The First Time Humans Made Soup Was in an Animal Stomach

Every culture makes soup. But the first soup was probably not made in a kitchen, a bowl, or even a pot. It may have started with hungry ancient humans, animal-skin containers, hot rocks, tough meat, bones, and Greg making another questionable decision. In this stickman explainer, we explore how soup became one of humanity’s oldest comfort foods and why it was never just food. Sources: Harvard Magazine on 20,000-year-old pottery in China; University of Groningen/Nature research on early East Asian pottery and fish cooking; Journal of Archaeological Science research on hot-rock cookery; Archaeological and Anthropological Sciences research on wet-cooking in organic vessels; ScienceDirect research on ancient care for injured humans and Neanderthals; Smithsonian Human Origins on Shanidar 1.