title: Culinary archaeology: Millet noodles in Late Neolithic China.
abstract: Noodles have been a popular staple food in many parts of the world for at least 2,000 years, although it is debatable whether the Chinese, the Italians or the Arabs invented them first. Here we analyse a prehistoric sample of noodles contained in a well preserved, sealed earthenware bowl discovered in the Late Neolithic archaeological site of Lajia in northwestern China. We identify millet as the source of the abundant seed-husk phytoliths and starch grains present in the vessel. This shows that the conversion of ground millet flour into dough that could be repeatedly stretched into long, thin strands for the preparation of boiled noodles was already established in this region 4,000 years ago.
authors.affiliation: Institute of Geology and Geophysics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100029, China. houyuanlu@mail.iggcas.ac.cn
authors.forename: Houyuan
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Lu
authors.forename: Xiaoyan
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Yang
authors.forename: Maolin
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Ye
authors.forename: Kam-Biu
authors.initials: KB
authors.lastname: Liu
authors.forename: Zhengkai
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Xia
authors.forename: Xiaoyan
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Ren
authors.forename: Linhai
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Cai
authors.forename: Naiqin
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Wu
authors.forename: Tung-Sheng
authors.initials: TS
authors.lastname: Liu
mesh_terms: D000383:Agriculture / Q000266:history; D001106:Archaeology; D002516:Ceramics; D002681:China; D003296:Cooking / Q000266:history; D005502:Food / Q000266:history*; D049690:History, Ancient; D008897:Panicum; D013997:Time Factors