Bronze Age Syria had sophisticated cooking, study says

People in Bronze Age Syria were using specialised pots and imported ingredients for sophisticated cooking 4,500 years ago, Danish researchers said.

Mette Marie Hald of the National Museum of Copenhagen and her team reached the conclusion after examining animal bones, plant remains and fats from inside cooking pots found in what is now the city of Hama.

The researchers said the evidence points to meals including simmered goat, gazelle and cereals. They said cooks used pots with different heating properties depending on the meal, and that some pots were imported from as far away as China.

Hald said gazelle also came from farther east and that later written recipes supported the evidence of sophisticated cooking in Hama.

Danish archaeologists began excavating in Hama in the first half of the 20th century. Hald said earlier research had covered everyday life in the city, but had not focused much on food culture.