Turks ate better than Anzacs

A Turkish field kitchen has been found on the Gallipoli battlefield, begging the question as to whether Anzac soldiers on a diet of tinned bully beef were tormented by the smells of Turkish food wafting across the lines.

University of Melbourne archaeologist Tony Sagona says researchers have found what can best be described as an Ottoman kitchen with an oven at the site, showing Turkish troops sourced fresh food, most likely from outside the battle area, and cooked it locally.

In contrast, Allied soldiers were eating mostly processed food, with a large number of old bully beef tins and jam jars on their side of the lines and none at all on the Turkish side.

Professor Sagona said no remains of Turkish food items had been found, although reports from Turkish archives indicate soup was on the menu. But food smells would have reached Allied soldiers, who often complained of the tedium of their diet.

Historian Richard Reid said the Anzacs would certainly have been aware of curries cooked by Indian troops down in Mule Valley.

"Up on the heights at Russell's Top they could smell that and they went down. The light horsemen are recorded as having eaten chapatis and curry and with the Indian troops," Dr Reid said. "Whether they smelt the Turkish cooking coming from the other side, I can't say. We don't know what it would have been. Maybe they did."

Veterans Affairs Minister Warren Snowdon said a significant find this fieldwork season was an area known as Malone's Terraces, named after New Zealand Lieutenant-Colonel William Malone, whose men relieved Australian troops at the vital Quinn's Post in June 1915.

No area of the line was closer to Turkish trenches. It was tenaciously defended and Malone's contribution was to construct the terrace area as accommodation for his men.

Like much of Quinn's Post, this was believed lost through almost a century of erosion.

This was the second round of the joint Australian, New Zealand and Turkish field investigation at Gallipoli, surveying trench lines in thickly vegetated areas and uncovering a variety of artefacts including three bullet-holed water bottles.

- AAP