Voulez-vous les frogs’ legs de Stone Age?!? (ca. 3000 BC)
While typically attributed to the French as a delicacy of their own invention, more recent studies have shown that frogs’ legs were indeed eaten with some measure of regularity in Western Europe around 5,000 years ago. At the hill fort site of Kutna Hora-Denemark in Czech Republic, the remains of 893 frog bones have presented evidence of frog consumption during the Neolithic period.
Since the bones were found in five different pits on the site, excavators were able to rule out various possibilities for the frogs’ presence, such as hibernation, accidental trapping, or death from natural predators. Another giveaway was the fact that the majority of the bones were hind legs – the part of the frog typically eaten, as it is the meatiest part of the creature. Due to the high percentage of hind legs and lower representation of complete skeletons – which would be typical in the case of natural trapping or spot for hibernation – the best explanation is that these pits contained food waste.
In addition, most of the frogs’ legs came from male frogs, suggesting that Neolithic Czechs hunted the animals purposely during March or April, the height of frog mating season; studies have shown that this is the time when frogs tend to congregate in large numbers, making them easier to trap.
The manner in which Stone Age humans ate their frogs’ legs is indeterminate, though it is likely that they skinned the legs and then ate the meat – and it is rather unlikely that frogs were considered a delicacy to the ancient Czechs. At the very least, the discovery proves that humans have eaten frogs for thousands of years, eliminating the notion of eating frogs’ legs as a purely French invention. Instead, it appears that the frog population during the Neolithic period in Czech Republic was at the right place in the right time – for the humans, that is.
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