News
Ancient teeth reveal Bronze Age trade between South Asia and Mediterranean
South Asian spices such as turmeric and fruits like the banana had already reached the Mediterranean more than 3000 years ago, much earlier than previously thought, says a team of researchers engaged in archaeological excavations in the Levant.
A news report published by the California based Courthouse News Service said that evidence from the excavations by a team of researchers working alongside German prehistoric archaeologist Philipp Stockhammer has shown that even in the Bronze Age, long-distance trade in food was already connecting distant societies.
The report said: The Levant was the site of global trade as long ago as 3,700 years, much earlier than previously believed, researchers found in an archaeological excavation of 16 Bronze Age bodies in modern Israel.
Philipp Stockhammer, a prehistoric archaeologist at Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität in Munich, and his colleagues analyzed food residues in the ancient corpses’ tooth tartar, also known as dental calculus. In these human fossils, which dated to the second millennium BCE, the scientists saw evidence of turmeric, bananas and soy.
“Exotic spices, fruits and oils from Asia had thus reached the Mediterranean several centuries, in some cases even millennia, earlier than had been previously thought,” Stockhammer said in a statement. “This is the earliest direct evidence to date of turmeric, banana and soy outside of South and East Asia.”
It’s no surprise that long-distance trade of food and spices was conducted during the Roman era, but evidence of trade with South Asia this early comes as a new find. Egypt and Mesopotamia were likely waypoints along the trade routes from South Asia and the Eastern Mediterranean.
The 16 bodies were excavated from Megiddo, a Bronze Age Canaanite city-state where the Canaans prepared to resist Egyptian military expansion in the 15th century BCE, and Tel Erani, where a Nagada Egyptian trading post sat more than 5,300 years ago.
Teeth are an excellent source of evidence for the lives of the ancients: bacteria from minerals, pathogens and other illuminating samples are deposited and preserved — essentially fossilized — for millennia.
“This enables us to find traces of what a person ate,” Stockhammer continued. “Anyone who does not practice good dental hygiene will still be telling us archaeologists what they have been eating thousands of years from now!”
His team’s process of paleoproteomics — analyzing the proteins preserved in mineralized tissues such as teeth and bones — “breaks new scientific ground,” said the study’s lead author, LMU biochemist Ashley Scott, in a statement.
Harvard University molecular archaeologist Christina Warinner, a senior author on the article, agrees.
“Our high-resolution study of ancient proteins and plant residues from human dental calculus is the first of its kind to study the cuisines of the ancient Near East,” Warinner said in a statement. “Our research demonstrates the great potential of these methods to detect foods that otherwise leave few archaeological traces. Dental calculus is such a valuable source of information about the lives of ancient peoples.”
The paleoproteomeics research method depends on the food proteins’ survival in teeth tartar over the years.
“Interestingly, we find that allergy-associated proteins appear to be the most stable in human calculus,” Scott said.
Wheat gluten, for instance, was found in the ancient teeth. By detecting plant microfossils known as phytoliths, which are rigid silica structures that helpfully persist after a plant’s decay, the scientists could also confirm the presence of cereals, dates and sesame in ancient Mediterranean diets.
The turmeric and soy proteins were found in a Megiddo individual’s teeth, and the banana proteins were recovered from a Tel Erani body. Bananas were domesticated and used in Southeast Asia since the 5th millennium BCE. Prior to this study, little was known about bananas’ trade or use until they came to West Africa by 1,000 BCE.
“Our analyses thus provide crucial information on the spread of the banana around the world. No archaeological or written evidence had previously suggested such an early spread into the Mediterranean region,” Stockhammer said in his statement. “I find it spectacular that food was exchanged over long distances at such an early point in history.”
The findings come with caveats, however, as it is impossible to know whether these particular individuals had simply lived, and therefore dined, in South Asia at some point in their lives before their remains wound up in the Levant, the eastern Mediterranean region that now covers Israel and Lebanon and parts of Syria and Jordan.
Still, the study — published Monday in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences — may well indicate the earliest known signs of trade across Asia.
“We can now grasp the impact of globalization during the 2nd millennium BCE on East Mediterranean cuisine,” Stokchammer concluded. “Mediterranean cuisine was characterized by intercultural exchange from an early stage.”
The Presidential Secretariat (PS) yesterday said that prison regulations concerning Buddhist monks serving prison sentences were expected to be adopted within the next two weeks.
The PS said: “Once they come into effect, arrangements will be made for Buddhist monks to be taken outside prison in their robes, based on the recommendation of the relevant Nikaya or chapter.”
The process to amend prison regulations was initiated on 08 October following discussions between President Anura Kumara Dissanayake and the Maha Sangha. The President called the meeting amidst controversy over producing General Secretary of Bodu Bala Sena (BBS) Ven. Galagodaaththe Gnanasara in civilian attire in court.
A special five-member Committee was in the process of studying the current regulations and standing orders under the Prisons Ordinance, the PS said.
The Committee is chaired by Prince Senadheera, Secretary to the Ministry of Buddhasasana, Religious and Cultural Affairs. Its other members are Piyumanthi Peiris, Additional Secretary to the Ministry of Justice, Wasantha Ariyaratne, Additional Secretary to the Ministry of Public Administration, R. M. G. Senaratne, Commissioner-General of Buddhist Affairs, and A.C. Gajanayake, Commissioner-General of Prisons.
The first meeting of the special Committee was held at the Presidential Secretariat on the 9th, chaired by Prince Senadheera. Attorney-at-Law Harshana Nanayakkara, Minister of Justice and National Integration, provided the necessary policy guidance for the Committee’s work.
The proposals concerning Buddhist monks would be presented to the Maha Sangha by the middle of next week to obtain their views and recommendations before their implementation, PS stated.
The Communist Party of Sri Lanka (CPSL) has alleged that the ruling UNP, in a ridiculous bid to whitewash illegal US sanctions on Iranian oil carriers stranded off Sri Lanka, has taken on itself the blame for refusing to supply humanitarian aid to the trapped crews of the oil tankers.
The text of the statement issued by Dr. G. Weerasinghe,
General Secretary, CPSL: “The Communist Party of Sri Lanka condemns the attempts by the USA to prevent essential supplies of food and water to the 19-20 Iranian oil tankers stranded off the coast, which are running short of food, fuel, and fresh water. It urges the Government of Sri Lanka to face up to the criminal actions of the US Government and do its duty under international humanitarian law.
On 30 September 2026, the Wall Street Journal reported that US officials had threatened Sri Lanka with sanctions if it continued supplying the tankers. These tankers (stranded about 24 km off Sri Lanka, within the Exclusive Economic Zone) which already discharged their cargoes, are empty and unable to return to Iran owing to the illegal war being waged against that country by the USA and Israel.
In response to this report, on 4 October, Foreign Minister Vijitha Herath denied that Washington put pressure on the Government of Sri Lanka which, he claimed, always abides by international maritime law. However, he clarified that the Government would enforce US sanctions.
A US Embassy spokesman had earlier stated that Washington is working with allies to cut off “illicit Iranian revenue,” warning that supplying fuel, food, or provisions to sanctioned vessels could expose companies and individuals to US sanctions, including civil or criminal penalties.
Furthermore, from 9-11 September, the US Embassy in Colombo carried out a three-day maritime sanctions compliance workshop. Officers of the Sri Lanka Navy and Coastguard, as well as officials of the Ministry of Defence, Central Bank, Ports Authority and Merchant Shipping Secretariat, participated in this workshop. The officials were warned that any services (including fuel, food, or water) rendered to US-sanctioned vessels, such as the Iranian-linked tankers stranded off Sri Lanka’s coast, could expose companies and individuals to secondary sanctions, civil penalties, or criminal liability.
In fact, it is actions of the USA which are illicit. The US-imposed unilateral and secondary sanctions violate international law, sovereign equality, and the principle of non-intervention. Furthermore, the unprovoked US-Israeli aggression against Iran itself, which had shown no belligerent intent, is illegal in international law. Participation of government officers in the workshop itself is controversial.
According to unofficial reports, Sri Lanka’s national security establishment objected to the demands made by US officials and urged the government to lodge a protest with Washington, pointing out that under UNCLOS Article 98, SOLAS 1974, and the SAR Convention 1979, Sri Lanka is obligated to assist the crews.
However, the response of the National People’s Power (NPP) regime has been to attempt to whitewash the illegal actions of the USA and to take on itself the blame for refusing to supply humanitarian aid to the trapped crews of the oil tankers.
The pusillanimous behaviour of the NPP regime rips aside any pretence that it is in any way progressive or patriotic. Together with its major constituent, the Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP), it stands exposed as the handmaiden of US President Donald Trump’s reckless, warlike and imperialist foreign policy establishment. It begs the question whether the Government has signed secret war-related deals with the USA and thereby ditched Sri Lanka’s 70-year history of non-alignment.
The Communist Party of Sri Lanka, therefore, condemns these illegal attempts by the USA to prevent Sri Lanka from carrying out its humanitarian duty. It calls upon the Government of Sri Lanka to abide by international humanitarian law, work-out suitable strategies and to supply the stranded crews with essential supplies, including food and water. It also calls upon the Government to reveal any secret deals it has entered with the USA.”
An ex-LTTE cadre Sumathipala Suresh Kumar, alias Thavendran ‘Murali’, has told a three-member bench of the Colombo High Court, hearing the disappearance of media personality Prageeth Ekneligoda, that during the war they discussed plans to assassinate President Mahinda Rajapaksa and a group of government people. The alleged meeting took place in Habarana.
The bench consisted of A.G.U.S. N. K. Seneviratne (Chairperson), Dr. Nalin Hewawasam and Lakmali Hewawasam.Kumar said so giving evidence as the fourth witness on behalf of first, second and sixth accused in this case.
Ekneligoda disappeared on the eve of 2010 January 26 presidential election.
Kumar told court that Ekneligoda proposed to fire a missile at an aircraft carrying President Rajapaksa and other top people. There had been another person, identified as Nadan, there.
Asked by the prosecution whether he served as a leader of LTTE intelligence at the time he met Ekneligoda, Kumar said that he was a prisoner at that time. The witness claimed that he had gone with the Army and it was his first visit to that place where the meeting took place.
When the prosecution proposed that what he said was not true, Kumar denied that.
The nine accused are Army officers and men, including Lieutenant Colonel Shammi Arjun Kumararatne. The others are R.M.P.K. Rajapaksa alias Nathan, W.V. Priyantha Dilanjan Upasena alias Suresh, Seneviratne Mudiyanselage Ravindra Rupasena alias Ranji, Yapa Mudiyanselage Chaminda Kumara Abeyratne, Seneviratne Mudiyanselage Kanishka Gunaratne, Aiyasami Balasubramaniyam, Dangaha Gamaralage Tharanga Prasad Gamage and T.E.R. Peiris.
The fourth witness surrendered to the Army in May 2009 and during investigations it transpired that he was used by Military Intelligence to contact Ekneligoda in a bid to ascertain his intention during the presidential polls campaign.
Showers above 75 mm are likely at some places in the Western, Sabaragamuwa, Central, Southern, Uva and North-Western provinces and in Anuradhapura and Mannar districts.
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