People who lived 15,000 years ago in what is now Israel feasted on snakes and lizards, archaeologists have discovered. Prior excavations in the Levant, a geographic region that historically included Israel, Palestine, Lebanon and parts of Syria and Jordan, unearthed thousands of bones belonging to lizards and snakes. Animal bones are usually found where ancient people once lived if the animals were being eaten. But it was unknown if lizards and snakes were part of the human diet or if their bones were left behind by other predators.
The legless European glass lizard (Pseudopus apodus) was likely a part of the ancient human diet
By experimenting on the bones of modern squamates, the group that includes lizards and snakes, researchers developed visual references for different types of surface damage, such as erosion, burning or digestion by birds of prey.