What do “barbarians” eat? Integrating ceramic use-wear and residue analysis in the study of food and society at the margins of Bronze Age China

Abstract

The Siwa archaeological culture (ca. 3350 and 2650 cal yr BP) has often been associated with the tribes referenced in textual sources as Qiang and Rong: prized captives commonly sacrificed by the Shang and marauding hordes who toppled the Western Zhou dynasty. In early Chinese writings, food plays a key role in accentuating the ‘sino-barbarian’ dichotomy believed to have taken root over 3000 years ago, with the Qiang and Rong described as nomadic pastoralists who consumed more meat than grain and knew little of proper dining etiquette. To date, however, little direct archaeological evidence has allowed us to reconstruct the diet and foodways of the groups who occupied the Loess Plateau during this pivotal period. Here we present the results of the first ceramic use-wear study performed on the Siwa ma’an jars from the site of Zhanqi, combined with the molecular and isotopic characterization of lipid residues from foodcrusts, and evidence from experimental cooking. We report molecular data indicating the preparation of meals composed of millet and ruminant dairy among the Siwa community of Zhanqi. Use-wear analysis shows that Zhanqi community members were sophisticated creators of ceramic equipment, the ma’an cooking pot, which allowed them to prepare a wide number of dishes with limited fuel. These findings support recent isotope studies at Zhanqi as well as nuance the centrality of meat in the Siwa period diet.

Lipid residues in ancient pastoralist pottery from Kazakhstan reveal regional differences in cooking practices

“…It is evident that P. miliaceum was processed in a proportionally greater number of vessels at Plot of the offset between the δ 13 C values of stearic and palmitic acids ( 13 C value) against the δ 13 C value of the palmitic acid. Reference ranges show quartile ranges based on data from existing studies (Dudd and Evershed, 1998;Spangenberg et al, 2006Spangenberg et al, , 2010Gregg et al, 2009;Outram et al, 2009;Dunne et al, 2012;Spiteri, 2012;Craig et al, 2013;Horiuchi et al, 2015;Miyata et al, 2015;Taché and Craig, 2015;Choy et al, 2016;Heron et al, 2016;Lucquin et al, 2016;Courel et al, 2020;Pääkkönen et al, 2020;Taché et al, 2021). The hypothetical mixing curves (Taché et al, 2021) are compared with the plots to verify when the offset values are large due to the mixing of millets.…”

“…The results demonstrate a broad range of δ 13 C 16:0 (−27.21 to −19.78 ) and δ 13 C 16:0 (−31.77 to −20.00 ) values (Table 1). In Figure 5, the δ 13 C 16:0 and 13 C (δ 13 C 18:0 -δ 13 C 16:0 ) values of samples from this study are plotted against reference ranges of modern and authentic archaeological plant and animal lipids (Lucquin et al, 2018;Cubas Morera et al, 2020;Taché et al, 2021), enabling the discrimination of ruminant adipose and dairy oils (Evershed et al, 1999;Copley et al, 2003). Residues from Tortoba, Saba, and Katartobe predominantly comprise ruminant adipose and dairy fats, whereas most samples from Akpan plot within the range of non-ruminant adipose and aquatic oils.…”

“…Residues from Tortoba, Saba, and Katartobe predominantly comprise ruminant adipose and dairy fats, whereas most samples from Akpan plot within the range of non-ruminant adipose and aquatic oils. However, these results must be carefully interpreted given the potential effects that mixing products, such as millet, may have on the isotopic composition of residues (Taché et al, 2021) as is discussed below.…”

Análisis cualitativo y práctico de residuos químicos como indicador en la preparación y consumo de alimentos en el sur de América Central: aportes desde la arqueología experimental

“…Las carbonizaciones en las bases y en algunos casos en las paredes de ollas 5 se han asociado con los primeros dos métodos, mientras que los ahumados y carbonizaciones en todo el interior y en el interior de bordes se documenta para casos de hervidos y guisados. Los ahumados producto de la cocción en seco permanecen en la superficie, mientras que los de la cocción en húmedo penetran las paredes de las vasijas (Forte et al, 2018;Kooiman, 2018;Kooiman et al, 2021;Skibo, 2013;Taché et al, 2021). Por otro lado, ollas que únicamente se utilizan para contener líquidos no presentan este tipo de huellas de uso (Lantos, Spangenberg, Giovannetti, Ratto y Maier, 2015).…”

“…Algunos rostizados se realizan colocando las vasijas de manera lateral sobre el fuego, de forma que se rostizan los alimentos sobre esa zona dejando superficies carbonizadas en las paredes(Taché et al, 2021).…”