In South Africa, a sensational discovery was made in Border Cave

Border Cave, located in the province of KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa, has been attracting scientists for several decades. In 1940, during guano mining operations, the first human remains were found there.

Since then, digs have been systematically carried out in the cave under the guidance of Peter Beaumont, a famous archaeologist. Researchers found there skeletons of modern anatomic typepeople, tens of thousands of stone tools and animal bones, the correspondent of tvbrics.com reports with reference to the Science journal.

And remains of vegetable food were found in the cave in the ashes of an ancient fire. Scientists have established that the fire flame was put out about 170 thousand years ago. The discovery proves indirectly that ancient people-the inhabitants of the cave-not just used root vegetables for food, but even then they were thermally processed. According to archaeologists, previously the oldest evidence of human consumption of vegetable starch was about 50 thousand years younger.

For the first time, the remains of vegetable food in Border Cave were found 4 years ago. Experts have found that the tissues of rootstalk and stems belong to the hypoxisgenus - these are small herbaceous plants found in Africa, Asia and America. Hypoxis bulbs are also called African potatoes. Such roots were valuable sourceы of food for primitive hunters.

Now there are reasons to believe that ancient people used only raw starch-rich food, but also that cooked on fire.