This piece of withered fruit excavated in Japan turned out to be an incredibly well preserved 2,100-year-old melon. How did it stay so fresh? Vacuum-packing, of course!
Archeologists used radiocarbon analysis to estimate the age of the fruit, believed to be the oldest melon found with flesh still on the rind, said Shuji Yamazaki, a local official in the city of Moriyama. [...]
The melon might have been so well-preserved because it was in a vacuum-packed state in a wet layer below the ground, an environment hostile to microorganisms that might otherwise have broken down the remains, Yamazaki said.
http://www.kansascity.com/450/story/132445.html - via Scribal Terror
so what does it taste like ? :)
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