Editing Paleolithic (section)

== Diet and nutrition ==<!-- linked from article "Paleolithic diet" -->
{{See also|Pleistocene human diet}}
[[File:Wine grapes03.jpg|upright|thumb|People may have first fermented grapes in animal skin pouches to create [[wine]] during the Paleolithic age.<ref name="William Cocke">{{cite web |author=William Cocke |title=First Wine? Archaeologist Traces Drink to Stone Age |url=http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2004/07/0721_040721_ancientwine.html |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20040724052540/http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2004/07/0721_040721_ancientwine.html |archive-date=July 24, 2004 |access-date=2008-02-03 |work=National Geographic News}}</ref>]]

Paleolithic hunting and gathering people ate varying proportions of vegetables (including tubers and roots), fruit, seeds (including nuts and wild grass seeds) and insects, meat, fish, and shellfish.<ref>{{cite journal |author=Gowlett JAJ |year=2003 |title=What actually was the Stone Age Diet? |url=http://pcwww.liv.ac.uk/~gowlett/GowlettCJNE_13_03_02.pdf |journal=J Nutr Environ Med |volume=13 |issue=3 |pages=143–47 |doi=10.1080/13590840310001619338}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |vauthors=Weiss E, Wetterstrom W, Nadel D, Bar-Yosef O |date=June 29, 2004 |title=The broad spectrum revisited: Evidence from plant remains |journal=Proc Natl Acad Sci USA |volume=101 |issue=26 |pages=9551–55 |bibcode=2004PNAS..101.9551W |doi=10.1073/pnas.0402362101 |pmc=470712 |pmid=15210984 |doi-access=free}}</ref> However, there is little direct evidence of the relative proportions of plant and animal foods.<ref>{{cite journal |author=Richards, MP |date=December 2002 |title=A brief review of the archaeological evidence for Palaeolithic and Neolithic subsistence |journal=Eur J Clin Nutr |volume=56 |issue=12 |pages=1270–78 |doi=10.1038/sj.ejcn.1601646 |pmid=12494313 |doi-access=free}}</ref> Although the term "[[paleolithic diet]]", without references to a specific timeframe or locale, is sometimes used with an implication that most humans shared a certain diet during the entire era, that is not entirely accurate. The Paleolithic was an extended period of time, during which multiple technological advances were made, many of which had impact on human dietary structure. For example, humans probably did not possess the control of fire until the Middle Paleolithic,<ref>{{cite book |last1=Johanson |first1=Donald |url=https://archive.org/details/fromlucytolangua2006joha |title=From Lucy to Language: Revised, Updated, and Expanded |last2=Blake |first2=Edgar |date=2006 |publisher=[[Simon & Schuster]] |isbn=978-0743280648 |location=Berlin |pages=[https://archive.org/details/fromlucytolangua2006joha/page/96 96–97] |url-access=registration}}</ref> or tools necessary to engage in extensive [[fishing]].{{citation needed|date=March 2013}} On the other hand, both these technologies are generally agreed to have been widely available to humans by the end of the Paleolithic (consequently, allowing humans in some regions of the planet to rely heavily on fishing and hunting). In addition, the Paleolithic involved a substantial geographical expansion of human populations. During the Lower Paleolithic, ancestors of modern humans are thought to have been constrained to Africa east of the [[Great Rift Valley, Kenya|Great Rift Valley]]. During the Middle and Upper Paleolithic, humans greatly expanded their area of settlement, reaching ecosystems as diverse as [[New Guinea]] and [[Alaska]], and adapting their diets to whatever local resources were available.

Another view is that until the Upper Paleolithic, humans were [[frugivore]]s (fruit eaters) who supplemented their meals with carrion, eggs, and small prey such as baby birds and [[mussel]]s, and only on rare occasions managed to kill and consume big game such as [[antelope]]s.<ref name="HartSussman">{{cite book |last1=Hart |first1=Donna |url=https://archive.org/details/manhuntedprimate00hart |title=Man the Hunted |last2=Sussman |first2=Robert W. |publisher=Basic Books |year=2005 |isbn=978-0-8133-3936-8}}</ref> This view is supported by studies of higher apes, particularly [[Common chimpanzee|chimpanzees]]. Chimpanzees are the closest to humans genetically, sharing more than 96% of their DNA code with humans, and their digestive tract is functionally very similar to that of humans.<ref name="nationalgeographic_com">{{cite news |last=Lovgren |first=Stefan |date=31 August 2005 |title=Chimps, Humans 96 Percent the Same, Gene Study Finds |url=http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2005/08/0831_050831_chimp_genes.html |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20050905010617/http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2005/08/0831_050831_chimp_genes.html |archive-date=September 5, 2005 |access-date=23 December 2013 |work=[[National Geographic]]}}</ref> Chimpanzees are primarily [[frugivore]]s, but they could and would consume and digest animal flesh, given the opportunity. In general, their actual diet in the wild is about 95% [[Plant-based diet|plant-based]], with the remaining 5% filled with insects, eggs, and baby animals.<ref>{{cite web |title=Chimp hunting and flesh-eating |url=http://www.ecologos.org/chimphunt.htm}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |date=22 February 2007 |title=Chimpanzees 'hunt using spears' |url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/6387611.stm |work=[[BBC News]]}}</ref> In some ecosystems, however, chimpanzees are predatory, forming parties to hunt monkeys.<ref>{{cite web |title=The Predatory Behavior and Ecology of Wild Chimpanzees |url=http://www-bcf.usc.edu/~stanford/chimphunt.html |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130606110247/http://www-bcf.usc.edu/%7Estanford/chimphunt.html |archive-date=6 June 2013 |access-date=13 June 2014}}</ref> Some comparative studies of human and higher primate digestive tracts do suggest that humans have evolved to obtain greater amounts of calories from sources such as animal foods, allowing them to shrink the size of the gastrointestinal tract relative to body mass and to increase the brain mass instead.<ref name="meateating">{{cite journal |last=Milton |first=Katharine |year=1999 |title=A hypothesis to explain the role of meat-eating in human evolution |url=http://nature.berkeley.edu/miltonlab/pdfs/meateating.pdf |journal=[[Evolutionary Anthropology (journal)|Evolutionary Anthropology]] |volume=8 |issue=1 |pages=11–21 |doi=10.1002/(SICI)1520-6505(1999)8:1<11::AID-EVAN6>3.0.CO;2-M |s2cid=86221120}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |last1=Aiello |first1=Leslie C. |last2=Wheeler |first2=Peter |year=1995 |title=The expensive-tissue hypothesis |url=http://references.260mb.com/Paleontologia/Aiello1995.pdf |url-status=dead |journal=[[Current Anthropology]] |volume=36 |issue=2 |pages=199–221 |doi=10.1086/204350 |s2cid=144317407 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190517135907/http://references.260mb.com/Paleontologia/Aiello1995.pdf |archive-date=2019-05-17 |access-date=2014-06-13}}</ref>

Anthropologists have diverse opinions about the proportions of plant and animal foods consumed. Just as with still existing hunters and gatherers, there were many varied "diets" in different groups, and also varying through this vast amount of time. Some paleolithic hunter-gatherers consumed a significant amount of meat and possibly obtained most of their food from hunting,<ref>{{cite book |last=Cordain |first=L. |title=Early Hominin Diets: The Known, the Unknown, and the Unknowable |date=2006 |publisher=[[Oxford University Press]] |editor-last=Ungar |editor-first=P. |location=Oxford |pages=363–383 |chapter=Implications of Plio-Pleistocene Hominin Diets for Modern Humans |chapter-url=http://www.thepaleodiet.com/articles/2006_Oxford.pdf |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080227122833/http://www.thepaleodiet.com/articles/2006_Oxford.pdf |archive-date=27 February 2008}}</ref> while others were believed to have a primarily plant-based diet.<ref name="Dahlberg" /> Most, if not all, are believed to have been opportunistic omnivores.<ref>Nature's Magic: Synergy in Evolution and the Fate of Humankind By [[Peter Corning]]</ref> One hypothesis is that carbohydrate [[tuber]]s (plant underground [[storage organ]]s) may have been eaten in high amounts by pre-agricultural humans.<ref name="pmid16085279">{{cite journal |vauthors=Laden G, Wrangham R |date=October 2005 |title=The rise of the hominids as an adaptive shift in fallback foods: plant underground storage organs (USOs) and australopith origins |url=http://www.tc.umn.edu/~laden002/Laden_Wrangham_Roots.pdf |url-status=dead |journal=[[Journal of Human Evolution]] |volume=49 |issue=4 |pages=482–98 |bibcode=2005JHumE..49..482L |doi=10.1016/j.jhevol.2005.05.007 |pmid=16085279 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080911010449/http://www.tc.umn.edu/~laden002/Laden_Wrangham_Roots.pdf |archive-date=11 September 2008}}</ref><ref name="pmid10539941">{{cite journal |vauthors=Wrangham RW, Jones JH, Laden G, Pilbeam D, Conklin-Brittain N |date=December 1999 |title=The Raw and the Stolen. Cooking and the Ecology of Human Origins |url=https://www.scribd.com/doc/255939/The-raw-and-the-stolen-Cooking-and-the-ecology-of-human-origins |journal=[[Current Anthropology]] |volume=40 |issue=5 |pages=567–94 |doi=10.1086/300083 |pmid=10539941 |s2cid=82271116}}{{Dead link|date=July 2018|bot=InternetArchiveBot|fix-attempted=yes}}</ref><ref name="pmid17472915">{{cite journal |vauthors=Yeakel JD, Bennett NC, Koch PL, Dominy NJ |date=July 2007 |title=The isotopic ecology of African mole rats informs hypotheses on the evolution of human diet |url=http://people.ucsc.edu/~njdominy/publications/pdf/Proc_R_Soc_B.pdf |url-status=dead |journal=Proc Biol Sci |volume=274 |issue=1619 |pages=1723–1730 |doi=10.1098/rspb.2007.0330 |pmc=2493578 |pmid=17472915 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080911010452/http://people.ucsc.edu/~njdominy/publications/pdf/Proc_R_Soc_B.pdf |archive-date=11 September 2008 |accessdate=10 August 2008}}</ref><ref name="pmid18032604">{{cite journal |vauthors=Hernandez-Aguilar RA, Moore J, Pickering TR |date=December 2007 |title=Savanna chimpanzees use tools to harvest the underground storage organs of plants |journal=Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A |volume=104 |issue=49 |pages=19210–19213 |doi=10.1073/pnas.0707929104 |pmc=2148269 |pmid=18032604 |doi-access=free}}</ref> It is thought that the Paleolithic diet included as much as {{cvt|1.65–1.9|kg|lk=on|abbr=off}} per day of fruit and vegetables.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Eaton |first1=S. Boyd |url=http://www.direct-ms.org/pdf/EvolutionPaleolithic/Long%20chain%20fatty%20acids.pdf |title=Dietary intake of long-chain polyunsaturated fatty acids during the Paleolithic |last2=Eaton III |first2=Stanley B. |last3=Sinclair |first3=Andrew J. |last4=Cordain |first4=Loren |last5=Mann |first5=Neil J. |journal=World Rev Nutr Diet |year=1998 |isbn=978-3-8055-6694-0 |series=World Review of Nutrition and Dietetics |volume=83 |pages=12–23 |citeseerx=10.1.1.691.6953 |doi=10.1159/000059672 |pmid=9648501 |access-date=14 June 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150509034221/http://www.direct-ms.org/pdf/EvolutionPaleolithic/Long%20chain%20fatty%20acids.pdf |archive-date=9 May 2015 |url-status=dead}}</ref> The relative proportions of plant and animal foods in the diets of Paleolithic people often varied between regions, with more meat being necessary in colder regions (which were not populated by anatomically modern humans until {{c.|30,000|50,000}}&nbsp;BP).<ref name="Gowlet">{{cite journal |last=Gowlet |first=J. A. J. |date=September 2003 |title=What actually was the stone age diet? |url=http://pcwww.liv.ac.uk/~gowlett/GowlettCJNE_13_03_02.pdf |journal=[[Journal of Environmental Medicine]] |volume=13 |issue=3 |pages=143–147 |doi=10.1080/13590840310001619338 |access-date=4 May 2008}})</ref> It is generally agreed that many modern hunting and fishing tools, such as fish hooks, nets, bows, and poisons, were not introduced until the Upper Paleolithic and possibly even Neolithic.<ref name="MarloweFW22" /> The only hunting tools widely available to humans during any significant part of the Paleolithic were hand-held spears and harpoons. There is evidence of Paleolithic people killing and eating [[Pinniped|seals]] and [[Taurotragus|elands]] as far as {{c.|100,000|lk=no}}&nbsp;BP. On the other hand, [[African Buffalo|buffalo]] bones found in African caves from the same period are typically of very young or very old individuals, and there is no evidence that pigs, elephants, or rhinos were hunted by humans at the time.<ref>{{cite book |last=Diamond |first=Jared |url=https://archive.org/details/thirdchimpanzee00jare_0 |title=The third chimpanzee: the evolution and future of the human animal |publisher=HarperCollins |year=1992 |isbn=9780060984038 |url-access=registration}}</ref>

Paleolithic peoples suffered less [[famine]] and [[malnutrition]] than the Neolithic farming tribes that followed them.<ref name="Leften Stavrianos" /><ref name="Russel">{{cite book |last=Russell |first=Sharman Apt |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=8CjOdT4LqYC&q=paleolithic+history+malnutrition&pg=PA2 |title=Hunger an unnatural history |publisher=[[Basic books]] |year=2006 |isbn=978-0-465-07165-4}}{{Dead link|date=September 2021|bot=InternetArchiveBot|fix-attempted=yes}} [https://books.google.com/books?id=8C-jOdT4LqYC p. 2]</ref> This was partly because Paleolithic hunter-gatherers accessed a wider variety of natural foods, which allowed them a more nutritious diet and a decreased risk of famine.<ref name="Leften Stavrianos" /><ref name="Schultz" /><ref name="jareddiamond" /> Many of the famines experienced by Neolithic (and some modern) farmers were caused or amplified by their dependence on a small number of crops.<ref name="Leften Stavrianos" /><ref name="Schultz" /><ref name="jareddiamond" /> It is thought that wild foods can have a significantly different nutritional profile than cultivated foods.<ref name="isbn0-89789-736-6">{{cite book |last=Milton |first=Katharine |title=Human Diet: Its Origins and Evolution |publisher=[[Bergin and Garvey]] |year=2002 |isbn=978-0-89789-736-5 |editor-last1=Ungar |editor-first1=Peter S. |location=Westport, CN |pages=111–22 |chapter=Hunter-gatherer diets: wild foods signal relief from diseases of affluence (PDF) |editor-last2=Teaford |editor-first2=Mark F. |chapter-url=http://nature.berkeley.edu/miltonlab/pdfs/humandiet.pdf}}</ref> The greater amount of meat obtained by hunting big game animals in Paleolithic diets than Neolithic diets may have also allowed Paleolithic hunter-gatherers to enjoy a more nutritious diet than Neolithic agriculturalists.<ref name="Russel" /> It has been argued that the shift from hunting and gathering to agriculture resulted in an increasing focus on a limited variety of foods, with meat likely taking a back seat to plants.<ref>{{cite journal |last=Larsen |first=Clark Spencer |date=1 November 2003 |title=Animal source foods and human health during evolution |journal=[[Journal of Nutrition]] |volume=133 |issue=11, Suppl 2 |pages=3893S–97S |doi=10.1093/jn/133.11.3893S |pmid=14672287 |doi-access=free}}</ref> It is also unlikely that Paleolithic hunter-gatherers were affected by modern [[diseases of affluence]] such as [[type 2 diabetes]], [[coronary heart disease]], and [[cerebrovascular disease]], because they ate mostly lean meats and plants and frequently engaged in intense physical activity,<ref name="pmid15699220">{{cite journal |vauthors=Cordain L, Eaton SB, Sebastian A, Mann N, Lindeberg S, Watkins BA, O'Keefe JH, Brand-Miller J |year=2005 |title=Origins and evolution of the Western diet: health implications for the 21st century |journal=[[The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition]] |volume=81 |issue=2 |pages=341–354 |doi=10.1093/ajcn.81.2.341 |pmid=15699220 |doi-access=free}}</ref><ref name="pmid3541565">{{cite journal |vauthors=Thorburn AW, Brand JC, Truswell AS |date=1 January 1987 |title=Slowly digested and absorbed carbohydrate in traditional bushfoods: a protective factor against diabetes? |url=http://www.ajcn.org/cgi/content/abstract/45/1/98 |journal=[[The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition]] |volume=45 |issue=1 |pages=98–106 |doi=10.1093/ajcn/45.1.98 |pmid=3541565}}</ref> and because the average lifespan was shorter than the age of common onset of these conditions.<ref name="kaplanetal2000">{{cite journal |last1=Kaplan |first1=Hillard |last2=Hill |first2=Kim |last3=Lancaster |first3=Jane |last4=Hurtado |first4=A. Magdalena |name-list-style=amp |year=2000 |title=A Theory of Human Life History Evolution: Diet, Intelligence and Longevity |url=http://www.unm.edu/~hkaplan/KaplanHillLancasterHurtado_2000_LHEvolution.pdf |journal=[[Evolutionary Anthropology (journal)|Evolutionary Anthropology]] |volume=9 |issue=4 |pages=156–85 |doi=10.1002/1520-6505(2000)9:4<156::AID-EVAN5>3.0.CO;2-7 |s2cid=2363289 |access-date=12 September 2010}}</ref><ref name="Casparie&Lee2004">{{cite journal |last1=Caspari |first1=Rachel |last2=Lee |first2=Sang-Hee |name-list-style=amp |date=27 July 2004 |title=Older age becomes common late in human evolution |journal=[[Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences]] |volume=101 |issue=20 |pages=10895–900 |doi=10.1073/pnas.0402857101 |pmc=503716 |pmid=15252198 |doi-access=free}}</ref>

Large-seeded [[legume]]s were part of the human diet long before the [[Neolithic Revolution]], as evident from archaeobotanical finds from the [[Mousterian]] layers of [[Kebara Cave]], in Israel.<ref name="doi10.1016/j.jas.2004.11.006">{{cite journal |last1=Lev |first1=Efraim |author-link1=Efraim Lev |last2=Kislev |first2=Mordechai E. |last3=Bar-Yosef |first3=Ofer |date=March 2005 |title=Mousterian vegetal food in Kebara Cave, Mt. Carmel |journal=[[Journal of Archaeological Science]] |volume=32 |issue=3 |pages=475–84 |bibcode=2005JArSc..32..475L |doi=10.1016/j.jas.2004.11.006}}</ref> There is evidence suggesting that Paleolithic societies were gathering wild cereals for food use at least as early as 30,000 years ago.<ref name="oldflour">{{cite journal |last1=Revedin |first1=Anna |last2=Aranguren |first2=B. |last3=Becattini |first3=R. |last4=Longo |first4=L. |last5=Marconi |first5=E. |last6=Lippi |first6=M.M. |last7=Skakun |first7=N. |last8=Sinitsyn |first8=A. |last9=Spiridonova |first9=E. |last10=Svoboda |first10=J. |display-authors=8 |year=2010 |title=Thirty thousand-year-old evidence of plant food processing |journal=[[Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America|Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A]] |volume=107 |issue=44 |pages=18815–19 |bibcode=2010PNAS..10718815R |doi=10.1073/pnas.1006993107 |pmc=2973873 |pmid=20956317 |doi-access=free}}</ref> However, seeds—such as grains and beans—were rarely eaten and never in large quantities on a daily basis.<ref name="doi:10.1080/11026480510032043">{{cite journal |last=Lindeberg |first=Staffan |date=June 2005 |title=Palaeolithic diet ("stone age" diet) |url=http://journals.sfu.ca/coaction/index.php/fnr/article/viewFile/1526/1394 |journal=Scandinavian Journal of Food & Nutrition |volume=49 |issue=2 |pages=75–77 |doi=10.1080/11026480510032043 |doi-access=free}}</ref> Recent archaeological evidence also indicates that [[winemaking]] may have originated in the Paleolithic, when early humans drank the juice of naturally fermented wild grapes from animal-skin pouches.<ref name="William Cocke" /> Paleolithic humans consumed animal [[organ (anatomy)|organ]] meats, including the [[liver]]s, [[kidney]]s, and [[brain]]s. Upper Paleolithic cultures appear to have had significant knowledge about plants and herbs and may have sometimes practiced rudimentary forms of [[horticulture]].<ref>{{cite book |author=Academic American Encyclopedia By Grolier Incorporated |title=Academic American Encyclopedia By Grolier Incorporated |publisher=Grolier Academic Reference |year=1994 |location=[[University of Michigan]]}}; [https://books.google.com/books?id=7eKy64bqc2AC&q=paleolithic+horticulture p 61]</ref> In particular, [[banana]]s and [[tuber]]s may have been cultivated as early as 25,000&nbsp;BP in [[southeast Asia]].<ref name="Kiefer" /> In the Paleolithic Levant, 23,000 years ago, cereals cultivation of [[emmer wheat|emmer]], [[barley]], and [[oats]] has been observed near the [[Sea of Galilee]].<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Snir |first1=Ainit |last2=Nadel |first2=Dani |last3=Groman-Yaroslavski |first3=Iris |last4=Melamed |first4=Yoel |last5=Sternberg |first5=Marcelo |last6=Bar-Yosef |first6=Ofer |last7=Weiss |first7=Ehud |date=2015-07-22 |title=The Origin of Cultivation and Proto-Weeds, Long Before Neolithic Farming |journal=PLOS ONE |language=en |volume=10 |issue=7 |pages=e0131422 |bibcode=2015PLoSO..1031422S |doi=10.1371/journal.pone.0131422 |issn=1932-6203 |pmc=4511808 |pmid=26200895 |doi-access=free}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=First evidence of farming in Mideast 23,000 years ago: Evidence of earliest small-scale agricultural cultivation |url=https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2015/07/150722144709.htm |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220423041305/https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2015/07/150722144709.htm |archive-date=23 April 2022 |access-date=2022-04-23 |website=ScienceDaily |language=en}}</ref>

Late Upper Paleolithic societies also appear to have occasionally practiced [[pastoralism]] and [[animal husbandry]], presumably for dietary reasons. For instance, some European late Upper Paleolithic cultures domesticated and raised [[reindeer]], presumably for their meat or milk, as early as 14,000&nbsp;BP.<ref name="TheBookofGeneralIgnorance" /> Humans also probably consumed [[hallucinogenic]] plants during the Paleolithic.<ref name="McClellan" /> The [[Aboriginal Australians]] have been consuming a variety of native animal and plant foods, called [[bushfood]], for an estimated 60,000 years, since the [[Middle Paleolithic]].

In February 2019, scientists reported evidence, based on [[isotope]] studies, that at least some Neanderthals may have eaten meat.<ref name="PNAS-20190210">{{cite journal |last=Jaouen |first=Klervia |display-authors=etal |date=19 February 2019 |title=Exceptionally high δ15N values in collagen single amino acids confirm Neandertals as high-trophic level carnivores |journal=[[Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America]] |volume=116 |issue=11 |pages=4928–4933 |bibcode=2019PNAS..116.4928J |doi=10.1073/pnas.1814087116 |pmc=6421459 |pmid=30782806 |doi-access=free}}</ref><ref name="PHY-20190219">{{cite news |last=Yika |first=Bob |date=19 February 2019 |title=Isotopes found in bones suggest Neanderthals were fresh meat eaters |url=https://phys.org/news/2019-02-isotopes-bones-neanderthals-fresh-meat.html |access-date=20 February 2019 |work=Phys.org}}</ref><ref name="SD-20190219">{{cite news |author=Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology |author-link=Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology |date=19 February 2019 |title=Neanderthals' main food source was definitely meat – Isotope analyses performed on single amino acids in Neanderthals' collagen samples shed new light on their debated diet |url=https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2019/02/190219111704.htm |access-date=21 February 2019 |work=[[Science Daily]]}}</ref> People during the Middle Paleolithic, such as the Neanderthals and Middle Paleolithic Homo sapiens in Africa, began to catch shellfish for food as revealed by shellfish cooking in Neanderthal sites in Italy about 110,000 years ago and in Middle Paleolithic ''Homo sapiens'' sites at [[Pinnacle Point]], South Africa around 164,000&nbsp;BP.<ref name="Miller2006" /><ref name="NYTIMES/10/08/07">{{cite news |last=Wilford |first=John Noble |date=18 October 2007 |title=Key Human Traits Tied to Shellfish Remains |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2007/10/18/science/18beach.html?_r=1&ref=science&oref=slogin |access-date=11 March 2008 |work=[[The New York Times]]}}</ref> Although fishing only became common during the [[Upper Paleolithic]],<ref name="Miller2006" /><ref>{{cite news |title=African Bone Tools Dispute Key Idea About Human Evolution |url=http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2001/11/1108_bonetool_2.html |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060117013632/http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2001/11/1108_bonetool_2.html |archive-date=January 17, 2006 |work=[[National Geographic]] News}}</ref> [[fish]] have been part of human diets long before the dawn of the Upper Paleolithic and have certainly been consumed by humans since at least the Middle Paleolithic.<ref name="ReferenceA-2" /> For example, the Middle Paleolithic ''Homo sapiens'' in the region now occupied by the [[Democratic Republic of the Congo]] hunted large {{cvt|6|ft|m|adj=on}}-long [[catfish]] with specialized barbed fishing points as early as 90,000 years ago.<ref name="Miller2006" /><ref name="ReferenceA-2" /> The invention of fishing allowed some Upper Paleolithic and later hunter-gatherer societies to become sedentary or semi-nomadic, which altered their social structures.<ref name="Bahn, Paul 1996" /> Example societies are the [[Lepenski Vir]] as well as some contemporary hunter-gatherers, such as the [[Tlingit people|Tlingit]]. In some instances (at least the Tlingit), they developed [[social stratification]], [[slavery]], and complex social structures such as [[chiefdom]]s.<ref name="MarloweFW22" />

Anthropologists such as Tim White suggest that [[Human cannibalism|cannibalism]] was common in human societies prior to the beginning of the Upper Paleolithic, based on the large amount of "butchered human" bones found in Neanderthal and other Lower/Middle Paleolithic sites.<ref>{{cite book |author=Tim D. White |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=-TVHr_XtDJcC&q=paleolithic+cannibalism&pg=PA338 |title=Once were Cannibals |work=Evolution: A Scientific American Reader |publisher=University of Chicago Press |year=2006 |isbn=978-0-226-74269-4 |access-date=2008-02-14}}</ref> Cannibalism in the Lower and Middle Paleolithic may have occurred because of food shortages.<ref>{{cite web |last=Owen |first=James |title=Neandertals Turned to Cannibalism, Bone Cave Suggests |url=http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2006/12/061205-cannibals.html |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20061208001007/http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2006/12/061205-cannibals.html |archive-date=December 8, 2006 |access-date=3 February 2008 |work=[[National Geographic]] News}}</ref> However, it may have been for religious reasons, and would coincide with the development of religious practices thought to have occurred during the Upper Paleolithic.<ref name="Narr" /><ref>{{cite journal |last=Pathou-Mathis |first=M. |year=2000 |title=Neanderthal subsistence behaviours in Europe |journal=International Journal of Osteoarchaeology |volume=10 |issue=5 |pages=379–395 |doi=10.1002/1099-1212(200009/10)10:5<379::AID-OA558>3.0.CO;2-4 |doi-access=free}}</ref> Nonetheless, it remains possible that Paleolithic societies never practiced cannibalism, and that the damage to recovered human bones was either the result of [[excarnation]] or [[predation]] by carnivores such as [[saber-toothed cat]]s, [[lion]]s, and [[hyena]]s.<ref name="Narr" />

A modern-day diet known as the [[Paleolithic diet]] exists, based on restricting consumption only to those foods presumed to be available to anatomically modern humans prior to the advent of settled [[agriculture]].<ref>{{cite web |date=22 April 2014 |title=Prehistoric Dining: The Real Paleo Diet |url=http://theplate.nationalgeographic.com/2014/04/22/prehistoric-dining-the-real-paleo-diet/ |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170804014549/http://theplate.nationalgeographic.com/2014/04/22/prehistoric-dining-the-real-paleo-diet/ |archive-date=4 August 2017 |access-date=3 August 2017 |website=[[National Geographic]]}}</ref>