Last week, normal order resumed with this column and we delved into the somewhat checkered history of the fork. This week, our exploration of the colourful history of our cutlery continues and we examine the back-story of our humble spoon. Apart from the knife – which to be fair is just a glorified sharp implement – the spoon is thought to have been the first ever utensil used by humans. While the exact origin of the first spoon is unknown, fossils of spoon-like instruments have been recovered by archaeologists from ruins of Ancient Egypt; dating back to as far as 1000 BC.
Research also supports that Neanderthals had fashioned spoon-shaped utensils from sea-shells and animal bones, as a way of scooping what food they had into their mouths, without using their hands, which they used for less hygienic purposes back in the day.
However, the spoons uncovered in Ancient Egypt were more ornate. They tended to be made from slate or ivory and were thought to have be used in rituals and ceremonies. Fast-forward a few thousand years, and we now use our spoons to savage copious amounts of Ben and Jerry’s Phish Food in one go. Thank goodness our Neanderthal ancestors knew of our love of shoveling food into our gobs, otherwise we could be eating ice-cream with chopsticks!
(On a side note, while we don’t tend to use them much in Ireland, chopsticks actually date back as far as the Shang Dynasty in China, with the oldest chopsticks ever found dating back to 1200 BC).