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Neolithic

Culinary Weekend

Culinary Weekend
Date
-

Country

  • the Netherlands

Pierre Wind is busy both days with insect snacks from prehistoric times, Roman dishes for young and old, to medieval roasts.

As Dear as Salt - Indications for an Ancient Plant Ash Tradition Preserved in Old World Folktale

A salt princess in disguise, original drawing by Mila Zwiebel (2025) (left), Ash Peter with his Cinderella bride (Jershov and Jershov 1973, p. 45) (right)
Author(s)
Lutz Zwiebel 1 ✉
Publication Date
Do folktale heroines tell of a prehistoric plant ash use? The culinary use of plant ash is an ancient technology nearly extinct worldwide and completely absent from Eurasian cultural history. Despite the lack of this technology´s historical documentation, folktales provide a rich yet underestimated corpus on salt and ash. The denotation of the physical substances as well as the related narrative structures are investigated throughout several tale types...

Black Ash - a Forgotten Domestication Trait in Garden Orach (Atriplex hortensis L.)

Black Ash - a Forgotten Domestication Trait in Garden Orach (Atriplex hortensis L.)
Author(s)
Lutz Zwiebel 1 ✉
Publication Date

Garden Orach (Atriplex hortensis L.) is a vegetable plant of minor importance but with a wide distribution throughout the Old World and beyond. Previous research revealed its diverse medicinal and magical importance in prehistory. Here, Orach’s special ability to retain sodium even in non-saline ground is introduced. The outstandingly high concentrations of sodium in dry plant matter and plant ash suggest its use as a salt substitute, manifested in an early domestication trait. Special attention is paid to the variability of this trait in cultivars from different geographic regions and within the genus Atriplex. ..

Neanderthals in the Rain: Assessing Neanderthals' Strategies to Survive Wet and Cold Environments through an Experimental Analysis

Neanderthals in the Rain: Assessing Neanderthals' Strategies to Survive Wet and Cold Environments through an Experimental Analysis
Author(s)
Eleonora Scandola 1 ✉,
Penny Spikins 1
Publication Date
Neanderthals' adaptations to cold climates have been extensively debated, however, limited attention has been given to their survival in cold and wet environments. These conditions increase the dangers of cold-induced injuries such as frostbite or hypothermia, as wet clothing loses its insulative capacities. This research explores whether and how Neanderthals faced such changes and their implications on activities and behaviours...

An Experimental Investigation of Alternative Neolithic Harvesting Tools

An Experimental Investigation of Alternative Neolithic Harvesting Tools
Author(s)
Marc-Philipp Häg 1 ✉
Publication Date
Harvesting tools have seldom been found during excavations at Neolithic sites in North-Western Europe but cereal consumption was widely practiced in that region, as grain discovered in settlements showed. Several researchers have, over the last 50 years, highlighted this discrepancy between missing harvesting tools and the presence of cereal grains...

Does the Addition of Manganese Dioxide Aid in The Production of An Ember when Using Strike-A-Light Technology With Horse Hoof Fungus? A Potential Neanderthal Technology

Does the Addition of Manganese Dioxide Aid in The Production of An Ember when Using Strike-A-Light Technology With Horse Hoof Fungus? A Potential Neanderthal Technology
Author(s)
Charlotte Clarke 1 ✉,
Peter Hommel 1,
James Utley 2,
Christopher Scott 1
Publication Date
Recent archaeological and experimental work suggests that Neanderthals may have been purposefully gathering manganese dioxide to aid in their fire lighting. Given the evidence for complex Neanderthal pyro-technology, this appears to be a plausible hypothesis. In this paper, we add to the experimental testing of this hypothesis by ...