How was food kept fresh in ancient times?

2024 Author: Seth Attwood | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-16 15:55

Archaeologists have discovered methods that kept food fresh and used long before refrigerators.

In quarantine, many of us tend to use up supplies in kitchen cabinets and refrigerators that were purchased at an unknown date - for example, canned soups and frozen vegetables. And while we might wonder, “Is this the same bag of peas that I used to remove the swelling from my sprained ankle?” We are confident the contents are safe to eat. Perishable food is preserved for years thanks to modern methods such as freezing, canning, vacuum sealing and chemical additives.

But how did ancient people store food?

This is a problem that every society has to deal with, starting from the very beginning of mankind: how to preserve food for a "rainy day" - to protect it from germs, insects and other creatures that want to spoil it. Over the years, archaeologists have found evidence of a wide variety of techniques. Some of them, such as drying and fermentation, remain actual today. Others are long-gone practices, such as dipping butter in peat bogs. However, the low-tech ancient methods were very effective, as evidenced by the fact that some products have survived millennia.

Storage methods

To get an idea of what storage methods might have been used by ancient people, archaeologists studied the customs of people from non-industrial societies. They discovered many low-tech methods that were definitely used thousands of years ago. The most common and familiar are drying, salting, smoking, pickling, fermentation and cooling in natural refrigerators such as streams and underground pits. For example, the Sami, the indigenous people of Scandinavia, traditionally kill reindeer in the fall and winter; the meat is dried or smoked, and the milk is turned into cheese - "a hard, compact cake that can last for years," according to an ethnographic source from the mid-20th century.

All of these methods work because they slow down the growth of microorganisms. And drying does it best: microorganisms need a certain amount of moisture, which promotes the circulation of nutrients and waste in their cells. Without water, germs shrink and die (or at least hibernate). Drying also inhibits oxidative and enzymatic activity - the natural reactions of air and food molecules that cause changes in taste and color.

With minimal effort, methods such as fermentation and drying could hypothetically have been used in the distant past. They are an excellent starting point for archaeologists looking for ancient food storage methods. In addition, by observing some of the techniques in action today, researchers have been able to identify the required tools and production waste - a material that is more likely to survive and float to the surface in archaeological excavations, as opposed to real food.

Leftover food

Indeed, instead of looking for food - like a 14,000-year-old piece of jerky deer - archaeologists in most cases hunt for traces of food conservation efforts.

For example, at an excavation site in Sweden where they lived 8,600-9600 years ago, researchers discovered a gutter-like pit filled with more than 9,000 fish bones, according to a 2016 Journal of Archaeological Science article. Outside the trench, remains of perch and pike were most often found. However, in the pit, most of the specimens were represented by roach, a small, bony fish that is difficult to eat without any processing. Signs of acid damage were found on about one fifth of the roach bones. Scientists have concluded that the pit was used for fermentation - making it the oldest evidence of this method.

Likewise, in 2019, a study was published in the Journal of Anthropological Archeology in which archaeologists analyzed more than 10,000 animal bones, approximately 19,000 years old, found in what is now Jordan. Almost 90% of them belonged to gazelles, and they were found next to fires and pole pits with a diameter of 5-20 centimeters, which probably held beams of some simple design. Based on this, the scientists concluded that the pole pits were part of a device for smoking and drying meat.

Ancient food supplies

Some ancient food leftovers are still good for today - well, or at least used to create modern foods and drinks.

Last year, researchers at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem revived yeast cells extracted from ancient clay vessels. Judging by their shape, these vessels were beer jugs that were unearthed at excavation sites in present-day Israel that are between 2,000 and 5,000 years old. After awakening the dormant yeast and sequencing its genome, scientists used it to brew beer. According to their report published in mBio in 2019, the Beer Judge certification program deemed it drinkable, reminiscent of English ale in color and aroma.

In terms of food supplies, about 500 pieces of ancient oil have been found in the swamps of Ireland and Scotland. At least from the Bronze Age, about 5000 years ago, until the 18th century, people in these places hid sour and very fatty butter in peat bogs. Researchers are debating the reasons for the immersion of oil in swamps. Among the most likely are ritual offerings, storage or improvement of taste.

Be that as it may, microbial growth and decomposition in swamps, where the acidic environment and little oxygen, were suppressed. Some forgotten pieces of butter are thousands of years old.

Archaeologists claim that "swamp" butter is theoretically edible, but they are not advised to try it.

However, the 1892 issue of The Journal of the Royal Society of Antiquaries of Ireland reported that, according to the Reverend James O'Laverty, butter immersed in water for 6-8 months "tasted like cheese." In 2012, food researcher Ben Reed did a similar experiment. After a three-month experiment, tasters compared Reed's oil with a salami flavor and a moss scent. Reed himself noted that the oil, which he left in the water for a year and a half, was "quite tasty."