The First Known Shopping List

The Associated Press reports that an ancient slab of green stone inscribed with insects, ears of corn, fish and other symbols is indecipherable so far, but one message is clear: It is the earliest known writing in the Western Hemisphere.

You can read the entire article here.

"We are dealing with the first, clear evidence of writing in the New World," said Stephen Houston, a Brown University anthropologist. Houston and his U.S. and Mexican colleagues detail the tablet's discovery and analysis in a study appearing this week in the journal Science.

The article further reports that "there is little hope of deciphering the meaning of the text. The small size of the block and the faintness of the inscription imply the text was not a public document, but instead was meant for intimate reading, Houston said. Some suggested it may have had a ritual use."

This "scientific analysis" underscores an important point - Scientists who get published in Science are after one thing - grant proposal money. So you know they're never going to come to a conclusion about anything. But we have ways around that limitation - the Scott's Spot Anthropology Department had a look at it, and concluded that it is a shopping list. The directions are to come home with meat, vegetables, and fish for Friday.

Heaven help the recipient if he came home with grasshoppers instead of crickets. This recipe calls for crickets! We're speculating, of course, but since the tablet was found in the Mexican state of Veracruz, maybe they were also after some ants for the Ant Brood Taco recipe. Checkitout!

Ant Brood Tacos

• 2 tablespoons butter or peanut oil
• 1/2 pound ant larvae and pupae
• 3 serrano chilies, raw, finely chopped
• 1 tomato, finely chopped
• Pepper and Cumin, to taste
• Oregano, to taste
• 1 handful cilantro, chopped
• Taco shells, to serve

Heat the butter or oil in a frying pan and fry the larvae or pupae. Add the chopped onions, chilies, and tomato, and season with salt. Sprinkle with ground pepper, cumin, and oregano, to taste. Serve in tacos and garnish with cilantro.



This recipe came from Creepy Crawly Cuisine, The Gourmet Guide to Edible Insects, reportedly an excellent recipe book. Maybe I'll add it to my amazon.com wish list. Yes, I'll probably get to that sometime next week...





And I can tell you for sure that my shopping list is NOT written in stone.