#Archaeology: 1,800-Year-Old #Spices Are Earliest Evidence of #Curry Making in #SoutheastAsia

#Archaeologists found evidence of spices such as turmeric and cloves from ancient #Vietnam, suggesting South Asians shared their culinary traditions via an ancient maritime trade route

By Timmy Broderick on July 21, 2023

"Traces of eight spices were found: turmeric, ginger, fingerroot (Chinese ginger, lesser galangal), sand ginger (aromatic ginger), galangal (a relative of ginger and turmeric), clove, nutmeg and cinnamon. (One nutmeg fragment even retained a faint version of its signature pungent, slightly nutty aroma.) Because most of these spices originated on distant islands, traders would have had to bring them from several thousand kilometers away by sea. Hung says the stone tools were also likely imported, which suggests the larger culinary practice of incorporating such spices into foods was also borrowed from another ancient culture. 'This study reveals that trading activities were rather complicated, as not only precious goods were moving around, but also people and their entire set of culinary cultures were transferred between the regions,' she says."

https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/curry-has-been-a-global-phenomenon-for-millenia/

#FoodHistory #History #Histodon #CulinaryArchaeology #Archaeobotany