An analysis of food residue on Bronze Age skeletons’ teeth in northern Israel suggests that spices, fruits, and oils might have been imported from South and East Asia centuries earlier than had been previously thought. The study looked at proteins found in dental tartar the remains, excavated from two cities, dating to the 1000s BCE during the Bronze Age.
A resident of the Canaanite city of Megiddo had dental plaque that contained traces of turmeric and soy. And at Tel Erani, a Nagada Egyptian trading post, traces of banana were found on the teeth of another Bronze Age person. While it is possible that these two individuals previously lived in Southeast or Southern Asia and immigrated to northern Israel, it is also possible the foods were traded to the area.
Spices, foods, and luxury goods from Southern Asia were known to have reached the Mediterranean by the Roman era. But this study would move back the date of such long-distance trading by thousands of years.
