2,000 year old dumplings were recently found in China’s Henan province by archaeologists. The dumplings are found to be wrapped with sweet oak leaves with rice and millet as fillings.
The dumplings were found in a wooden box at the back of a tomb’s inner chamber. Due to the high groundwater level in the tomb, the chamber was immersed in groundwater, forming a special burial environment, which created favourable conditions for the preservation of cultural relics in the tomb. This is why they have not decomposed even after thousands of years.
So far, these dumplings are the oldest dumplings discovered through archaeology. In total, there are 40 completely wrapped dumplings, and many broken dumpling pieces are scattered at the bottom of the chamber, as reported by Xinhua News Agency.
39 of the 40 dumplings contained unhusked, uncooked rice, and one of them contained millet. They are approximately 10 to 15cm in diameter and 3 to 5cm thick.
A small number of branches were found along with the dumplings, thus archaeologists speculate that they were tied together in a group.
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