Prehistoric Europeans Used Garlic Mustard To Spice Up Their Meal More Than 6,000 Years Ago

Contrary to popular belief our prehistoric ancestors did not eat tasteless, bland food. According to a latest research, archaeologists have found evidence of spice in the residues of food particles in ancient potteries.

 During the prehistoric period a recipe book definitely didn't exist and discussing about the tastes of the prehistoric people is extremely challenging as they never left any written records of their likes and dislikes. Analyzing the indirect evidence provided by them, archaeologists are offering more information on the kind of food the prehistoric civilization people consumed.

The latest evidence provided by researchers from the University of York, U.K., suggests that prehistoric Europeans used garlic mustard to spice up their dishes. They used the mustard seeds to season their plant and animal food. This finding is based on the analysis of the residue gathered from the shards of ancient charred pots that were unearthed from archaeological sites in Denmark and Germany.

The ancient pieces of cooking pots that are a part of the collections at three different museums namely the Kalunborg and Holbæk Museums, in Denmark, and Schleswig-Holstein Museum in Germany, date back 6,200-5900 years to the Neolithic era.

 "This is the earliest evidence, as far as I know, of spice use in this region in the Western Baltic; something that has basically no nutritional value, but has this value in a taste sense," said Hayley Saul, an archaeologist at the BioArCH research center at the University of York and the study author.

The researchers analyzed the burnt food remains that formed a layer on the charred cooking pot. They basically focused on phytoliths that are the microscopic granules of silica, which redeposit in the soil when the plants decay. Since different types of plants produce different phytoliths, the researchers were able to state which plant food formed the basic diet of prehistoric people.

They noticed the residues inside the pot had greater number of phytoliths when compared to the outside offering clues that the granules were of cooking material. On comparing with the 120 modern plant phytoliths database they noticed that it matched the mustard seed. They found traces of the mustard seeds in eight vessels that were collected from the three sites in Germany and Denmark.

The researchers also identified traces of fish and animal fat. The archaeologists state that since garlic mustard has low nutritional value and a strong flavor, it might have been used for seasoning in prehistoric cuisines.

The study was published in the journal PLOS One.