Archaeologists uncover freeze-dried potatoes older than the US in excellent condition

Archaeologists in Peru recently uncovered an unusual find: freeze-dried potatoes that date back centuries before the United States was even founded.The potatoes, known as chuño, were found at the Tambo Viejo site in the Acarí Valley in southwestern Peru.The discovery was recently published in the Journal of Field Archaeology.The potatoes date back roughly 500 years, to the time of the Inca Empire, according to Phys.org.Photos of the ancient food show two wrinkled, brownish, freeze-dried potatoes that still appear to retain their shape and color, looking strikingly like modern-day produce.The preservation of the potatoes is “excellent,” said Lidio Valdez, an archaeology professor at the University of Calgary, who led the excavation.Valdez told Fox News Digital that the two freeze-dried potatoes are remarkably similar.“The only difference is the samples found are small, and it seems that over time and due to the aridity of the region, their original size was reduced,” he said.

“There is no way one can tell their old age from samples.”The significance of the discovery, Valdez said, is that it shows the Inca transported food over long distances.“Freeze-dried potatoes can be produced only at high elevations,” he said.“Afterward, the chuño were stored in state-controlled warehouses, most of them built also at high elevations.”“Because the Inca state carried out countless projects throughout the realm, the tasks involved thousands of workers, who had to be fed by the state.

Thus, state officials likely mobilized volumes of chuño from the warehouses, transporting them in llama caravans.”At Tambo Viejo, the potatoes were then placed in ceramic vessels and stored underground to avoid food waste.Potatoes have high water content, Valdez added, which means they don’t survive long “in most places,” making Incan preservation methods particularly impressive.“Place a potato somewhere in your kitchen just for a month and see what will happe...