The Bronze Age Goes Bananas, or, By Your Teeth They Shall Know Thee

What does the discovery of exotic species such as bananas, soybeans and turmeric in the second millennium BCE Southern Levant tell us about trade, tastes and smells in the past? And does the fact that the discovery comes from scraping the teeth of dead people say more about the potential of microarchaeology or about the need for flossing? Our panelists agree about flossing, but not about bananas.

 

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Exotic foods reveal contact between South Asia and the Near East during the second millennium BCE

https://www.pnas.org/content/early/2020/12/16/2014956117