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4,000-year-old Noodle Dish Discovered in China

A 4,000-year-old bowl of noodles has been discovered at an archaeological site in western China-possible proof for the argument that China invented pasta before Italy, according to China Daily.

"These are definitely the earliest noodles ever found," said Lu Houyuan, a researcher with the Institute of Geology in Beijing who studied the ingredients of the pristinely preserved pasta.

The discovery of the delicate yellow noodles in Minhe County in Qinghai Province was reported in the mid-October's edition of Nature magazine.

The fist-sized clump of noodles was found inside an overturned bowl under 10 feet of sediment from a flood that researchers suspect wiped out the Qijia Culture of the late Neolithic era. When researchers lifted the bowl, they discovered the 20-inch noodles sitting atop an inverted cone of clay that had sealed the bowl, it said.

The noodles were made from a dough of two local varieties of millet-broomcorn and foxtail millet- rather than the more common wheat or rice. The dough was pulled into long strands before being boiled.