The oldest known herbal drink

The oldest known herbal drink

Archaeologists working at a cave in Turkey recently found the earliest known evidence of tea. Identified by means of new (17) ________ developments involving the magnification of tiny traces of plants, the drink is about 14,400 years old and (18) ________ the rise of settlement by at least 4,000 years. The (19) ________ was made in a shelter visited, over thousands of years, by early travellers. At that time, humans collected and prepared plants for purposes that were (20) ________ nutritional, but archaeologists think the huge effort required to prepare tea meant it was probably reserved for special occasions. 'The (21) ________ of the ancient remains of dried herbs inside clay containers at this site gives us some (22) ________ useful insights,' said one researcher. 'Tea represents a major change in drinking practices, away from plants as merely a source of medicine to the (23) ________ of drinks for social and cultural reasons. We used to think settlement encouraged the development of shared rituals, but now we think drink-making, with wild herbs, may have influenced the (24) ________ of the practice of cultivating plants — in other words, the start of farming.'