Tandoor (cylindrical clay oven)
Tandoor (horno de arcilla cilíndrico)
- Date
- c. 2600 BCE · confidence low
- Place
- Harappa, Punjab, Pakistan
- Credited to
- Indus Valley civilisation
- Field
- Life & health
⚠️ Disputed: the sources disagree.
What it is
A closed cylindrical clay oven that bakes flatbread stuck to its walls and roasts meat at very high temperatures. Ovens of this type appear in the settlements of the Indus civilisation.
The cylindrical ovens of Harappa, Mohenjo-daro and Kalibangan are interpreted as ancestors of the tandoor, but direct continuity to the present oven is not demonstrated; similar ovens (tannur) have been used in Mesopotamia since early times.
What it led to
- flatbreads (naan, roti) baked on the oven wall
- cuisines of South Asia, Central Asia and the Near East
- neighbourhood communal ovens