Apparently spoons were a very early invention. In the archaeological sites associated with kitchen middens of clamshells, someone figured out that if you fastened a clam shell to a stick, you could dip hot cooked food out of a pot and consume it more easily. As Neil deGrasse Tyson points out, people don't credit prehistoric humans with any common sense or inventive abilities. "The ancient Egyptians couldn't have built the Pyramids, because they didn't have heavy lifting machinery." But by observing contemporary pre-technological people, we discovered that our ancestors weren't really all that stupid. "Primitive" systems for distributing well water to irrigate fields turn out to be pretty sophisticated. And in Africa, people discovered that if you take a plastic water bottle and fill it full of water, and insert it through your ceiling, you can illuminate a study area brightly enough with sunshine for a student to do schoolwork at twilight. So, without construction cranes and earthmovers, how did medieval French builders create Notre Dame cathedral? With lots of people with shovels and some basic knowledge of levers.
And people probably also figured out that eating with one's hands led to illness, and began the custom of washing one's hands before a meal. A medieval feast always begins with a hand-washing ritual, with herbs or flower petals in the water and a servant standing by with a towel.
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And people probably also figured out that eating with one's hands led to illness, and began the custom of washing one's hands before a meal. A medieval feast always begins with a hand-washing ritual, with herbs or flower petals in the water and a servant standing by with a towel.