Lear, about wheat, wine, pet cats...and noodles, of course!
Lear, about wheat, wine, pet cats...and noodles, of course! 洪恩在线 -> 轻松英语 -> 外教专栏
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Lear, about wheat, wine, pet cats...and noodles, of course!
来源：洪恩论坛 Canuck's Comments
日期：2005-10-14
作者：maryk
阅读：1251 次
Dear Lear,
Thank you for your brief reply to my article about the 4,000 year old noodles very recently found in North Western China.
You wrote: in reply regarding the noodles: "That's not surprising, China has a
long and colorful in food, it's a lucky thing to be a Chinese."
I continued to read about foods, as follows, and this is what I found and what I
thought:
Yes, friend Lear, you're definitely lucky to be a Chinese with that heritage.
On the other hand, if you're a Turk, it's a lucky thing to be a Turk, because eastern Turkey is where many other plants were domesticated including Einkorn wheat, one of the neolithic founder plants that led to people settling down and building towns.
Wine dates back to Neolithic times (the late Stone Age,) 8,500 - 4,000 B.C., and
the firsts glimmerings of civilization. It's thought by experts that eastern Turkey is the place where grape domestication originated.
Fragments of a jar from the ancient village of Godin Tepe in the Zagros Mountains of western Iran date back to about 3,000 BC, which is, of course, 5,000 years
ago.
The shards of the jar have red stains now proved by many modern tests to be from
wine residue. The jar's shape and stoppered neck indicated that its makers intended it to keep oxygen out, because oxygen turns wine into vinegar. How long do you think it took them to discover a particular shape and stoppered neck were
necessary? How long do you think it took to discover how to make noodle paste and to cut it into shape and cook it properly? It must have happened long before
the 5,000 year old wine pot shard was found. It must have happened long before
the 4,000 year old noodles were found! So, it seems that these things are even
older than 4,000 and 5,000 years.
In the wine jar's red stains also was found resin from the terebinth tree, a Middle Eastern member of the cashew family. Aromatic resins were used in ancient times to preserve wine, and sometimes to cover up unpleasant flavours. (I wonder
how long before the shards it took them to find out how to preserve the wine with resins?) Greece still makes a resinated wine with resin from the pine tree.
It's called retsina.
Just before I close with one final comment, I must tell you about the oldest known pet cat. It was in a 9,500 year old burial of a human and a cat found on the
island of Cyprus. They were buried with seashells and polished stones and other decorative things. Touching, isn't it? Somebody loved a cat, and somebody else loved the one who love the cat and buried the person and cat as beautifully as possible.
This discovery of the person/cat grave takes our relationship with pet cats 4,000 earlier than we knew before. 9,500 years is a long time ago. And before that
the cats had to be domesticated. How long before the cat in the grave do you think THAT happened. It must have taken a long time, don't you think? Experts have found 10,000 year old engravings and pottery that depict cats dating to the
Neolithic period, (the late Stone Age).
By the way, cat aren't even native to Cyprus where the ancient human/cat grave was found. Isn't that interesting? Humans must have introduced the 9,500 year old cat's ancestors to Cyprus some time before then. I wonder how long ago that
was?
So I guess Cypriots can also be proud to be Cypriots, and Turks can be proud to
be Turks, and Iranians can be proud to be Iranians, and Chinese can be proud to
be Chinese, and archaeology will no doubt show us all the others who can be proud to be who they are. Nationalism is very dangerous. But a sane patriotismis just fine. I hope and think, Lear, that you are a sane patriot. Right?
Warmly, Mary