The global spice trade has played an essential role in world history. However, because of poor preservation conditions, archaeobotanical remains of spices have been limited in archaeological contexts until now. A new analysis of plant microremains recovered from the surfaces of grinding stone tools from the archaeological site of Oc Eo in southern Vietnam has identified culinary spices that include turmeric, ginger, fingerroot, sand ginger, galangal, clove, nutmeg, and cinnamon. These spices are indispensable ingredients used in the making of curry in South Asia today.
Spices have been highly valued and sought-after since ancient times and have played a key role in building bridges between different cultures.
South Asia has served as a major source of spices since the Bronze Age, and evidence has shown the movements of turmeric, cinnamon, and black pepper from the region to the Mediterranean during the second millennium BCE.
By the last centuries BCE and early centuries CE, historical texts from China, Roman Europe, and India suggest knowledge of even more exotic spices that originated in Southeast Asia.
Southeast Asia played a special role in the spice trade, both as a source of tropical products and as a geographical intermediary between China and the Indian subcontinent.
According to interpretations of Chinese records, the polity of Funan (first to seventh centuries CE) was located at the head of the Mekong Delta, from where it could control the Thai-Malay Peninsula and especially the narrow portage presented by the Isthmus of Kra.
Two major Funan-era archaeological landscapes have been identified: Angkor Borei in the lower Mekong Valley in southern Cambodia as a potential state capital, and Oc Eo, the focus of the current study, downstream at the head of the Mekong Delta in southern Vietnam, as a trading entrepôt.
“Our study suggests that curries were most likely introduced to Southeast Asia by migrants during the period of early trade contact via the…
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