Rodents: Eaten As Snacks!

According to a new study, Europeans likely to eat rodents as snacks. As per the study, mice and vole were not measured mere pest in ancient European society. The archaeologists have suggested that 5000 years ago used to munch these pests as a source of nutrition.
Researchers went through 60,000 small animal bones at the Skara Brae settlement, an island off Scotland. As per the archaeologists, the Island consists of the remains of eight stone houses. The researchers have estimated that these tiny houses were built sometime around 3180 B.C. to 2500 B.C. The scientists said this is the first kind of study that has revealed the connection between the people of Skara Brae and the rodent population.
Along with tiny bones, the scientists have also discovered burn marks on the bones. The scientists also suggested that the people of Skara Brae didn’t eat rodents as their main food, but rather as a snack. A biologist said that the discovery is little unclear as the scientists are unable to find out as the bones are pretty crisp from outside.
Jeremy Herman, a biologist at the National Museums of Scotland in Edinburgh said, "Rodents are periodically diged out from old archaeological sites in Europe, but people have not researched why they are found there". "It might be because they a re not presently a regular food source in Europe, even no one ever thought to ask whether they were eaten in the past."
Skara Brae consists of the remnants of eight stone houses and was occupied in the latter half of the Stone Age from roughly 3180 B.C. to 2500 B.C., according to radiocarbon dating.
Archaeologists pulled more than 2.5 pounds of micro mammal bones out of four different trenches dug at and near the site in the 1970s. The bones of rodents were trapped based on which part they came from and also what time period they represented.
Previous studies have shown that there were just two types of rodents living among the people of Skara Brae - the wood mouse and the Orkney vole, a form of the common European vole. However, till now, nobody had analysis how these rodent population is linked with humans.
After re-analysis of the bones, the researchers found the number of mouse bones was equal across all four trenches. However, the ditch in one building had a greater existence of vole bones than the other three trenches. This indicates that the voles, who generally live in the fields and stay away from human homes, had been brought there peacefully by people.
In addition, the research team found burn marks on several of the bones, suggesting the animals had been roasted.
"The way they are burnt it's pretty clear that they were pretty much whole when they were stuck on the embers of a fire," Herman said. "I haven't tried it myself, but I imagine they got pretty crisp on the outside."
Herman said the number of vole bones the team discovered suggests that the rodents were not a primary source of food for the inhabitants of Skara Brae. Still, it seems pretty clear that people were eating them, at least occasionally.
"It could be that people ate them as a snack, or it was something they fell back on or harder times," he said. "Or maybe kids were catching them and then roasting them. It's hard to tell.

By: Saksham Gupta
Content: https://phys.org/news/2016-10-years-rodents-apparently-food-europe.html