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Grain Use Well before Modern Agriculture
Some of our early ancestors weren"t just scavenging fruit and nuts and hunting animals. That"s the conclusion of scientists who discovered evidence of the grain sorghum on hundred-thousand-year-old stone tools. The tools were discovered deep in a cave in northwest Mozambique. The research appears in the December 18th issue of the journal Science.
在我们早期的祖先中，有一些人不仅仅以食用水果、干果及猎物维持生计，这个结论始于科学家的一个发现，他们在数十万年前的石器上观察到高粱的痕迹，这些石器工具是在莫桑比克西北部的一个山洞深处被发现的，这项研究成果发表在12月18日的《科学》杂志上。
The general belief had been that these ancient people in southern Africa preferred to concentrate on more accessible foods, such as fruit, nuts and roots. They wouldn"t have bothered with seeds and starchy grains, it was thought, because those foods were too difficult to get and prepare. In this scenario, grains would become a regular part of the diet much later in history.
此前，人们普遍认为生活在非洲南部的古人类更喜欢食用一些易到手、易食用的食物，像水果、干果和树根。而不肯花心思在需要种子种植的及含有高淀粉的粮食上，因为这些粮食很难获取及烹食。在这种情况下，粮食在历史上很晚才出现在人们的日常饮食中。
But a researcher [Julio Mercader], from the University of Calgary, decided to survey 70 stone tools found in one of the deep chambers of a long cave. And about 80 percent of the tools contained residues of grains. Grinding and scraping tools showed the most grain evidence. And the grains appear to have been highly processed: boiled, fermented or ground.
可是，来自卡尔加里大学的研究员朱里奥梅坎德并不认同，他决定对70件石器进行调研，这些石器是在一个漫长的山洞中的一窟幽深的洞穴中被发现的，大约80%的石器上都残留有粮食的痕迹，而在碾磨的工具上尤甚，并且这些粮食似乎都经过高度处理：蒸煮，发酵或者碾碎。
Sorghum is still used widely today in Africa. Now it looks as if it might be part of the original family recipe.
到了今天，高粱在非洲仍为人们广泛食用。目前看来，它可能早已是人们家传食物秘方的一部分。
-Cynthia Graber
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