Egyptians used it as a fatigue reliever and Romans used it as an aphrodisiac.
Greek women used it as a male repellent, medieval doctors used it as a disinfectant.
When you know it, it is a very useful magic food that always works with humanity.
![Garlic has been used since the Paleolithic era.[강인욱 세상만사의 기원]](https://dimg.donga.com/wps/NEWS/IMAGE/2024/10/07/130172831.1.jpg "Garlic has been used since the Paleolithic era.[강인욱 세상만사의 기원]")
When it comes to spicy food ingredients that represent Korea, garlic and red pepper are often chosen. In particular, garlic has such a long history that it appears along with mugwort in the Dangun myth of the Samguk Yusa. What exactly was the garlic that appeared in the myth of Dangun? And since when has garlic been around the world for humans? Let’s feel the rich taste and scent of garlic conveyed through archeology and history.
Garlic is a plant belonging to the Allium genus and is characterized by a sharp taste and unpleasant odor due to the allicin component. However, the pharmacological effects such as sterilization, fatigue relief, and blood flow improvement are also clear.
The history of garlic crops with humans dates back to the Paleolithic Age. When archaeologists investigated the Fumane Cave in northern Italy, they discovered fragments of cave paintings dating back about 35,000 years depicting the roots of garlic-like plants, along with lilies, dandelions, and parsnips (a bulbous plant similar to carrots). Plant bulbs are a collection of various nutrients for growth and have been a major food source since the Paleolithic era before farming. The cave paintings of the Paleolithic Age were not simply depictions of everyday life, but were painted for ancestral rites and magical wishes. Since the Paleolithic era, garlic has not only been used for edible purposes but also has had magical meaning.
Loved for its stimulating taste and medicinal effects
After the Ice Age, wild garlic (bear garlic or Myeongnamul) was widely eaten throughout Eurasia. In particular, traces of wild garlic being stored in pits and eaten were found at a relic called Halsskov from the Mesolithic period in Denmark (approximately 14,000 to 6,000 years ago between the Paleolithic and Neolithic periods). Like the pickled garlic we eat now, this is to remove the unique strong taste of garlic and preserve it for a long period of time. Wild garlic, which is rich in vitamins and various nutrients and has a stimulating taste that whets the appetite, has been a widely loved food ingredient among indigenous people not only in Europe but also in Eurasia and North America since the Neolithic Age. It was especially essential in the northern hemisphere of Eurasia, which had to endure long winters.
So, when did we start eating the cloves of garlic we eat now? Unfortunately, plants are not preserved well when buried in the ground, and garlic has a foul smell, so it is difficult to find traces of it because it is ground or steamed before eating. However, according to botanical research, the origin of the garlic we eat is known to be Central Asia, in the area of the Pamir Plateau and Tian Shan Mountains, in the middle of the Silk Road. Immediately after the Ice Age, the custom of eating garlic by people living in this area spread widely to ancient civilizations in the Near East and the Indus region. There are traces of garlic being eaten in the Near East from about 6,000 years ago. In particular, many traces of garlic were discovered in Egypt. In Egypt, pictures of garlic appeared about 5,700 years ago, and a pile of garlic in a jar was discovered in the famous tomb of King Tutankhamun. It appears that garlic was needed to encourage physical labor to build large structures such as pyramids, as the Egyptian region was dry so plants survived well. There is a famous scene in the Old Testament Exodus where Jews who escaped from Egypt riot in the wilderness thinking about the leeks, green onions, and garlic they ate in Egypt.
In fact, the love of garlic remains not only in Egypt but in most of the world’s civilizations. Garlic was also discovered in the palace of Knossos on the island of Crete, an ancient civilization in the Mediterranean famous for its labyrinths, and athletes competing in the ancient Greek Olympics also used garlic to increase their explosive strength right before the competition. It is similar to ‘doping’. The ancient Romans used garlic as the most precious and sacred food ingredient.
Dangun mythology garlic, it seems that it is not currently clove garlic
The reason why garlic was loved in ancient society is because it was an ingredient that gave a pungent taste at a time when spices were in short supply, as well as its special medicinal properties. The medicinal properties of garlic are well documented in Hippocrates, the Egyptian medical book ‘Codex Ebers’ written 3,500 years ago, and the Indian Vedas. In India and Rome, it was used as an aphrodisiac due to its nourishing tonic effect. It was also used in the opposite case: it is said that during Skira, the ancient Greek women’s festival, women deliberately ate garlic to create a smell to prevent their husbands from approaching them.
People gave garlic, which has a strong bactericidal effect and a strong odor, a magical meaning to ward off evil or infectious diseases. In ancient Egypt, garlic was placed in the tombs of the pharaohs, and when the plague was prevalent in the Middle Ages, doctors wore masks and clothes resembling bird beaks, smeared their bodies with garlic, and chewed garlic in their mouths to ward off bad energy from the sick. The reason why garlic was used as a major material in ‘Dracula’, written by Irish writer Stoker in the late 19th century, is an extension of this belief. In this way, garlic is a two-faced crop whose efficacy is angelic, but its smell and taste are devilish.
What is the garlic that appears in the myth of Dangun? The clove garlic we see today was largely brought to East Asia through the Silk Road after the Han Dynasty. There is no exact data on when it came to the Korean Peninsula, but in any case, it has nothing to do with the ‘garlic’ that appears in the Dangun myth. The original text of the Samguk Yusa records the word ‘san’, which refers to a spicy herb similar to wild chives or wild garlic, but it is not clear what it is. Throughout Eurasia, bear garlic or mountain garlic (better known as Myeongnamul in Korea) was widely used.
Korea, the true home of garlic food culture
Uniquely, even though various ethnic groups in Europe and Eurasia use different languages, they commonly call wild garlic ‘bear garlic’. Some folklorists interpret it as having something to do with bears coming to their senses after hibernating by smelling it. Even now, in Siberia, spring is considered to have arrived when ‘Cherimsha’ (bear garlic), which is the first to grow when the snow melts in April and May, appears on the market. Garlic, rich in vitamins, was a nourishing tonic for people tired of the long winter. Garlic was a precious herb that supported human life as we entered a new era of civilization, like a bear waking up from hibernation right after the end of the Ice Age. Perhaps during the Ice Age, when people longed for green vegetables, the first garlic that grew was a necessity.
Throughout human history over the past 10,000 years, garlic has always occupied a precious position, regardless of whether it is in the East or the West. However, with the development of science and medicine since modern times, the efficacy of garlic has been erased and only negative connotations have been imprinted on it. Due to the lack of proper processing and cooking methods to control the unpleasant odor, its use has decreased significantly. Currently, Hungary and Italy are the only countries in Europe that mainly use garlic in food. Hungary adds garlic to meat soups and other folk dishes because it was formed based on the culture of the Magyar people who came from eastern Eurasia. In the case of Italy, the influence of Rome still remains. Even so, it is incomparably small compared to garlic consumption in Korea. Korea can be said to be the true home of garlic food culture in that it has developed a diverse food culture that makes abundant use of garlic and has made it one of the most famous recipes in name and reality.
Even though the world shied away from garlic, Korea continued to use garlic, and this, in turn, was used as a material to disparage Korea after the Japanese colonial period. “Even before the door of the house is opened, the smell of garlic and soy sauce that Koreans love… “It was seeping into the hallway.” This is an expression for a six-story building owned by Koreans that appears in Lee Min-jin’s novel ‘Pachinko’. This means that the streets and buildings where Koreans in Japan lived were covered with the smell of garlic. After the Japanese colonial period, Koreans living in Japan were socially despised as ‘ninniku gusai’ (garlic smell), but they never gave up recipes for Korean food containing garlic.
Koreans’ love of garlic is even more special because it has overcome such discrimination. Garlic (蒜) is an important crop that has always been with the history of people around the world since the Ice Age, and at the same time, it is the most Korean crop.
2024-10-08 06:15:50