Stone Age Food - A Brief Guide for Kids
Updated: Feb 1, 2023
Gathering food in the Stone Age was a difficult task and required a lot of skill and knowledge. Stone Age people needed a healthy balanced diet (just like us today!), so alongside hunting for meat and protein, they needed a team of gatherers to collect other foods too.
Here are some foods that prehistoric people would gather for a fully balanced Stone Age diet.
Eggs:
Eggs were a great food to eat in the Stone Age, as they provided plenty of protein.
Sadly, gathering them was more arduous than nipping to your local supermarket where they are all neatly packaged together and all you have to do is check them for cracks.
Instead, the Stone Age version of you would have to gather them from a bird’s nest, just make sure mamma bird isn’t home when you try this!
Nuts & Berries:
Fruits, nuts and berries were a hit with gatherers as they provided a wide range of nutrients, they were tasty too!
Unlike meat, fruits, nuts and berries can also be eaten immediately, no cooking required.
Fruit could also be left in the sun to ferment and become a bit like alcohol, great for providing extra calories.
The only problem was you couldn’t rely on fruits and nuts all year round – summer and autumn only.
Plants:
Plants were very plentiful in the Stone Age and many of them would be eaten by our prehistoric peers.
Nettles and dandelions would be gobbled up, though proper preparation must be undertaken to ensure no one is stung or made ill.
Some plants may have been used as medicine too, Otzi the Iceman (yep, that's a portrait of him above) was found with six different mosses in his tummy. He was probably trying to cure a headache!
Fish:
Surprisingly fish were the most popular choice of prey for a Stone Age hunter, much more so than a Woolly Mammoth.
Fish are available all year round and you don’t need to travel to find them, they come to you straight down the river! Plus, hunting fish is relatively risk-free, they won’t try to bite your knees off like a Smilodon.
This is why Ancient settlements would be built next to rivers – plentiful food!
Want to learn even more about the Stone Age from the comfort of your school hall? Then you'll definitely want Imagining History to bring their 'A Handy Guide to Survive the Stone Age' Interactive workshop to your school.
Our Award-Winning sessions combine role-play, storytelling, demonstrations and drama and performance to bring history to life for your students.
