It was once assumed people of ancient civilizations ate locally and only imported precious stones, but similar to us, they imported foods from all over! Dental calculus is the hardened plaque that accumulates on teeth. Until recently, it was considered junk to be scraped from archaeological samples and thrown away. But recent discoveries have shown it’s actually a rich source of information that traps everything from ancient DNA to bacteria and proteins. A recent analysis of fossilized dental plaque from more than a dozen skeletons from what is today Israel, dating from the Middle Bronze to early Iron Age (ca. 1500-1100 B.C.), turned up evidence for bananas, turmeric, and soybeans—all crops that grew in far-off south Asia at the time!
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