It’s the earliest known proof of the dish preparation in the province
The first known curry preparation artefacts were discovered by archaeologists in Southeast Asia. The 2,000-year-old recipe calls for a dizzying variety of spices. Researchers discovered residues of rice and spices required to prepare curry, including ginger, clove, nutmeg, cinnamon, turmeric, and fingerroot, when they examined grinding equipment discovered in southern Vietnam.
According to the experts, it’s also the earliest proof of curry ever discovered outside of India.
Analysing a traditional recipe
One of the most well-known and well-liked foods in the world is curry. This intricate, always changing concoction of spices, herbs, and other ingredients is more than simply a flavour explosion; it is a product of historical trade routes, population movement, farming techniques, and cultural fusion.
Curry was already a well-known meal in the India-Pakistan area 2,600 years ago, according to archaeological evidence, but it was eventually exported to other Asian nations. The spices that were examined in this study were probably shipped thousands of km by sea.
Author of the research Dr. Hsiao-chun Hung stated that preparing curry “involves not only the use of a diverse range of spices but also the use of grinding tools, considerable time, and human effort.” “Even people living outside of India expressed a strong desire to savour the flavours of curry, as evidenced by their careful preparations, nearly 2,000 years ago.”
Because it is geographically midway between China and the Indian subcontinent and a supplier of tropical goods, Southeast Asia used to play a significant part in the spice trade.
The researchers’ first interest was not on curry; rather, they intended to investigate “pesani,” or ancient stone grinders, which were used by humans to crush spices into powder. They also wanted to learn more about the historic spice trade because they understood the importance of spices in creating cultural ties throughout history.
They used a technique called starch grain analysis. This entailed looking at tiny fragments that were recovered from pounding and grinding implements found at the c Eo archaeological complex. They might learn a lot by examining starch grains, which are small structures present in plant cells and have a long lifespan.
Out of the 40 instruments examined, 12 were discovered to have small amounts of different spices utilised in modern curry cooking. This suggested that the people who lived in c Eo used these instruments to prepare meals. Notably, one of the implement was quite similar to the grinding slabs that are still frequently used to create curry paste today.
Hsiao-chun Hung, a researcher at the Australian National University, informed that they have discovered a wide variety of spices that had travelled from different locations to c Eo. All of these spices arrived in Vietnam 2,000 years ago, helping to produce delicious cuisine that the people of the period must have adored.
In their study, which was just published, the researchers state that “we suggest that South Asian migrants or visitors introduced this culinary tradition into Southeast Asia during the period of early trade contact via the Indian Ocean, beginning about 2000 years ago.”
For the first time, experts have concrete proof that spices were highly valuable commodities traded around the world more than 2,000 years ago. Although it is unclear who created the curry at the site, scholars believe that it was either migrants from India or local Vietnamese people who were affected by South Asian culture as a whole.
Given that their study was focused on tiny plants, the researchers will now compare their findings with other substantial plant remnants discovered at the site. They also want to examine a significant quantity of well-preserved seeds that were gathered from an earlier dig. They think they could recognise more kinds of plants or spices.