昨年末にネアンデルタール人も料理をしていたという記事を読んだのだが*1、料理の起源はさらに遡るらしい；
Ian Sample“Cooking may be 1.9m years old, say scientists” http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/2011/aug/22/cooking-origins-homo-erectus
研究の指標となったのは歯（特に臼歯）のサイズと食事時間。料理の効果は軟らかい食物の摂取を可能にし、それによって食事時間（噛み砕く時間）が短縮される。それに伴って、臼歯のサイズは小さくなる。
Early humans cooked up their first hot meals more than 1.9m years ago, long before our ancient ancestors left Africa to colonise the world, scientists claim.Researchers at Harvard University traced the origins of cooking back through the human family tree after studying tooth sizes and the feeding behaviour of monkeys, apes and modern humans.
They concluded that cooking was commonplace among Homo erectus, our flat-faced, thick-browed forebears, and probably originated early in that species' reign, if not before in more primitive humans. "This is part of an emerging body of science that shows cooking itself is important for our biology; that is, we are biologically adapted for cooking food," said Chris Organ*2, an evolutionary biologist at Harvard.
The researchers began by creating an evolutionary tree of monkeys, apes and modern humans. On to this they added information on how long various species spent feeding. Compared with chimpanzees, our closest living relatives, humans spent remarkably little time eating. Chimps typically spent more than one third of their day feeding, while for humans it was about 5% of their waking hours.The scientists then added information on tooth sizes to the family tree, and this time they included details of extinct human ancestors and closely related species.
The study showed that three species of humans, Homo erectus, Neanderthals (Homo neanderthalensis), and modern humans (Homo sapiens), evolved small molars relatively quickly, which could not be explained by general changes in head and jaw sizes.
勿論ここでいう「料理（cooking）」とは加熱処理の謂いなのだが、火の使用の痕跡の遺跡はより新しいものしか発見されていない――”Some of the most convincing evidence for human use of fire is more recent, dating to around 400,000 years ago, though older claims exist, including the remnants of a campfire in Israel that dates back to 790,000 years ago.”
According their report in the US journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Homo erectus, which emerged in Africa around 1.9m years ago, spent 6.1% of its time eating. Neanderthals, the authors claim, spent 7% of their time feeding. "We think that Homo erectus and Neanderthals were spending about as much of their day feeding as we do, which implies that they were both cooking," Organ said.More primitive species, such as Homo habilis and Homo rudolfensis, which emerged before Homo erectus and the Neanderthals, spent 7.2% and 9.5% of their day eating. If the estimates are right, it suggests they may have been less accomplished cooks than Homo erectus and the Neanderthals.
*1:Ian Sample “Neanderthals may have feasted on meat and two veg diet” http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/2010/dec/27/neanderthals-cooked-diet-us-research Mentioned in http://d.hatena.ne.jp/sumita-m/20101228/1293537777
*2:http://www.oeb.harvard.edu/faculty/edwards/people/postdocs/organ.htm
