Neolithic people in Northern Europe enjoyed seasoning their food, evidence suggests

Aug 22, 2013 20:31 GMT  ·  By

A paper published in yesterday's issue of the scientific journal PLOS ONE documents the discovery of traces of garlic-mustard seeds inside several cooking pots dating back to at least 6,000 years ago.

The pots were discovered by archaeologists carrying out excavations in northern Germany and Denmark.

According to the researchers who have had the chance to examine them, the people to whom they belonged used them for cooking.

Hence the fact that the pots' insides contain noteworthy amounts of lipid residues which specialists say were left behind by marine animals such as oysters and fish.

The lipid residues are accompanied by traces of garlic-mustard seeds.

These traces are known to the scientific community as phytoliths, i.e. microscopic silica fragments found both in a plant's cells and in the space between these cells, Nature tells us.

Since the size, the shape and the texture of such silica fragments are unique to each plant species, their study can provide clues concerning which plants made their way into Neolithic cooking pots and which didn't.

Specialists argue that, in light of these findings, it becomes obvious that, contrary to popular opinion, Neolithic people took pleasure in cooking and were interested not just in nutritional value, but also in taste.

“As this seed has a strong flavor, little nutritional value, and the traces are found in pots along with terrestrial and marine animal residues, these findings are the first direct evidence for the spicing of food in European prehistoric cuisine,” the scientists write.

“Our evidence suggests a much greater antiquity to the spicing of foods than is evident from the macrofossil record, and challenges the view that plants were exploited by hunter-gatherers and early agriculturalists solely for energy requirements, rather than taste,” they go on to say.

Interestingly enough, it appears that these garlic-mustard seed traces are some of the earliest evidence of spices being used in European Neolithic cuisine to have ever been discovered.