A few weeks ago, archaeologists affiliated with the Haryana Archaeology and Museums department discovered charred animal bones from an Indus Valley site in Kunal in Haryana. According to them, these bones—possibly belonging to the Nilgai species or some breed of cattle—appear to be leftovers of cooked meat. According to VS Shinde, the vice chancellor at Deccan College, Pune, and a well-known Indus Valley archaeologist who overlooks the excavations in Rakhigarhi in Haryana and several other sites, although recent discoveries haven't yet been made public, these could very well turn out to be true. Shinde and his colleagues have been digging up several bones—from all types of animals, like chicken, cattle and possibly even some wild animals like boars—from nearby sites. Many of these bones, the manner in which they are dented or cut, or how some of them appear charred, show evidence of being cooked as food. The researchers have also discovered plates and ovens that resemble modern-day tandoors. According to Shinde, a lot of modern-day Indian cuisine, especially those found locally in Haryana, like tandoori chicken or rotis, were being prepared back then in the Indus Valley. "Everything we eat now in modern times was also being eaten back then," says the archaeologist. "Everything except maybe the consumption of cattle has disappeared." It is not just the remains of food that tell us what they consumed, Shinde says, but also the types of crockery that were used. "We have found remains of plates in Punjab and Haryana for instance. But for that same period, we find bowls in Gujarat. It indicates that more rotis were eaten in the northern region, while in Gujarat, liquid (or porridge-like) food consisting of sorghum and millets (discovered at these sites) were being consumed."

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Oh, the Cursed Fruit

Is There a Tyranny of the Tasting Menu?

What They Ate in the Indus Valley

Kitchen Confidential

Out for a Duck

My Experiments with the Emu

What Makes Tamil Nadu’s Jailbirds Obese

The Missing Menu