They probably encountered cooked meat after a forest fire and tried to replicate it. A pig that died hiding in a burning log, cooked low and slow for hours, is basically barbecue.
Realizing he doesn’t get sick after eating it.
Realizes his buddy doesn’t get sick after being dared to eat it, more likely.
More like random forest fire makes animals crispy. Caveman smells something weird. Finds an already cooked meal. It tastes better than their regular food. Starts burning everything and tasting it.
Can I just say, as an avid amateur fan of archaeology, that I hate the term ‘cave man’ and wish people would stop using it. It’s based on the ignorant idea that just because we find stone-age tools in caves, that was the place where everyone lived. They didn’t. Quite the opposite, in fact, and it’s the reason we find such things in caves- because people don’t go into caves very often, the are often untouched by most weather, and they don’t do things like plow over them.
We know from other archaeology, in fact, that homo sapiens were already living in huts in the paleolithic, meaning that our pre-homo sapiens ancestors probably were too. It’s not like it takes a lot of brains or even skills to build a simple hut.
Known as the Big Brain Explosion.
(Well not really, the big brain explosion was before cooking. So it’s thought it started when we started scavenging meat. But I’m sure cooking meat contributed even more!)
