Taste of pepper 13,000 years

The discovery of pepper in the archaeological excavation in Con Moong Cave (Thanh Hoa) in Hoa Binh culture has revealed the possibility of bringing the date of human spice up to 13,000 years ago.

Detecting earliest human pepper

Before we learn about the history of spices, we need to distinguish that putting different flavors in nature into the dish is different from the direct use of certain types of foods containing those flavors. they are considered as an independent food source. For example, canarium canarium (Canarium) for example.

In primitive times, fillings were collected by humans and eaten directly as a main source of food. But from Ancient Trung Dai (Ancient and Mideval Ages), in some cities, thanks to the unique flavor, spicy, acrid, the filling is used as a spice to increase the aroma and boldness and reduce the fishy and fatty taste of meat. , fish. Even soaked into an apricot umbrella used to play in the aristocracy.

Pepper Zanthoxilum - a rare spice of Katu people, usually
crushed with salt (pepper salt) to cook boiled chicken.(Photo author provides).

The pepper introduced in this article belongs to the Zanthoxilum species and is also within the "spice" range similar to the ancient fillings. However, thanks to the strange taste but in addition to being used as a "spice" in food processing, Zanthoxilum pepper is also used as a flavoring product to make it pleasant and repel insects. Called "pepper" but it is true that these fruits are small fruits rather than seeds. Because they are small in size and shape, the outer shell is quite hard, making it easy to be mistaken for a particle.

Zanthoxilum pepper has been discovered by the author of this article in the B5 floor of the prehistoric cave archaeological excavation of Hoa Binh called Con Moong in early 1987. This cave is within the forest. Cuc Phuong nation belongs to Thach Thanh district (Thanh Hoa).

Among the ancient remains of food left behind, next to tens of thousands of snail shells, animal bones, shells and shell crabs, the excavation has taken thousands of pepper nuts of all kinds. In particular, many Zanthoxilum pepper berries were discovered concentrated in the B5 floor, where radioactive carbon age (C14) was determined to be 13,000 years ago. This can be seen as the earliest human-use Zanthoxilum pepper in the world.

Zanthoxilium berries in Con Moong cave were discovered in coal chemistry (charred), they were concentrated on a narrow area and preserved quite intact. The diameter of each fruit is currently measured in the range above 3 mm (the prediction can be 4mm when fresh). Some berries show that there are two or three hard grain chambers inside.

Identify ancient pepper species

In botanical terms, the full scientific name of this ancient pepper species is Zanthoxilum piperitum, of woody plants, citrus family (Rutaceae). Tree height from 4 - 6m. Occasionally or have trees over 10m. In the world Zanthoxilum is famous for the name "Xuyen pepper" - " Sichuan pepper". One of the oldest distribution areas of Zanthoxilum pepper is the mountain forest stretching from Van Quy plateau (China) through Hoang Lien Son mountain system (Vietnam) along Truong Son range to the mountains of Malaysia and Indonesia. . This is the original geographical area of ​​ancient Southeast Asia.

Excavation of Con Moong cave.

In this area, many indigenous peoples have a long-standing habit of using Zanthoxilum as spice. The name of Zanthoxilum pepper in mainland Southeast Asia is quite consistent with indigenous names such as Sen, Sang, Tham, Khen, Khen . This has helped explain why they have been human in the background. Hoa Binh culture exploited to bring to the cave to use so early.

Zanthoxilum pepper is similar in size to Vietnamese pepper that we still use as pepper, cranberry, and Phu Quoc pepper (Piper nigrum L.). But Phu Quoc pepper belongs to vines while Meanwhile, Zanthoxilum belongs to the citrus tree family. The smell of pepper Zanthoxilum aromatic with lemon flavor differs from pepper, but the spicy taste is not equal to pepper. Thanks to the aroma of aromatic lemon, Zanthoxilum has been used as a fragrance for the interior space of noble families.

From the Qin - Han dynasty, Sichuan was collected, dried and crushed, mixed with lime to plaster to make a wall coat at the king and queen. Such rooms always smell cool and fragrant, creating a clean, high-class feeling. Since then, the word "Tieu Phong" (the room with incense and pepper) appeared was the place reserved for the king and queen.

Zanthoxilum is now widely used all over the world, becoming a common spice in any kitchen cabinet of every family from Europe to Asia, from Australia to America. India and Southeast Asia are currently the largest Zanthoxilum extraction, use and export regions in the world. Many studies on pepper have confirmed the Asian origin of this unique spice. Currently, Xucheng Zanthoxilum is widely used and is a rare spice of Katu people in Thua Thien - Hue, Quang Nam, Quang Ngai.

During our fieldwork in western Quang Nam, Head of Vel Éo village (Ba commune, Dong Giang district) and the Katu elders were very kind to invite us traditional dishes: boiled chicken with salt pepper. The smell of pepper is full of lemon and slightly spicy aroma which makes boiled chicken chicken become more attractive and memorable than ever. The Katu call Zanthoxilum pepper tree is the Sage tree. This is a kind of thorny forest tree like thorny lemon, now due to many exploits it has become very rare. So, pepper pepper has become more and more rare and very expensive.

The discovery of Zanthoxilum through archaeological excavations at Con Moong Cave, dating up to 13,000 years ago, now sets out both the ability to use the pepper of Hoa Binh cultural residents. Maybe pepper has been used as a spice in fishy dishes (snails, crabs, baits .) or grilled meat dishes (deer, wild boar, weasel plow .) but the ruins of the shell snail crabs, animal bones find a lot around. It is also possible that Xuyen was used by Hoa Binh cultural inhabitants (hoabinhian) as a smoke-producing material to repel flies and insects in living conditions in caves.