
Ancient Proteins from Unwashed Dishes Reveal the Diets of a Lost Civilization - ohjeez
https://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/ancient-proteins-unwashed-dishes-reveal-diets-lost-civilization-180970481/?no-ist
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zackmorris
There's always a little breadcrumb of possibility in HN posts. Bitter vetch
works as an appetite suppressant, and might have uses in the health food
industry:

[http://www.bitter-vetch.com/](http://www.bitter-vetch.com/)

But looks like it must be cooked first or can be toxic (so could be a
potentially dangerous weed for livestock in certain places):

[http://thepoisondiaries.tumblr.com/post/30390306446/lathyrus...](http://thepoisondiaries.tumblr.com/post/30390306446/lathyrus-
linifolius)

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mr_toad
Or at least the bachelors in that civilisation.

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srge
TL;DR:

The potsherds yielded proteins from numerous plants—barley, wheat, peas and
bitter vetch—as well as the blood and milk of several species of animal,
including cows, sheep and goats.

The milk offered even more insight, as the researchers could distinguish whey
from other parts of the liquid—and in one jar they found only whey, indicating
the ancient Anatolians were actively transforming the milk into something like
cheese or yogurt.

~~~
mygo
Or whey protein. No way those chiseled olympians weren't taking supplements

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rsashwin
Sometimes being lazy, pays off.

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gautamdivgi
There may be an ancient protein diet that comes out before the year is up.

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madengr
OK, dumb question. Why are ancient sites always excavated, under several feet
of soil. Is the soil comprised of 1000's of years of decayed plant matter?
That all has to come from carbon dioxide.

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24gttghh
Well, in cities, a house might get destroyed to make room for a new building,
and it is often easiest just to tear it down and build on top of it than to
cart away all the old building materials. Not to say valuable building stones
and other things aren't simply reused in other structures. Or, a lot can
happen in 1,000 years like floods (depositing silt), earthquakes (making lots
of rubble), wars, and fires, that would wreck a building. Not sure what your
CO2 angle is though.

This is the jist of it:

[https://www.sciencefocus.com/planet-earth/why-do-we-have-
to-...](https://www.sciencefocus.com/planet-earth/why-do-we-have-to-dig-so-
deep-to-uncover-ancient-ruins/)

~~~
jmts
One of my friends is an archaeologist. My view of an archaeologist was always
one where they are leisurely researching history, finding locations for finds,
cautiously digging in the fields, sorting shards of pottery, etc. She
described instead a potentially stressful job performing surveys on urban
sites to determine the historical significance of a location to give a go/no-
go to developers looking to build a multi-million dollar apartment complex on
top of what once might have been the governors home, which was once on top of
an officer's quarters, which was once an indigenous settlement.

