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Exotic Asian spices such as turmeric and fruits like the banana had already reached the Mediterranean more than 3000 years ago, much earlier than previously thought. A team of researchers working alongside archaeologist Philipp Stockhammer at Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität in Munich (LMU) has shown that even in the Bronze Age, long-distance trade in food was already connecting distant societies.
A market in the city of Megiddo in the Levant 3700 years ago: The market traders are hawking not only wheat, millet or dates, which grow throughout the region, but also carafes of sesame oil and bowls of a bright yellow spice that has recently appeared among their wares. This is how Philipp Stockhammer imagines the bustle of the Bronze Age market in the eastern Mediterranean. Working with an international team to analyze food residues in tooth tartar, the LMU archaeologist has found evidence that people in the Levant were already eating turmeric, bananas and even soy in the Bronz
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Aroma of Distant Worlds
Exotic Asian spices such as turmeric and fruits like the banana had already reached the Mediterranean more than 3000 years ago, much earlier than previously thought. A team of international researchers in Germany and the US has shown that even in the Bronze Age, long-distance trade in food was already connecting distant societies.
An international team at the Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History in Jena, Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich, and Harvard University found evidence that exotic Asian spices such as turmeric and fruits like the banana reached the Mediterranean more than 3000 years ago, much earlier than previously thought.