Sink your teeth into this nutrient-dense episode, in which we discuss the recent discovery of bread(-like substances) in the Eastern Mediterranean from more than 14,000 years ago, and learn more about what one might actually have eaten in the Paleolithic. Plus, Anna tells us what we can learn from stuff stuck in your teeth, and we speculate wildly about Iberian vegan Neanderthals.

For a deeper dive into this week's topic, check out:

Arranz-Otaegui, Amaia, et al. "Archaeobotanical evidence reveals the origins of bread 14,400 years ago in northeastern Jordan." Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (2018): 201801071. http://www.pnas.org/content/early/2018/07/10/1801071115

Boyadjian, C.H.C., Eggers, S., Reinhard, K., 2007. Dental wash: a problematic method for extracting microfossils from teeth. Journal of Archaeological Science. 34, 1622–1628.

http://digitalcommons.unl.edu/natrespapers/68/

Weyrich, L.S., Duchene, S., Soubrier, J., Arriola, L., Llamas, B., Breen, J., Morris, A.G., Alt, K.W., Caramelli, D., Dresely, V., Farrell, M., Farrer, A.G., Francken, M., Gully, N., Haak, W., Hardy, K., Harvati, K., Held, P., Holmes, E.C., Kaidonis, J., Lalueza-Fox, C., de la Rasilla, M., Rosas, A., Semal, P., Soltysiak, A., Townsend, G., Usai, D., Wahl, J., Huson, D.H., Dobney, K., Cooper, A., 2017. Neanderthal behaviour, diet, and disease inferred from ancient DNA in dental calculus. Nature Letters. http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/nature21674

Arlene M. Rosen and Isabel Rivera-Collazo, Climate change, adaptive cycles, and the persistence of foraging economies during the late Pleistocene/Holocene transition in the Levant. PNAS March 6, 2012. 109 (10) 3640-3645; https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1113931109