4,000-Year-Old Noodles Discovered in China; Bush May Be at Fault

Archaeologists have uncovered a bowl of 4,000-year old noodles in China, proving that the Chinese and not the Italians, invented the culinary staple eaten around the world. From the BBC:

The 50cm-long, yellow strands were found in a pot that had probably been buried during a catastrophic flood. Radiocarbon dating of the material taken from the Lajia archaeological site on the Yellow River indicates the food was about 4,000 years old.

Scientists tell the journal Nature that the noodles were made using grains from millet grass - unlike modern noodles, which are made with wheat flour. The discovery goes a long way to settling the old argument over who first created the string-like food.

"Our discovery indicates that noodles were first produced in China," the researcher from the Institute of Geology and Geophysics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, explained to BBC News.

The professor's team tells Nature that the ancient settlement at Lajia was hit by a sudden catastrophe.

Among the remains are skeletons thrown into various abnormal postures, suggesting the inhabitants may have been trying to flee the disaster that was enveloping them.

No word yet on whether or not President Bush's Global Warming policies could be blamed for the "catastrophic flood" that resulted in the deaths of numerous Chinese. Yet, some in the media are attributing the slow response of potential rescuers (4,000+ years!) on the Bush tax cuts that benefited the wealthy over poorer, noodle-eating taxpayers.