Bronze Age Curry

World’s first curry was made 5,000 years ago, archaeologists have discovered.

16:30 22 November 2016

Indians have been cooking curries as well as dhals and rice dishes since the Bronze Age, a recent research has found. 

 

Ancient Indians used advanced farming techniques to bring in rice, bean, lentils tuck into curries, dhal and rice dishes about 5,000 years ago, researchers from the University of Cambridge have revealed. Their research also found that Indians started cultivating rice at the same time that farming techniques were developed in China around 2800BC, 400 years earlier than previously thought. 

 

The new information squashes previous belief that Indus people learned rice farming techniques from the Chinese and instead, they were the world’s earliest farmers. The research also confirms that Indus people were the earliest people to use complex multi-cropping strategies across both seasons, growing foods during summer and winter crops in the colder months. 

 

Study co-author Dr Jennifer Bates said: 'We found evidence for an entirely separate domestication process in ancient South Asia, likely based around the wild species Oryza nivara.

 

'This led to the local development of a mix of 'wetland' and 'dryland' agriculture of local Oryza sativa indica rice agriculture before the truly 'wetland' Chinese rice, Oryza sativa japonica, arrived around 2000 BC.

 

'While wetland rice is more productive, and took over to a large extent when introduced from China, our findings appear to show there was already a long-held and sustainable culture of rice production in India as a widespread summer addition to the winter cropping during the Indus civilisation.'