Evidence Of 8,000-Year-Old Bone Powder Cooking In China Proves It Was An Important Survival Strategy
At the Xielaozhuang (XLZ) site in the Henan province of North China, archaeologists identified some of the earliest forms of bone processing to create powder for cooking, which date back nearly 8,000 years. The site belonged to the Peiligang culture, one of the most significant Neolithic cultures in North China.
It was known for being one of the earliest producers of fermented beverages and tonal flutes. Basic textile weavers and sewers also came out of this culture. They may have been the earliest users of the Chinese script as well.
The site was excavated in 2017 and 2018, revealing a settlement, a cemetery, and three pottery Ding-tripods that contained food remains.
Ding-tripods were a type of pottery vessel with three legs. They were initially made of ceramics but would eventually be cast in bronze.
Testing confirmed that the Ding-tripods were made between 6,085 and 6,369 B.C. The researchers started their study by investigating alcohol-making temperatures at XLZ.
“At first, our real research’s goal was about the temperature of alcohol-making in prehistory. [While] using the SEM, the bone powder was found,” said Dr. Tianxing Cui, one of the researchers involved in the study.
The research team analyzed the chemical, mineral, and microscopic composition of the food crust residue using tools like Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM), among others.
They detected several compounds and minerals, along with key elements, including oxygen, carbon, phosphorous, magnesium, and calcium, all of which are found in bone.
The team had difficulty identifying the species of the ancient plant remains on the pottery. After much work, they were finally able to recognize the species of the starch granules.
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They concluded that the bone powder was ground up and cooked with various wild plants, such as acorns and Job’s tears.
Even though agriculture was developed in China around 10,000 years ago, the Peiligang culture still didn’t use cultivated crops and animals like common millet, foxtail millet, rice, and pigs all that often. No traces of domesticated crops were detected in the food residue at XLZ.
It is believed that the bone powder processing at the site was an important survival strategy during the shift from hunting/gathering to farming.
Direct evidence of bone powder processing was extremely rare before the invention of pottery due to the organic nature of the vessels used in the process, which were made from wood and animal skins.
The bones at XLZ were ground into a very fine powder, unlike bone fragments from previous sites, suggesting that sandstone rollers helped refine the process of bone powder production.
The finer the bone powder is, the more calcium is released. The powders would be added to boiling water to remove the grease. Afterward, the mixture was probably added to various plant foods.
Overall, the discovery at XLZ shows that the community continued to rely on wild resources as farming was starting to emerge.
The bone powder provided the nutrients and minerals necessary to sustain their lifestyle during this time of transition.
The study was published in the International Journal of Osteoarchaeology.
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