — some 90,000 years earlier than had been thought,when early hunter-gatherers were believed to have relied on fruits,roots and nuts.

The limestone cave at Ngalue in north-west Mozambique,was used by Stone Age foragers for 60000 years. The scientists unearthed stone tools,animal bones and plant remains for their research.

Porridge is a delicacy made by boiling oats (rolled,crushed,or steel cut) or sometimes another cereal in water,milk,or both.