Scientists study animal lipids and microscopical remains of plants in vessels from the Bronze Age Indus Valley Civilization and preceding Copper Age cultures in northern Gujarat, India. By reconstructing the ancient ingredients, their diverse origin, and the ways of preparation, they find evidence for surprising continuity in ‘foodways’ over 1300 years with great cultural change.
How to reconstruct the cookery of people who lived thousands of years ago? Bones and plant remains can tell us what kind of ingredients were available. But to reconstruct how ingredients were combined and cooked, scientists need to study ancient cooking vessels.
“Fatty molecules and microscopic remains from plants such as starch grains and phytoliths – silica structures deposited in many plant tissues – get embedded into vessels and can survive over long periods,” said Dr Akshyeta Suryanarayan, a reseacher at the Universitat Pompeu Fabra in Barcelona, Spain, and co-author on a new study in Frontiers in Ecology and Evolution.
In the new study, Suryanarayan and co-authors analyzed such ‘leftovers’ in Copper and Bronze Age vessels – including pots, vases, goblets, jars, and platters – from today’s Gujarat, India.
