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Bangladesh is one of the most densely populated countries in the world. There are 57 trans‐frontier rivers in the country, the widest being the Brahmaputra River. The river's channels have frequently changed course, but the relationship between such river migrations and human settlement patterns has remained unstudied. In this paper, optically stimulated luminescence and radiocarbon dating techniques were applied to sedimentary and organic materials in the oldest urban center (Wari‐Bateshwar) in Bangladesh. The results showed that the landscape around the urban center was dominated by floodplain and peatland facies between 7.9–7.6 and 4.7–1.6 ka, respectively. Humans occupied this area at ~3.2 ka, and manufactured delicate semi‐precious gemstone beads between ~2.4 and 1.8 ka. The urban center might be the same as an important city of the Gangaridai described in historical records. Due to fluvial migration at ~1.8 ka, the area surrounding the urban center was covered by fluvial sand. Humans might have been forced to abandon the urban center, leading to the bead processing technology in Bangladesh being lost forever. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The earliest noodles have been dated to 4000 years ago, based on the discovery of remains at Lajia in north western China. The Lajia noodles were described as having been made by repeatedly stretching dough composed of millet flour with husks. In order to try to understand this manufacturing technique we carried out simulation experiments in noodle-making and documented morphological changes in noodle starches caused by cooking. Our research demonstrates that it is impossible to stretch pure millet dough into noodles. We conclude that the husk phytoliths and starch-like granules said to be from the Lajia noodle remains may actually not have been part of the noodles themselves. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]