Excavation site of the ancient noodles (By courtesy of Ye Maolin.)

Noodles have been a popular staple food in many parts of the world for at least 2,000 years, although it is debatable whether the Chinese, the Italians or the Arabs invented them first. A recent study by CAS researchers and co-workers from home and abroad reveals that the preparation of boiled noodles was already invented in China about 4,000 years ago. The work was reported in the October 13 issue of the journal Nature.

Prior to this finding, the earliest record of noodles only appeared in a book written during China's East Han Dynasty (25-220 AD), says lead author of the paper LU Houyuan from the CAS Institute of Geology and Geophysics. "Due to the difficulties for their long-time preservation, direct evidence for early noodles has not been available, until recently."

During an archeological excavation in 2002 at a Neolithic site in the village of Lajia, northwest China"s Qinghai Province, a sealed bowl was discovered by a team led by Prof. YE Maolin from the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences in a three-meter thick sedimentary layer under the fluvial floodplain. Radiocarbon (14C) measurements date its occupation to around 4,000 years old.

The earthen container was found upside down and embedded in brownish yellow and fine-grained clay. When it was removed, researchers found something like the remains of noodles sitting atop an inverted cone of clay. The samples are found composed of thin and delicate strands about 0.3cm in diameter and with the maximum length up to 50cm.

An analysis by Prof. Lu shows that there is a great amount of typical husk phytolith and starch grains of millet in the Neolithic specimen. The content of the husk phytolith reaches nearly 100,000 grains per gram. Under a microscopic lens, a remarkable portion of the starch grains is not completely gelatinized. Phytoliths, Greek for “plant stones,” are microscopic particles composed of silica that are made by many plants. Because phytoliths are very durable and most are identifiable to particular plants, they can be used in a variety of environmental studies.

By a morphological analysis of the phytoliths and starch sampled from the Lajia noodle specimen and a comparative study with those from more than 80 today's cereal strains, Prof. Lu and colleagues was able to reconstruct the possible recipe for making noodles and their preparing course. Instead of the wheat flour, the research shows, the raw material for making the Neolithic noodles is the ground powder made from two kinds of millet: the broom corn millet and foxtail millet.

Through studies into the cultural relics and geological phenomena with the help of 14C dating technology, the researchers identified that the Lajia site was an outpost of the once-prosperous Qijia culture, a native cultural mainstream in Chinese mainland's Neolithic period. Scientists believed it had been devastated by a catastrophic earthquake and resultant flood about 4,000 years ago.

Because of the sudden catastrophe, many relics and ravaged scenes never seen before have been vividly preserved. Just as a result of the earthquake and flood, the homely bowl, which contains the primitive noodles, was fortunate enough to embalm itself in the time in a state of mummification and keep up their original state without decomposition. This was because it had been turned upside down and thus became air-proof sealed by silt and sand. Such a rare chance befell the semi-boiled noodles and enable the food survived the time's all-sweeping ravage during the ensuing thousands of years under such an unimaginable circumstance.