Excavations in Vietnam reveal spices used by ancient people 2000 years ago

Archaeologists have found the remains of eight spices on a sandstone slab from an archaeological site in Vietnam, indicating the early adoption of ingredients from South Asia and methods of using them.

The utensil, found in an ancient village in southern Vietnam, is about the size and shape of an anvil and was probably used to grind spices and other ingredients common to modern curry, Arkeonews reports.

Dishes with a rich flavor and aroma due to a combination of spices such as earthy turmeric, cloves, and spicy ginger, commonly known in the West as curry, have been a staple of South and Southeast Asian cuisines for centuries, from India to Indonesia.

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The discovery, reported in Science Advances, marks the earliest known example of spice processing in mainland Southeast Asia. It also suggests that millennia ago, visitors from India and Indonesia may have brought their culinary traditions to the region.

During excavations at the Ok Eo archaeological site in southern Vietnam, Xiao-Chun Hong of the Australian National University in Canberra and her colleagues discovered several sandstone grinding tools along with spice remains.

Analysis of the 717 grains recovered from the tools revealed the presence of eight different spices: turmeric, ginger, galangal, sand ginger, fingernail, cloves, nutmeg, and cinnamon. Many of the grains also showed signs of deformation, indicating that they had been damaged during grinding and resembled the starch granules found in modern curry powder.

Since Óc Eo was first excavated in the 1940s, a large number of artifacts have been discovered, suggesting that the city once lay at the crossroads of a major trade network that extended all the way to the Mediterranean.

The maritime trade route that connected the Mediterranean with China in the same time period as the famous Silk Road has long been known to historians. The maritime route extended further south, connecting the cultures of Southeast Asia, Iran, and modern India. However, most of the evidence is based on written records, and the lack of physical evidence makes it difficult for researchers to verify these accounts.

Although previous fragments found elsewhere predate the spices studied in the new research, the Óc Eo discoveries are the first evidence that all of these spices were used in Southeast Asia during this period. The spice residues indicate that the stone mortars, pestles, and grinding plates found there were most likely used for cooking.

As a reminder, paleontologists discovered three new mammal species thanks to fossils found in America.

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