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

During the second millennium BCE, textual evidence in the Near East attests to a large amount of goods being transported over great distances. For example, cuneiform tablets from the Assyrian trade post of Kaneš (Kanesh) in Anatolia record caravans of hundreds of donkeys regularly transporting goods between the Mesopotamian city of Aššur (Assur) and Central Anatolia during the 19th and18th centuries BCE (19, 20). Starting with the expansion policy of Thutmosis III (15th century BCE) into the Levant, the flow of goods and people in West Asia intensified, which is documented most prominently in the famous Amarna letters (21). Ancient literary sources and illustrations also reference long-distance journeys to foreign lands to obtain exotic goods, such as ivory, ostrich eggshells, ebony, and frankincense. Among the most well-known of these accounts is an expedition initiated by the Egyptian queen Hatshepsut to the land of Punt (probably located in the Horn of Africa region) in the 15th century BCE (22, 23). In addition, evidence for long-distance trade between the Near East and the Indian subcontinent is growing for the second and third millennium BCE (8, 24), and includes written accounts (25–27), seals and stone weights (8, 28–30), shell, lapis lazuli, and carnelian jewelry (8, 24, 31, 32), and timber and ivory (33, 34).

Live animals were also transported long distances. Zooarchaeological and isotopic analyses have identified the movement of donkeys from Egypt to the Southern Levant during the third millennium BCE (35), and ancient DNA analysis has documented the transport of pigs from Italy to the southern Greek mainland (36) and from the Aegean to the Southern Levant during the second millennium BCE (37). In addition, depictions of zebu (Bos taurus indicus), a humped subspecies of cattle native to South Asia (38), have been found in Mesopotamia as early as the third millennium BCE (39), and a clear depiction of a zebu (Fig. 2) appears on a bichrome ceramic vessel from the southern Levant dating to 16th century BCE, the same period when depictions of zebu also become common in Egypt (39). Zooarchaeological study of faunal remains and genetic data further confirm the presence of zebu cattle in the Levant during the second millennium BCE (37, 40), and genetic evidence suggests possible taurine–zebu hybridization at the site of Megiddo at approximately 900 BCE (37). Monkeys depicted in 18th and 17th century BCE frescoes at Akrotiri on the Aegean island of Thera were recently identified as South Asian gray langurs (Semnopithecus sp.), with a probable origin in the Indus valley (41), and the identification of dermestid khapra beetles (Trogoderma granarium) that had infested a wheat deposit from a Middle Kingdom (2050 to 1710 BCE) Egyptian tomb at the site of el-Gebelein points in the same direction (42). At the same time, other animals, such as domestic chicken (Gallus gallus domesticus) were brought from East Asia to the Near East (possibly via South Asia) and displayed as exotic curiosities and used for cockfighting. Sporadic evidence of chicken occurs in Anatolia, Iran, Syria, and Egypt as early as the third millennium BCE, and by the late first millennium BCE some sites in the Levant appear to have economically specialized in chicken husbandry (43).

Although evidence for the movement of durable goods and animals is richly attested by historical and archaeological evidence, direct evidence for culinary and economic plants is more limited. Plant remains are highly perishable, and only certain conditions lead to macrobotanical preservation, which may be biased with respect to plant type or part (44). Nevertheless, plant remains, such as charred seeds, have documented the eastward spread of wheat and barley across Eurasia during and after the late fourth millennium BCE (45), as well as the westward spread of millet cultivation from East Asia during the third millennium BCE (9, 46, 47). Macrobotanical and microbotanical evidence also confirm the establishment of citron (Citrus medica), a fruit tree of South/Southeast Asian origin (48, 49), as an important crop in the Levant and Egypt by the first millennium BCE (50–52), although it may have been first introduced into the Eastern Mediterranean as early as the fourth millennium BCE (53, 54). Melon (Cucumis melo), another important crop of South Asian origin (55), was also cultivated in the Near East during the Bronze Age. Textual references to melons appear in third millennium BCE Sumerian texts, and melons and cucurbits are depicted in Egyptian tombs from the Old Kingdom onwards (54, 56, 57). Cucurbit seeds have been reported in Near Eastern archaeological contexts as early as the sixth century BCE (54), but finds prior to the first millennium BCE are less secure in their taxonomic assignment (56).

Beyond grains and fruits, there is also growing evidence for a spice trade between South Asia and the Eastern Mediterranean. This is supported by recent findings from organic residue analysis, including evidence for vanillin (58) and possibly also cinnamon (59), nutmeg, and jasmine (60), although evidence for the latter three spices requires further confirmation. Whereas many aspects of this early trade remain unknown, some extraordinary finds leave no doubt that an Indo-Mediterranean spice trade already existed during the Bronze Age (6, 9, 59). Peppercorns used in the mummification of Ramses II in 1213 BCE, for example, are native to southern India (61–63), and cloves, originally from Indonesia, were found at Terqa, Syria dating to 1720 BCE (64, 65), having likely followed an indirect route to Mesopotamia via South Asian trade routes (30, 66). Both of these examples highlight the extent of Indian Ocean trade during this period, despite the declining influence of the Indus Valley and the restructuring of political networks throughout the region (33).

While the details of Bronze Age trade remain patchy, the overall evidence points toward the existence of a dynamic and complex exchange network connecting the Mediterranean with South Asia and beyond during the Middle Bronze Age (approximately 2000 to 1550 BCE), Late Bronze Age (approximately 1550 to 1200/1150 BCE), and Early Iron Age/Iron Age I (approximately 1200/1150 to 1000 BCE). Here we aim to explore the transformation of eastern Mediterranean cuisine as a consequence of Bronze Age globalization by analyzing microscopic and molecular traces of food remains in human dental calculus, a calcified form of dental plaque, from the Southern Levant during the second millennium BCE (Table 1). We focus on two sites, the Middle to Late Bronze Age urban center of Megiddo (17th to 15th centuries BCE) and the Early Iron Age site of Tel Erani (11th century BCE) (Fig. 1). In total, we analyze dental calculus from 16 individuals: 13 from Megiddo (SI Appendix, Fig. S2) and 3 from Tel Erani (SI Appendix, Fig. S3).

During the Middle and Late Bronze Age, Megiddo was a major urban center in the Southern Levant, and it was embedded within long-distance networks and ruled by local kings. We selected Megiddo because it had already yielded suggestive evidence for exchange with South Asia in the form of both zebu genetic evidence (37) and vanillin residues (58). In this study, we analyze individuals from a variety of mortuary contexts, including pit burials, brick-lined pit burials, pithos burials, masonry-constructed collective tombs, and a recently excavated Middle Bronze Age royal tomb containing the so-called “king” (MGD001) and “queen” (MGD002) of Megiddo (SI Appendix).

Dating to ∼500 y later in time, the Tel Erani cemetery is one of the few Early Iron Age cemeteries excavated to date in Israel (SI Appendix). Although the related settlement is less understood, the cemetery has been associated with the “Philistine” occupation at the Southern Levant from the 12th century BCE onwards. In contrast to Megiddo, where several individuals sampled by us derived from high- or highest-status burial contexts, the individuals from Tel Erani instead appear to represent the rural general population of the Early Iron Age in this region.

By analyzing the two sites, we aim to gain a broader perspective on Levantine cuisines during the second millennium BCE, a period that witnessed the blossoming of Middle Bronze Age city states, periods of Egyptian domination and retreat during the Late Bronze Age, and the emergence of the so-called Philistines at the onset of the Early Iron Age during the 12th century BCE

Plant remains were abundant in the Megiddo and Tel Erani dental calculus, and plant microremains and proteins were observed in all 16 dental calculus samples. Of these, probable dietary microremains were identified in all 16 analyzed samples (SI Appendix, Table S1), and included phytoliths consistent with wheat (Triticum), panicoid/millet (Panicoideae), and date palm (Phoenix sp.). Dietary proteins were observed in 5 of 14 analyzed specimens (SI Appendix, Table S2), and consisted of 19 dietary proteins from cereals (Triticum/Aegilops), oilseeds (Sesamum, Glycine), fruits (Musa), and spices (Curcuma).

Among the identified dietary taxa, wheat and date palm were expected finds, as wheat has been a staple crop in the Levant since the seventh millennium BCE (79) and date palm fruits have been consumed and traded since at least the fifth millennium BCE (54, 57, 80). Moreover, date palm seeds and leaves have been previously recovered from Late Bronze II burials at Megiddo (81). Microfossil remains of both crops have been previously identified in the Bronze Age Levant (82–84), and here we identified both wheat and date palm phytoliths, as well as wheat proteins, including a major wheat gluten.

Sesame and millet, although not unexpected, are important new finds. These nonlocal domesticates from South and East Asia, respectively, spread to West Asia during the Bronze Age (85), but their arrival in the Levant is less well understood. To date, the oldest remains of sesame seeds (Sesamum indicum) have been found at Harappan sites in the Indus Valley (2500 to 2000 BCE), but charred and desiccated seeds have also been sporadically recovered at sites in the Near East since the late third millennium BCE (86, 87). The Akkadian word “šamaššammȗ,” which refers to an oil plant (possibly sesame), appears in cuneiform texts from 2400 BCE onwards (87–89), and although questioned in the past, the identification of sesame seeds in the tomb of Tutankhamun (14th century BCE) is now considered credible (90). We found robust evidence for multiple Sesamum proteins in individuals at both Megiddo and Tel Erani, suggesting that by the second millennium BCE, sesame had become a staple oil-bearing crop in the Levant.

We identified Panicoideae phytoliths consistent with dietary millets in a single individual at Tel Erani. Although not identifiable below the taxonomic level of subfamily, the Eurasian grasses Setaria and Panicum and the African grasses Sorghum and Pennisetum are possible candidates. Among these, Sorghum and Pennisetum are unlikely, as there is no evidence for the dispersal of sorghum into the Levant prior to the medieval period (54), and although African pearl millet (Pennisetum glaucum) had spread from East Africa to South Asia by the mid-second millennium BCE (91, 92), there is no evidence for its cultivation in the Near East. In contrast, Asian broomcorn (Panicum miliaceum) and foxtail (Setaria italica) millets are known to have reached western Eurasia via Central Asia (93, 94) by the second or possibly third millennium BCE (54, 95), although likely no earlier based on recent radiocarbon dating and collagen stable isotope studies (96). Within the Near East, current macrobotanical evidence suggests that S. italica and P. miliaceum millets functioned as minor crops from the first millennium onwards (54, 97–100), and this is consistent with our identification of the panicoid phytoliths at Iron Age Tel Erani.

In contrast to the crops above, the consumption of soybean (Glycine), probable banana (Musa), and turmeric (Curcuma longa) were unexpected finds. Soybean cultivation was unknown in this region before the 20th century CE and, like millet, its domestication center was near the Yellow River in Central China, where it was cultivated as early as 7000 to 6500 BCE (101). However, soybean, like sesame, is a major oil plant, and its oil could have been transported over long distances. Exotic oils are frequently mentioned in Old Babylonian, Akkadian, and Egyptian texts (102–104). However, many of the plants from which they derive remain untranslated or unknown; for example, it is still disputed whether Egyptian “baq oil” refers to olive oil, moringa oil, or to the oil of another plant (103). There was high demand for oils of different flavor and origin in ancient Mesopotamia and Egypt, where such oils played vital roles in cuisine, medication, bodycare, and illumination. Furthermore, they were part of a broad spectrum of daily and ritual practices, where they were used, for example, to anoint objects and embalm the dead (103–106). Recent X-ray computed tomography imaging of archaeological soybeans indicates that oil content was a major target of selection during domestication, and cultivars with high oil content were prevalent in China by approximately 2000 BCE (107). The relative scarcity of evidence for soybean in the archaeological record might be explained by its predominant use as an oil combined with a lack of organic residue analysis on relevant material and/or the difficulty of differentiating plant oils through lipid analysis. Proteomics has been previously shown to be a powerful tool for identifying archaeological oils and fats (108), as plant oils and rendered animal fats produced using preindustrial techniques generally contain residual proteins. By identifying strong evidence of soybean seed proteins in dental calculus, we confirm that Megiddo individual MGD018, who was also buried with other exotic grave goods (Table 1 and SI Appendix), likely had access to soybean oil, and we further demonstrate the utility of proteomics as a method for identifying exotic oils in the Near East that otherwise leave few archaeological traces.

Banana (Musa) was domesticated during the fifth millennium BCE in New Guinea (109) and by the first millennium BCE had dispersed under human cultivation as far west as Cameroon in West Africa (110, 111). However, reconstructing the intervening cultivation and trade of bananas has proven particularly difficult to trace through the archaeological record. Banana fruit is highly perishable and domesticated bananas are seedless (reproducing instead by cuttings), and thus there is a strong bias against the recovery of banana macrobotanical remains. Phytoliths represent the principle method employed to trace early banana use, but banana phytolith recovery from archaeological contexts is generally low, perhaps due to the limited number of phytoliths produced by the plant, the lack of phytoliths in the consumed mesocarp, and other taphonomic factors (112, 113). Direct evidence of banana, in the form of phytoliths, has been found at three Indus sites dating to the late third millennium (114–117), placing the crop in South Asia by that date. The earliest reported archaeobotanical evidence for banana in the Near East is desiccated fruit pulp recovered from a vessel in an Egyptian 18th Dynasty tomb (15th ct. BCE), but the identification is highly contested (118, 119). Other scholars have argued for an introduction of banana in the Arabian peninsula prior to the ninth century BCE (120), but the first secure identification of Musa in the Near East consists of a banana leaf found in an Egyptian tomb at Antinoë dating to the fifth century CE (121), long after the crop had already spread further west to become a staple in West Africa (110, 111). The prehistoric spread and use of banana in South and West Asia remains poorly known, in large part due to preservation biases. Our identification of a major banana fruit-ripening protein in the dental calculus of individual ERA017 at Tel Erani lends support for either the banana being present in the Levant by the first millennium BCE or a mobile individual (e.g., a merchant or seafarer) who consumed banana during his lifetime in South or East Asia before being buried at Tel Erani. This identification, although only supported by two peptides, is nevertheless specific, and within the broader banana family Musaceae the peptides are consistent only with Asian bananas (Musa), to the exclusion of other related plants, such as the African enset (Ensete), also known as the Abyssinian banana. The protein itself, which is abundant in ripening fruits, is also supportive of a Musa fruit identification, as the fruits of the Abyssinian banana are inedible and only the starchy portions of the pseudostem and corm are consumed.

The Asian tropical plant family Zingiberaceae contains numerous economically useful plants used for food, spices, medicines, dyes, and perfumes (122, 123). Among these, the rhizomes of the genus Curcuma are consumed as foods in South and Southeast Asia, of which domesticated turmeric (C. longa) is among the most important and widely used. Turmeric starch grains have been identified in both cattle dental calculus and pottery at the Harappan site of Farmana, dating to between 2600 and 2200 BCE (124–126). Turmeric has multiple uses as both a spice and a cloth dye (72), and early medical texts in China and India also report its use as a medicinal (127). Within the Near East, the earliest references to turmeric appear during the seventh century BCE in Assyrian cuneiform medical texts from Ashurbanipal’s library at Nineveh (128), but no archaeological evidence has been found prior to the Islamic period during the 11th to 13th centuries CE (1). Our identification of Curcuma protein at the site of Megiddo suggests that it was already present or accessible to individuals in the Levant as early as the mid-second millennium BCE. Interestingly, turmeric protein was identified at Megiddo in the same individual (MGD018) whose dental calculus contained soybean protein. This individual was buried in a wealthy collective tomb containing exotic goods (Table 1 and SI Appendix), suggesting that this individual was either well connected with trading activities or may have even been a merchant or trader themself. As such, the individual may have consumed foods seasoned with turmeric or prepared with soy oil in the Levant, in South Asia, or elsewhere.

Overall, the plant microremains and proteins identified in dental calculus from Megiddo and Tel Erani point toward the existence of a dynamic and complex exchange network connecting the Mediterranean with South Asia during the second millennium BCE that outlived the dramatic socio-political transformation and associated shift from centrally organized trade during the Bronze Age to diverse small-scale trade entrepreneurship from the Early Iron Age onwards. Historically, archaeologists and historians in the Near East have relied on texts, iconography, and macrobotanical remains as their primary sources of information in reconstructing the region’s cuisine and trade connections. However, these approaches alone can be limiting. Although the text base is rich, including both cuneiform texts and papyri, many of the attested plant-related terms cannot yet be translated or fully understood, despite being transliterated. Iconography, while providing vivid images of the past, can lack the botanical detail necessary to make conclusive identifications, and macrobotanical remains are generally strongly biased toward grains and other seeds, especially those that have been carbonized. While important, these methods can miss oils, fruits, and spices that are unlikely to carbonize and which may have been traded in small quantities or in already processed powdered or liquid forms.

Here we demonstrate the utility of combining microscopic and molecular techniques to reveal a broader range of foodstuffs that include both staple grains, as well as oils, fruits, and spices that otherwise leave behind little macrobotanical evidence. In particular, we found that plant phytoliths primarily reflected bulk dietary items, and were dominated by high levels of grass phytoliths, most likely deriving from wheat, but also including probable millets. We also identified palm phytoliths, almost certainly from date fruit. All of these resources are monocots, reflecting their tendency to be well represented by phytoliths. In contrast, protein analysis revealed a wider diversity of foods and is better at identifying plants with low levels of silicification and therefore few phytoliths, especially if they are protein-rich. Although the modes of protein preservation and incorporation in ancient dental calculus are still under study, most of the proteins we identified were either protease inhibitors or belonged to the seed storage protein superfamily. Both types of proteins are highly stable against proteolysis and thermal processing, traits that may increase their likelihood of survival in archaeological calculus. These same traits can also contribute to their potential allergenicity (129), and many of the identified proteins are also known allergens. In addition to being resilient, several of the proteins we identified, especially seed proteins, are also highly abundant in the foods from which they originate, and similar seed storage proteins have been previously identified in Neolithic pottery residues (130) and in dental calculus from the medieval and postmedieval periods (131–133).

The identification of sesame, soybean, banana, and turmeric proteins in Megiddo and Tel Erani dental calculus points to the need to reevaluate the current evidence for the second millennium BCE Indo-Mediterranean trade. Previous suggestions of such a trade network between India and Egypt were largely ignored due to the limited physical evidence (119, 134). However, such evidence is now growing, and thus earlier identifications of plants (e.g., jasmine, nutmeg, cinnamon), both from archaeological remains and from texts, should be reconsidered. The broader body of evidence for exotic goods, which also includes zebu cattle, chickens, citron, melon, cloves, millet, vanillin, peppercorns, monkeys, and beetles, points to a pattern of established trade. The individuals from Megiddo, tomb 100 (MGD017, MGD018) not only had access to exotic food, but were also buried with precious grave goods (Dataset S2), which might indicate a higher-status position or the collective burial of members of a trading house. Such traders and travelers may have transported cargoes of animals, spices, dried fruits, oils, and perfumes via different routes, either overland through Iran and the Central Asian oases or by sea across the Indian Ocean to either the Red Sea or Persian Gulf, or both.

This study highlights the potential of microscopic and molecular methods to reveal elements of trade and cuisine that otherwise leave few archaeological traces. As detection methods continue to improve, there will likely need to be a fundamental reconsideration of the dimensions and complexities of Bronze Age trans-Eurasian trade. Although named for a metal that is highly visible in the archaeological record, the process of Bronzization was likely a much broader phenomenon that also linked cuisines and economies across Eurasia.

This study was funded by the European Research Council (ERC) under the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research innovation programme (ERC-2015-StG 678901-Food-Transforms) as part of P.W.S.’s ERC Starting Grant project “FoodTransforms: Transformations of Food in the Eastern Mediterranean Late Bronze Age.” Work at Megiddo is currently supported by the Shmunis Family Foundation, the Dan David Foundation, Jacques Chahine, Mark Weissman, as well as Norman and Vivian Belmonte. We thank Zeev Herzog and Lily Avitz Singer for giving us the permission to publish the pottery sherd photograph and for supplying information as to its context; and Chen Tao and Robert Spengler for helpful comments on the manuscript.