Posted By Ron Bechtol on Fri, Feb 5, 2021 at 9:00 AM click to enlarge Ron Bechtol The next time you slurp a noodle, pause to ponder this: its history stretches back at least 4,000 years which makes the association of noodles with long life in the celebration of Chinese New Year doubly meaningful. According to archaeologists who uncovered evidence of prehistoric pasta at a site in northwest China, noodles made of millet had improbably been preserved in an upturned bowl in the debris of a giant earthquake. “Thin, delicate and yellow, they resembled the traditional La-Mian noodle that is made by repeatedly pulling and stretching the dough by hand,” a scientist involved in the excavation told The Guardian.