World's Oldest noodles unearthed in China

The BBC is reporting that scientists have unearthed the oldest noodles ever discovered. Found in China and made from millet grass grains, radiocarbon dating has placed them at about 4000 years old.

This may help to settle the debate as to which culture invented noodles: the Chinese, the Italians, or the Arabs. Prior to this discovery, the oldest recorded noodles were traced via writings to somewhere around 200AD.

"Based on the geological and archaeological evidence, there was a catastrophic earthquake and immediately following the quake, the site was subject to flooding by the river," explained co-author Professor Kam-biu Liu, from Louisiana State University, US.

"Lajia is a very interesting site; in a way, it is the Pompeii of China."

It was in amongst the human wreckage that scientists found an upturned earthenware bowl filled with brownish-yellow, fine clay.

When they lifted the inverted container, the noodles were found sitting proud on the cone of sediment left behind.

"It was this unique combination of factors that created a vacuum or empty space between the top of the sediment cone and the bottom of this bowl that allowed the noodles to be preserved," Professor Kam-biu Liu said.

BBC NEWS: Oldest noodles unearthed in China