400,000-year-old dental tartar provides earliest evidence of humanmade pollution

Just saw this scrolling around a little earlier... didn't see it posted, so thought I'd share it with you guys

Researchers have uncovered evidence of food and potential respiratory irritants entrapped in the dental tartar of 400,000-year-old teeth at Qesem Cave near Tel Aviv, the site of many major discoveries from the late Lower Paleolithic period. The research provides direct evidence of what early Palaeolithic people ate and the quality of the air they breathed inside Qesem Cave.

"Human teeth of this age have never been studied before for dental calculus, and we had very low expectations because of the age of the plaque," said Prof. Gopher. "However, our international collaborators, using a combination of methods, found many materials entrapped within the calculus. Because the cave was sealed for 200,000 years, everything, including the teeth and its calculus, were preserved exceedingly well."

In what Prof. Barkai describes as a "time capsule," the analysed calculus revealed three major findings: charcoal from indoor fires; evidence for the ingestion of essential plant-based dietary components; and fibers that might have been used to clean teeth or were remnants of raw materials.

"Prof. Karen Hardy published outstanding research on the dental calculus of Neanderthals from El Sidron cave in Spain, but these dated back just 40,000-50,000 years -- we are talking far earlier than this," said Prof. Barkai.

"This is the first evidence that the world's first indoor BBQs had health-related consequences," said Prof. Barkai. "The people who lived in Qesem not only enjoyed the benefits of fire -- roasting their meat indoors -- but they also had to find a way of controlling the fire -- of living with it.

"This is one of the first, if not the first, cases of manmade pollution on the planet. I live near power plants, near chemical factories. On the one hand, we are dependent on technology, but on the other, we are inhaling its pollutants. Progress has a price -- and we find possibly the first evidence of this at Qesem Cave 400,000 years ago."

Sorry I didn't have much time to post the picture they had in the article here is the link to everything on it though if anyone is interested:
www.sciencedaily.com...

I found a pic of prof. Gopher for you search.yahoo.com... Sorry, don't know how to post pics.

If it surprises any of you that humans were lighting indoor fires 400,000 years ago, you must realize, we didn't magically get intelligent over the course of 2 or 3 years. And as for ancient civilizations? We aren't digging deep enough.

a reply to: BlubberyConspiracy

Homo Erectus probably used fire before us.

originally posted by: BlubberyConspiracy
If it surprises any of you that humans were lighting indoor fires 400,000 years ago, you must realize, we didn't magically get intelligent over the course of 2 or 3 years. And as for ancient civilizations? We aren't digging deep enough.

It doesn't surprise me at all. At the same time humans were also living in mud huts, and bushes.

What surprises me is that people see where we are at now, and see a disconnect between here and what was, and conclude its aliens. -- not you by the way Blubbery!! Just the tone of things here lately... hrmm..

No, sadly, it's just how inefficient we are at being efficient. We've made things TOO efficient. so now when the power goes out, everyone panics and riots for milk. Ahh milk, used to flow free from the teats of wild animals, you could pluck one and make a cappicino while your beans cooked.. so long ago. stupid seconds of time, thats the conspiracy..

but... Take a fish out of water it will die. Give it a billion years, it may invent a respirator that lets it walk on land. Eventually 100 years later all the fish live on land, and one says "You know, I think all this is a bit crackers. How did we evolve only to survive in these breathers? We're not of this planet. I rekon it's Aliens!"

And as all his fish pals put their empty pint glasses on the bar, slowly, and back out towards the door, he yells "Bloody sea horses, believe anything you will.."

The fact that 400,000+ years ago we were silly enough to sit around an indoor fire and go " Fwoaaar thats a nice.. fi.. *yaawn* I.. doris did you get the .. I think I'll .. it's. *Thump - gasp* "..

We're humans after all. stupid organic machines making the best out of bumping into each other and not getting killed every day.

Anyone who lives outdoors for any length of time knows that fire making is the order of the day. Building, tending and cooking over fire lends to close proximity breathing in smoke and ash regardless of whether in a cave or not.

It burns my nostrils and coats my teeth just thinking of it.

a reply to: LongishLongo

This news is biased. The original source spreading the text must have some kind of an agenda to influence the reader. Possibly in connection to climate change agenda. Next news probably has headings like: "Ancient drug use caused collapse of civilisation.".

400,000 years ago there was not any "human made pollution". Probably smoke, yes.

a reply to: TroojrykJedmi

Pollution is a large encompassing term, but since when does smoke not count as pollution? That's news to me considering what the definition of pollution is.