A 4,000-year-old bowl of noodles unearthed in China is the earliest example ever found of one of the world’s most popular foods. It also suggests an Asian?not Italian?origin for the staple dish.

The beautifully preserved, long, thin yellow noodles were found inside an overturned sealed bowl at the Lajia archaeological site in northwestern China. The bowl was buried under ten feet (three meters) of sediment.

“This is the earliest empirical evidence of noodles ever found,” Houyuan Lu of the Institute of Geology and Geophysics at Beijing’s Chinese Academy of Sciences said.

Though whether the modern version of the stringy pasta was first invented by the Chinese, Italians, or Arabs is debatable. Some theories suggest noodles were first made in the Middle East and introduced to Italy by the Arabs. Italians are widely credited for popularizing the food in Europe and spreading it around the world. Quite interesting.