Archaeology Traces Ten Ancient Foods Still Served Today, From 14,400-Year-Old Bread to Roman Burgers
A fragment of charred flatbread from Shubayqa 1 in Jordan, dating back 14,400 years, indicates that baking occurred 4,000 years prior to the emergence of the region's first crops, as reported by Amaia Arranz-Otaegui and colleagues in 2018. In Italy, grinding stones from approximately 30,000 years ago reveal traces of ferns and cattails. Brewing evidence in Iran is traced to 10,000 years ago, while Sumerian pottery suggests beer production around 3500 B.C. The Yale Babylonian Collection houses the earliest known recipes, dating to c. 1750 B.C. Additionally, spice remnants from Mohenjo-daro, Pakistan, indicate the use of garlic and turmeric 4,000 years ago. The domestication of rice is contested between India (4530 B.C.) and China (2800 B.C.). The oldest cake recipe is a Linzer torte from 1696, and chocolate was introduced to Spain in the 1500s. The Roman meat patty, isicia omentata, is considered the precursor to the hamburger.
Key facts
- Flatbread from Shubayqa 1 in Jordan was radiocarbon dated to about 14,400 years ago, roughly 4,000 years before the first deliberate crops there
- The Shubayqa 1 finding was published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences in 2018 by Amaia Arranz-Otaegui and colleagues
- Cuneiform tablets in the Yale Babylonian Collection dated to about 1750 B.C. are the earliest known written recipes
- Spice residue at Mohenjo-daro in present-day Pakistan shows garlic, ginger and turmeric cooked together roughly 4,000 years ago
- Rice cultivation dates are disputed, with Indian evidence around 4530 B.C. and Chinese dates closer to 2800 B.C.
- A Linzer torte recipe recorded in Linz, Austria, in 1696 is widely described as the oldest surviving cake recipe, though a Veronese manuscript of 1653 is older
- Anna of Austria brought chocolate to the French court in 1615 upon marrying Louis XIII
- The hamburger descends from isicia omentata, a Roman minced meat patty seasoned with wine, pepper, pine nuts and garum
Entities
Artists
- Amaia Arranz-Otaegui
- Archestratus
- Christopher Columbus
- Hernán Cortés
- Moctezuma II
- Anna of Austria
- Louis XIII
- Queen Elizabeth I
Institutions
- Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
- Yale Babylonian Collection
- Yale University
- J.S. Fry & Sons
- White Castle
- Quartz
Locations
- Shubayqa 1
- Jordan
- Italy
- Shanidar Cave
- Iraq
- Iran
- Sumer
- Mesopotamia
- Egypt
- India
- China
- Mohenjo-daro
- Pakistan
- Indus Valley
- Oaxaca
- Yucatán
- Guatemala
- Mexico
- Spain
- France
- England
- Linz
- Austria
- Verona
- Xi'an
- Rome
- Britain
- New York
- Hamburg
- Germany
- United States
Sources
- Quartz —