For at least 2,000 years, noodles have been a common food in many countries around the world. But there are many different opinions about the origin of noodles, with China, Italy and some Arab countries having been credited with originating the noodles. The October 13, 2005 issue of the journal "Nature" published a scientific and technological archaeological discovery made by researcher Lu Houyuan of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, indicating that China may be the real country of origin of noodles.

Experts found the noodles at the Lajia site in Minhe County, Qinghai Province, northwest China, in perfect condition at the time of excavation, in an inverted, sealed bowl buried in 3-meter-thick sediments. Since the Lajia site was excavated in 1999, a large number of carbon 14 dating, artifact remains and geological phenomena have shown that the Lajia site in Qinghai Province belonged to the Qijia culture of the Late Neolithic period, which was destroyed and buried by a catastrophic earthquake and flood 4,000 years ago. Because of this unexpected event, the Lajia site has preserved many prehistoric human life remains and disaster scenes that are difficult to preserve in other archaeological sites. Researchers have discovered bowls containing spaghetti that were knocked over as a result of the earthquake and flood, and which were sealed by the ensuing sediment, creating a rare and precious preservation environment.

The noodles, which were elongated in shape and yellowish-brown in color, were held in the bottom of an inverted bowl, and when the researchers turned the bowl over, they found more noodles inside, which were about more than 50 centimeters in length and 3 millimeters in diameter, and which appeared to be similar to ramen, a traditional Chinese food. In order to determine the composition of these noodles, the researchers of these ancient noodle samples phytosilica and starch morphology analysis, compared to barley, barley, wheat, sorghum, oats, cereal, millet, dogwood and other more than 80 kinds of plant fruits of phytosilica and starch morphology of the characteristics, and then they found that these ancient noodle samples preserved a large number of typical shell phytosilica granules of cereal and millet particles and starch particles They concluded that these noodles were made from millet and corn. The experts further explained that people at the time first ground these two crops into flour, made it into a dough, and then pulled it into the shape of noodles. The researchers also said that millet lacks the viscosity to be pulled into thin and long noodles if it is used alone to make the dough. The fact that the ingredients in this type of noodle are different from those of wheat, which is commonly used to make noodles today, could indicate that China's forefathers already had a better process 4,000 years ago for threshing, crushing, grinding and making flour from the fruits of these plants that was fine enough to be used for making noodles.

The earliest records of noodles in China date from the Eastern Han Dynasty. Because of poor hygiene in ancient times, people often suffered from gastrointestinal diseases due to unclean food and drink, noodles boiled with water are relatively hygienic and can greatly reduce the occurrence of diseases. Ancient China in various periods of the noodles are called different: the Eastern Han Dynasty called "boiled cake"; Wei and Jin Dynasty is called "soup cake"; the North and South Dynasties called "water cited"; the Tang Dynasty is called "cold Tao". "Cold Tao". Overseas, the general view is that noodles were first invented in the Middle East, and then spread to Italy through the Arabs, who further spread the noodle food to Europe and the world through the Italians. Since noodles are extremely difficult to preserve as soft pasta, no direct evidence of early noodles has been found in the world for a long time, and there is a lack of opportunity to study the materials and processing of early noodles. From the available evidence, the discovery of this bowl of noodles can show that the Chinese invented and made noodles much earlier than the rest of the world. But more evidence is needed to prove whether the noodles found at the Lajia site are the ancestors of Arabic or Italian noodles.

Although it is just a bowl of noodles, the environmental-technological archaeological methodology utilized in this study is truly international. As a new discipline at the crossroads of the natural and social sciences, which is developing rapidly internationally today, various new methods in the natural sciences are increasingly enriching archaeological research and broadening the field of environmental-technological archaeology. This bowl of noodles is of unique significance to the study of Neolithic agricultural archaeology and ancient food culture.