Millet noodles of Lajia
Fideos de mijo de Lajia
- Date
- c. 2000 BCE · confidence medium
- Place
- Lajia, Minhe, Qinghai, China
- Credited to
- Qijia culture
- Field
- Life & health
What it is
A sealed bowl found at Lajia held long thin noodles of millet, some 4000 years old, stretched and boiled. It is the oldest material evidence of cereal pasta in strand form.
A unique find published in 2005; no other noodles are this old and it is unknown whether they were a regular food. The first written references to wheat noodles are from the Han dynasty.
What it led to
- the Chinese noodle tradition of wheat from the Han dynasty
- spread of noodles across East and Central Asia
- noodles as a staple and fast food throughout Asia