When and where is the earliest known evidence of a feast?
-- Nichola, Scotland

Dr. dig responds:
People have always had to eat to survive, and it can be very difficult for archaeologists to tell the difference between a simple meal and a feast. We may guess that people were feasting as early as the Old Stone Age (Palaeolithic), but as this was well before the development of writing, the evidence depends upon the survival of the food remains. Bone tends to be better preserved than plant remains. Bones recovered from Olduvai Gorge and Kubi Fora in East Africa are 1.5 million plus years old and show evidence of cutting with stone tools, suggesting that early people were eating, perhaps feasting on, their meat. However, a large number of bones do not always indicate a feast-the site of Mezhirich in the Ukraine has yielded many mammoth bones, which were first eaten and then used to build shelters. Far later in time, one ancient Egyptian lady was buried at the Old Kingdom site of Sakkara in approximately 2,800 B.C. with an entire feast, including bread, porridge, roast fish, pigeon stew, roast quail, cooked kidneys, beef, stewed figs, honey cakes, cheese, and wine.