Archaeology Rewrites the Timeline of Ten Everyday Foods, From 13,000-Year-Old Beer to 5,300-Year-Old Cacao
Analysis of residues and radiocarbon dating indicates that many well-known foods have origins much earlier than what is implied by modern packaging. A 2018 study at Raqefet Cave in Israel discovered a beer-like beverage made from wild wheat or barley that dates back 13,000 years. European cheese production is believed to have started approximately 7,200 years ago, with the oldest cheese found in China's Tarim Basin, dating to 3,600 years ago, according to a 2024 study. In Ecuador, cacao processing can be traced back 5,300 years, while corncobs from Peru are around 6,700 years old. Noodles from China are estimated to be 4,000 years old, and honey from Georgia is dated at 5,500 years. Mustard cultivation began around 3000 BCE, and ketchup evolved from fish sauce, with early tomato recipes appearing in 1812. Chickpeas were domesticated 10,000 years ago, and pretzels are believed to have emerged around 600 AD.
Key facts
- Brewing residue at Raqefet Cave near Haifa, Israel, dates to roughly 13,000 years ago, before farming and writing
- Neolithic Croatian pottery holds milk fat evidence of cheesemaking from about 7,200 years ago
- Cacao was processed at Santa Ana-La Florida in the Ecuadorian Amazon around 5,300 years ago, over 1,000 years earlier than Mesoamerican evidence
- Corncobs from Peru's Paredones and Huaca Prieta sites were radiocarbon dated to about 6,700 years old
- Millet noodles roughly 4,000 years old were found in an overturned bowl at the Lajia site in Qinghai province, China
- Honey in Bronze Age Georgian burials dates to about 5,500 years ago and remains edible when sealed
- Mustard was cultivated around 3,000 BCE in both the Indus Valley and Sumerian Mesopotamia
- Julius Sturgis opened a commercial pretzel bakery in Lititz, Pennsylvania, in 1861
Entities
Artists
- Dolores Piperno
- Columella
- James Mease
- Julius Sturgis
- Marco Polo
Institutions
- Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
- Nature
- Nature Ecology and Evolution
- Journal of Archaeological Science
- Heinz
- Quartz
Locations
- Haifa
- Israel
- Raqefet Cave
- Croatia
- Ecuador
- Ecuadorian Amazon
- Santa Ana-La Florida
- Peru
- Paredones
- Huaca Prieta
- Chicama Valley
- China
- Qinghai
- Lajia
- Xinjiang
- Tarim Basin
- Georgia
- Egypt
- Indus Valley
- Mesopotamia
- Turkey
- Syria
- Iraq
- Fertile Crescent
- South Asia
- Rome
- France
- Dijon
- Germany
- Austria
- Bavaria
- Italy
- Pennsylvania
- Lititz
- Mexico
- Guatemala
Sources
- Quartz —