A new archeological discovery has shown that about 32,000 years ago people used to ground oats. Many of them may even have ingested them as oatmeal or as basic flour.

Professor Marta Mariotti Lippi from the University of Florence along with her team analyzed a stone pestle discovered in the Grotta Paglicci, Apulia, in southern Italy. Stone pestle was a tool used for grinding food. It was pale brown and not big than a human hand.

Researchers have found that some of the debris on the stone was oatmeal. The stone belonged to the Gravettian era, a late Paleolithic culture, which was well known for their tool making.

The stone was found in June 1989 and was studied in detail at that time but recently a new team of researchers has examined the material from cave with the help of modern tools and methods.

The stone dates back to around 32,000 years, which means long before the development of agriculture, and thus it has become the oldest proof of food processing in Europe.

Marta Mariotti Lippi claimed there were many other grinding tools, but this was the oldest. Researchers also explained how the ancient hunter-gatherers used to handle the tool and said that they must have bashed the rounded end of the stone against each other for breaking oat seeds. They added that the flat surface of the tool had such kind of wear which is produced by grinding of seeds.

They found that oat seeds had been dried over the fire before grinding as many starch grains were discovered swollen and thickened. This process made crushing faster and easier.