Dried Meat — Early Man's Travel Ration 1 



By Edward N. Wentworth 



Past President, Agricultural History Society 



Chesterton, Ind. 



Primitive man originated three methods of meat preservation — 

 freezing, salting, and drying. Later on, according to skills and lati- 

 tude, he developed further offshoots of each through refrigeration, 

 spicing, and smoking. Some tribes that lived near salt springs, dead 

 seas, or ocean flats discovered that salt was a good preservative, while 

 the subarctic tribes naturally learned the efficacy of cold. Drying 

 came from experience on the edges of the desert or in mountain alti- 

 tudes where the air was light and arid. When the atmosphere proved 

 too humid for the sun- and wind-drying process, these methods were 

 supplemented by fire, either in outside frames or in the hut, and the 

 smoke from the wood or brush imparted distinctive flavors. 



Drying as a method of preservation was just as natural a discovery 

 as were the other two. Any meat left on a carcass by a predator or 

 hunter would dry quickly in the regions were humans first emerged 

 from the anthropoid. Possibly this location was Asia or Africa ; and 

 most probably it was north of the Himalaya Mountains. Perhaps the 

 method of drying was worked out independently in several locations. 

 For example, archeologist William A. Ritchie of the State of New 

 York has found extensive sites in Cayuga County, which radio-carbon 

 dating by Dr. W. F. Libby of the Atomic Energy Commission shows 

 to have been in existence about 3500 B. C. Apparently large racks for 

 meat and fish drying were erected, and numerous remains of bones 

 (principally deer) were present — either whole or cracked for the mar- 

 row. Dried meat has been found in the ancient Sumerian sites, on 

 the lower Egyptian Nile, and in the extreme northern and eastern 

 edge of Mongolia. In a few cases it can be determined definitely that 

 the meat was dried before storing. Perhaps the first tradition in 

 Europe was learned from the experiences of Genghis Khan, Tamer- 

 lane, and other "Hun" invaders. In their first expedition, the Mon- 

 gols ran short of the cattle they drove en route, but they apparently 



1 Reprinted by permission from Agricultural History, vol. 30, January 1956. 



557 



