Stone Age diet may actually include plants and barbeque

Researchers have discovered that our Stone Age ancestors may have had more advanced diets than initially thought. Using skeletal remains found in Central Sudan, researchers from the University of York and the Autonomous University in Barcelona extracted compounds from calcified dental plaque and found traces of purple nutsedge, which suggests that man understood the nutritional benefit of plants.

While purple nutsedge, or cyperus rotundus, is generally thought of as a nuisance weed today, it was common in Chinese medicine and ancient Indian treatments for fevers.

The study's lead author said, "By extracting material from samples of ancient dental calculus we have found that rather than being a nuisance in the past, its value as a food, and possibly its abundant medicinal qualities were known."

The study, published in the journal Plos One, also found traces of smoke in the dental plaque which suggest Stone Age man may have also figured out how to barbecue.