Researchers discover the oldest known example of nutmeg as a food ingredient

The ancient inhabitants of a small island in an Indonesian archipelago may have had a jump of 3,500 years in the craze for pumpkin spices.

The researchers discovered what would have been the first known use of nutmeg as a food, going back to a period of about 2,000 years before the example that previously bore the title.

Traces of millennia of nutmeg have been found on ceramic shards in Pulau Ay, Banda Islands.

The researchers uncovered an old spice during excavations carried out in Pulau Ay in 2007 and 2009.

They also found animal bones, terracotta pottery, stone tools and pole molds of what could have been housing structures.

According to the team, Pulau Ay was occupied between 2300 and 3500 years old.

The artifacts found on the site show how the lifestyles of ancient peoples have changed over time. They started with a fish-based diet before concentrating primarily on the consumption of domesticated pigs during the first 500 years.

While water was scarce, islanders built thin-walled vessels to store liquids.

Eventually, they developed better pottery skills to enable more advanced cooking.

The researchers found evidence that people were cooking with a number of plants in addition to nutmeg, including sago and purple yam.

These could have been grown or grown, they note.

"This site shows us how people have steadily adapted themselves to life on these small tropical islands, from occasional uses like fishing camps to permanent occupations," said Peter Lape, professor of anthropology at the University of Ottawa. University of Washington and Curator of Archeology at the Burke Museum.

"It's also fascinating to see such early use of nutmeg, a spice that changed the world a few thousand years later."

Although the site shows signs of human activity, the researchers say that human settlements could not initially have been permanent due to lack of surface water.

Instead, people have visited the island for its rich marine reef resources over the course of thousands of years.

It was only at the beginning of the Neolithic that permanent populations were established, which was observed in the Stone Age.

These "visitors" probably came from the neighboring island of Seram, about 100 km to the east.

About 2,300 years ago, the island was abandoned until at least 1,500 years ago, although researchers do not know why.

Researchers say that the discovery of nutmeg so early helps to reconstruct the chronology of international trade; in the 14th century, traders traveled to Banda for spice.