June 25, 2007 — Frog legs, a typically French gourmet dish, were in fact served in Western Europe more than 5,000 years ago, according to new archaeological evidence.
The site of Kutná Hora-Denemark, a hill fort east of Prague, has revealed the remains of 893 frog bones, providing evidence that the Czechs ate frog legs as early as the Neolithic period.
"The discovery shows that still we don't know everything about human diet in the past. Small bones of small vertebrates such as frogs can be missed in archaeological excavations," René Kyselý, an archaeologist at the Institute of Archaeology of the Academy of the Sciences of the Czech Republic, told Discovery News.
Researchers unearthed bones in five pits at the fort, ruling out many explanations for their presence such as hibernation, natural trap or predator kills.
Most of the bones turned out to be hind legs, the meatiest part of a frog and the one that is usually eaten. If the bones had been the result of a natural trap, hibernation site, or predator food store, the number of anatomical parts would correspond more closely with complete skeletal sets, Kyselý said.
The large number of bones and the prevalence of adult males suggest that Neolithic Czechs systematically hunted frogs in March or April.
Those months see the height of mating activity, when frogs tend to gather in great numbers and can be easily captured.
