#AncientHumans #History #prehistoric
Before fridges, how did ancient humans stop their food from rotting? More than 11,000 years ago, two hunters pushed mammoth meat into a cold pond on purpose, and it stayed good to eat into the next summer.

On almost every continent, people who never met each other invented their own "fridge" out of dirt, wind, salt, ice and fire. One method kept food safe for up to 30 years. Another may have been invented by Homo erectus, long before our own species existed.

In this video:
The mammoth meat hidden in a pond
Storage pits in Japan, England and New Zealand
Norway's wind-dried stockfish
Chuño, the Andean potato that lasts for decades
Roman garum, the dangerous fish sauce
Pemmican, the meat that lasts 30 years
Iñupiat ice cellars dug into permafrost
How early humans may have used smoke 1 million years ago

Sources: Ben-Dor & Barkai et al. (Frontiers in Nutrition); José de Acosta (1590); Tiwanaku chuño archaeology; Baelo Claudia and Pompeii garum sites; Sannai-Maruyama, Worlebury and Māori rua storage pits; Norwegian stockfish trade records; Iñupiat ice cellar documentation.

#AncientHumans #History #Prehistoric