Recently, Karen Hardy of the Catalan Institution for Research and Advanced Studies in Spain and Stephen Buckley of the University of York in the United Kingdom did analysis on the teeth that were found in El Sidrón Cave in Piloña, Asturias, Spain. Few the "gunk" that was found on the teeth, they were able to do a DNA analysis to figure that the Neandertals who lived in this area consumed medicinal plants and knew what they were consuming. The calcified plaque on the teeth dated to about 50,600-47,300 years ago. The results showed that "the Neanderthals inhaled wood smoke, probably from a campfire, and that they had eaten cooked plant foods as well as the bitter-tasting medicinal plants chamomile and yarrow." “They had to have a body of knowledge about plants to select yarrow and chamomile,” says Hardy.
It is interesting to find that researchers have thought to analyze as well as able to get the results. How well was the teeth preserved to be able to find such results as this? It is questionable, since depending on how they tested for this analysis and would there have been a default in this type of model of sampling? How accurate is this data? However, it is fascinating that one can get a glimpse of how people lived in this era, especially Neandertals. (I believe this is a recent find -December of 2012?)
http://www.archaeology.org/issues/61-1301/features/top-10/266-top-10-2012-neanderthal-medicine
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