An international team of archaeologists has identified traces of spices used to prepare curries in 2,000-year-old utensils found at the Óc Eo site in Vietnam. The discovery, which provides the oldest evidence of curry consumption in Southeast Asia, confirms the importance of spices in early trade routes.
The investigation has been based on microscopic food residues that remained in twelve utensils used to prepare food. From the surfaces of these utensils, 604 grains of different plant species have been isolated. In addition to remains of rice and possibly coconut, multiple grains of eight spices used to make curries have been identified.
“In our study, we especially highlighted the importance of cloves, nutmeg and cinnamon because they came from distant regions via trade routes by sea,” Hsiao-chun Hung, an archaeologist at the Australian National University in Canberra and director of the research, which also involved teams from Vietnam and China, said by email.
“Many [grains] show breakage caused by grinding, similar to the granules found in modern curry powder,” the researchers write in the journal Science Advances, where they presented their results yesterday. The tools, estimated to be between 1,800 and 2,000 years old, include mortars and grinding boards like those still used to prepare curries in Vietnam today.
None of the eight spices identified on the utensils is indigenous to the Mekong River Delta, where the Óc Eo site is located and which at the time was part of the Kingdom of Funan.
The most abundant spice is turmeric, which came to the region from the west, as it is a plant probably native to India, the country where curry is believed to have been invented some 4,000 years ago. The research provides the oldest evidence of the presence of turmeric in Southeast Asia and “highlights the culinary influence that Indian culture had there,” say the research authors.
Ginger probably reached Oc Eo from the east, whose exact origin is unknown but which is already mentioned in the Analects of Confucius, written between the 3rd and 5th centuries BC.
From the southern islands came nutmeg, native to the Banda Islands, and cloves, obtained from a species from the North Moluccas. These two ingredients, which are part of Vietnam’s culinary culture, are less common in curries from other regions.
To the surprise of archaeologists, one of the 2,000-year-old kernels gave off a distinctive scent of nutmeg.
“Curry recipes came to Southeast Asia [the region of Vietnam] with traders and migrants from South Asia [India],” the researchers say. “This study clarifies how South Asian cultures influenced the formation of Southeast Asian cuisines, taking into account the role of Óc Eo in maritime trade networks.”
The other four spices identified in Óc Eo cookware are Chinese ginger, which is obtained from a different ginger plant; Thai ginger, also called greater galangal; the Kaempferia galanga, which also belongs to the ginger family; and the cinnamon.
The latter could have reached the Mekong Delta from different places, since it is obtained from at least five different plant species of the Cinnamomum genus and was already being traded in the second millennium BC. Previous research indicates that cinnamon, which is mentioned in the Old Testament, had reached Israel about a thousand years before our era and was previously used to embalm mummies in Egypt.
“The global spice trade has linked cultures and economic systems in Asia, Africa and Europe since ancient times,” conclude the authors of the research in Science Advances. “Our findings provide direct evidence of the role it played in this trade from the ancient port city of Óc Eo.”
