在17万年前的洞穴中发现的古代烤根菜

Cavemen did not eat nearly as much meat as we thought, according to the recent discovery of ancient root vegetables.

根据最近发现的古代根类蔬菜，穴居人吃的肉几乎没有我们想象的那么多。

Scientists have dated charred plant stems found in a South African cave to be nearly 170,000 years old, a study published Friday in the journal Science finds.

周五发表在《科学》(Science)杂志上的一项研究发现，科学家们在南非一个洞穴中发现的烧焦的植物茎干的年代接近17万年。

Lead author Lyn Wadley, of the University of the Witwatersrand in South Africa, and her team discovered a charcoal pile within the rock shelter. After years of microscopic analysis, they confirmed that its ash layer contained hundreds of plants.

研究报告的第一作者、南非威特沃特斯兰德大学的琳恩·瓦德利和她的研究小组在岩石掩体内发现了一堆木炭。经过多年的显微分析，他们证实了火山灰层中含有数百种植物。

The discovery represents rare proof of prehistoric humans’ consumption of carbohydrate-rich roasted veggies. It also shows that early people were actually healthy in their eating habits.

这一发现为史前人类食用富含碳水化合物的烤蔬菜提供了罕见的证据。研究还表明，早期人们的饮食习惯实际上是健康的。

“I think people were eating a very balanced diet, a combination of carbohydrates and proteins,” Wadley tells the New Scientist. Despite the common notion that Stone Age people ate a lot of meat, Wadley says her findings help prove that they actually had a veggie-rich diet.

“我认为人们的饮食非常均衡，碳水化合物和蛋白质的结合，”Wadley告诉《新科学家》杂志。尽管人们普遍认为石器时代的人吃很多肉，Wadley说她的发现有助于证明他们实际上有一个富含蔬菜的饮食。