List of ancient dishes

A plate of testaroli with pesto, as served at a trattoria in Pontremoli, Italy
A plate of testaroli, an ancient dish, served with pesto at a trattoria in Pontremoli, Italy

This is a list of ancient dishes, prepared foods and beverages that have been recorded as originating in ancient history. The span of recorded history is roughly 5,000 years, beginning with Sumerian cuneiform script, the oldest discovered form of coherent writing from the protoliterate period around 3,000 to 2,900 years BCE.[a][1]

Ancient history can be defined as occurring from the beginning of recorded human history to:

Although the end date of what constitutes ancient history is disputed, some Western scholars use the fall of the Western Roman Empire in 476 CE (the most used),[8][9] the closure of the Platonic Academy in 529 CE,[10] the death of the emperor Justinian I in 565 CE,[11] the spread of Islam in 610 CE[12] or the rise of Charlemagne[13] as the end of ancient and Classical European history. This list does not contain entries that originated after this period.

Archeologists and food historians have recreated some dishes using ancient recipes.[14]


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  1. ^ see Jemdet Nasr period, Kish tablet; see also The Origin and Development of the Cuneiform System of Writing, Samuel Noah Kramer, Thirty Nine Firsts In Recorded History, pp 381-383
  2. ^ "ancient history". Collins English Dictionary. Archived from the original on 16 August 2016. Retrieved 19 May 2016.
  3. ^ "ancient history". Oxford English Dictionary. Archived from the original on 11 June 2016. Retrieved 19 May 2016.
  4. ^ Raymond, T.; Brew, H.S. (2014). Seventh Grade Social Science: For Homeschool or Extra Practice. Golgotha Press. p. pt38. ISBN 978-1-62917-337-5. Archived from the original on February 17, 2017. Retrieved May 19, 2016.
  5. ^ Harmon, J. (2013). AP World History Crash Course. Research & Education Association. p. 262. ISBN 978-0-7386-6964-9. Archived from the original on February 17, 2017. Retrieved May 19, 2016.
  6. ^ Colish, M.L. (1990). The Stoic Tradition from Antiquity to the Early Middle Ages: Stoicism in Christian Latin Thought Through the Sixth Century. Studies in the history of Christian thought. BRILL. p. 353. ISBN 978-90-04-09330-0. Archived from the original on February 17, 2017. Retrieved May 19, 2016.
  7. ^ Bedell, J.M. (2015). So, You Want to Work with the Ancient and Recent Dead?: Unearthing Careers from Paleontology to Forensic Science. Be What You Want. Aladdin/Beyond Words. p. pt22. ISBN 978-1-4814-3846-9. Archived from the original on February 17, 2017. Retrieved May 19, 2016.
  8. ^ Clare, I. S. (1906). Library of universal history: containing a record of the human race from the earliest historical period to the present time; embracing a general survey of the progress of mankind in national and social life, civil government, religion, literature, science and art. New York: Union Book. Page 1519 (cf., Ancient history, as we have already seen, ended with the fall of the Western Roman Empire; [...])
  9. ^ United Center for Research and Training in History. (1973). Bulgarian historical review. Sofia: Pub. House of the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences]. Page 43. (cf. ... in the history of Europe, which marks both the end of ancient history and the beginning of the Middle Ages, is the fall of the Western Roman Empire.)
  10. ^ Hadas, Moses (1950). A History of Greek Literature. Columbia University Press. p. 273. ISBN 978-0-231-01767-1. Archived from the original on 2016-05-04. Retrieved 2016-05-19.
  11. ^ Robinson, C. A. (1951). Ancient history from prehistoric times to the death of Justinian. New York: Macmillan.
  12. ^ Breasted, J. H. (1916). Ancient times, a history of the early world: an introduction to the study of ancient history and the career of early man Archived 2015-02-06 at the Wayback Machine. Boston: Ginn and Company.
  13. ^ Myers, P. V. N. (1916). Ancient History Archived 2016-07-22 at the Wayback Machine. New York [etc.]: Ginn and company.
  14. ^ Winchester, Ashley. "The world's oldest-known recipes decoded". www.bbc.com. Archived from the original on 2020-06-04. Retrieved 2020-06-17.