While the folk of Bronze Age Europe were mostly making do with simple stews and bread, people in Syria were already importing ingredients and using pots of differing temperatures to support "sophisticated" cuisine, researchers said recently.
The evidence from Danish experts suggests people living in what is now the city of Hama 4,500 years ago were already enjoying dishes of simmered goat, gazelle and cereals.
The city's cooks used pots with different heating properties depending on the type of meal they were about to prepare, much as we choose between cast-iron or non-stick frying pans today.
Mette Marie Hald, from the National Museum of Copenhagen in Denmark and her team reached the conclusion after examining animal bones, plant remains and fats from inside cooking pots found in the city.
"It feels a bit modern, actually, the way that you have different pots and you have different sort of serving wares," said the archaeobotanist.
Locally produced pots were made from clay and calcite, while others were made from clay mixed with basalt and were imported from as far away as China.
Meals could be prepared with imported ingredients such as gazelle, which itself came from much further east.
Hald said the evidence of "sophisticated cooking" they had uncovered in Hama was supported by recipes written down in much later periods.
Danish archaeologists started digging in Hama in the first half of the 20th century, she said, so there has been quite a lot of research on everyday life there.
But she added that they had not really focused on food culture before.
"This is a period of kingdoms, well-organised cities and stratified societies," she said.
"In that way, it's not surprising that they also knew sophisticated cooking. I think the surprising element is we can actually prove it." – AFP
