Accurate compound-specific 14C dating of archaeological pottery vessels

Casanova, Emmanuelle; Knowles, Tim; Bayliss, Alex; Dunne, Julie; Barański, Marek Z.; Denaire, Anthony; Lefranc, Philippe; Lernia, Savino di; Roffet‐Salque, Mélanie; Smyth, Jessica; Barclay, Alistair; Gillard, Toby; Claßen, Erich; Coles, Bryony; Ilett, Michael; Jeunesse, Christian; Krueger, Marta; Marciniak, Arkadiusz; Minnitt, Steve; Rotunno, Rocco; Velde, Pieter van de; Wijk, Ivo van; Cotton, Jonathan; Daykin, Andy; Evershed, Richard P.

doi:10.1038/s41586-020-2178-z

Cited by 58 publications

(52 citation statements)

References 30 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…Two potsherds from the sites of Starčevo-Grad (ST118) and Vrbjanska Čuka (VC26) containing absorbed lipid residues in high concentrations were radiocarbon dated using a compound-specific approach (CSRA) [ 33 , 34 ]. The method employed is based on the extraction of C 16:0 and C 18:0 fatty acids residues from the clay matrix of potsherds and their isolation from exogenous contamination in the pots.…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…direct dating of the occurrence of specific foodstuffs, such as carcass or dairy products [33][34][35]. In addition to the conventional radiocarbon dates obtained from some of the sites (shown S5.1 Fig in S5 File), here, we dated two potsherds containing dairy products, providing, for the first time, a direct date for milk use in the Balkans.…”

Section: Competing Interestsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The two radiocarbon dated vessels passed the quality assurance criteria on the identicality of the two FAs [33,34] which are combined to 6860 ± 46 BP (ST118, BRAMS-2837) and 6839 ± 47 BP (VC26, BRAMS-2838). These two radiocarbon ages are statistically identical supporting the contemporaneity of the two dated vessels.…”

Section: Plos Onementioning

confidence: 99%

See 2 more Smart Citations

Living off the land: Terrestrial-based diet and dairying in the farming communities of the Neolithic Balkans

et al. 2020

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

The application of biomolecular techniques to archaeological materials from the Balkans is providing valuable new information on the prehistory of the region. This is especially relevant for the study of the neolithisation process in SE Europe, which gradually affected the rest of the continent. Here, to answer questions regarding diet and subsistence practices in early farming societies in the central Balkans, we combine organic residue analyses of archaeological pottery, taxonomic and isotopic study of domestic animal remains and biomolecular analyses of human dental calculus. The results from the analyses of the lipid residues from pottery suggest that milk was processed in ceramic vessels. Dairy products were shown to be part of the subsistence strategies of the earliest Neolithic communities in the region but were of varying importance in different areas of the Balkan. Conversely, milk proteins were not detected within the dental calculus. The molecular and isotopic identification of meat, dairy, plants and beeswax in the pottery lipids also provided insights into the diversity of diet in these early Neolithic communities, mainly based on terrestrial resources. We also present the first compound-specific radiocarbon dates for the region, obtained directly from absorbed organic residues extracted from pottery, identified as dairy lipids.

show abstract

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Competing Interestsmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 1 more Smart Citation

Living off the land: Terrestrial-based diet and dairying in the farming communities of the Neolithic Balkans

et al. 2020

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Our results indicate that charred macro-remains have the potential to tell us both qualitative and quantitative recipe ingredient information, while absorbed residues demonstrated more timescale variability and are thus more amenable to qualitative interpretations. This information could be particularly important in estimating the lifespan of a pottery vessel (of which very little is known) especially if used in conjunction with compound-specific radiocarbon dating of both absorbed lipid and carbonized residues 67 .…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Interpreting ancient food practices: stable isotope and molecular analyses of visible and absorbed residues from a year-long cooking experiment

Miller

Whelton

Swift

et al. 2020

Sci Rep

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Chemical analyses of carbonized and absorbed organic residues from archaeological ceramic cooking vessels can provide a unique window into the culinary cultures of ancient people, resource use, and environmental effects by identifying ingredients used in ancient meals. However, it remains uncertain whether recovered organic residues represent only the final foodstuffs prepared or are the accumulation of various cooking events within the same vessel. To assess this, we cooked seven mixtures of c 3 and c 4 foodstuffs in unglazed pots once per week for one year, then changed recipes between pots for the final cooking events. We conducted bulk stable-isotope analysis and lipid residue analysis on the charred food macro-remains, carbonized thin layer organic patina residues and absorbed lipids over the course of the experiment. Our results indicate that: (1) the composition of charred macro-remains represent the final foodstuffs cooked within vessels, (2) thin-layer patina residues represent a mixture of previous cooking events with bias towards the final product(s) cooked in the pot, and (3) absorbed lipid residues are developed over a number of cooking events and are replaced slowly over time, with little evidence of the final recipe ingredients. The study of ancient cooking pots resonates with a fundamental aspect of what it means to be human-the transformation of raw ingredients into a meal is a shared human experience throughout history 1-3. Meals are representations of the (paleo)environment, revealing the resources that are harvested from local areas or shedding light on exchange networks 1,4. The foods consumed can also represent the values of the people who eat them 5-7 , being often a smaller selection of what their environment has to offer, and reflecting specific culturallybased choices about what constitutes any item as "food" 8. Analysis of the residues from cooking pots and other materials (for example, lithic tools) can bring us one step closer to reconstructing the environmental and social circumstances of our ancestors 1. Culturally-driven food preferences and practices are often difficult to discern from archaeological datasets: while fragments of past cooking activities and meals may be recovered through archaeobotanical and zooarchaeological evidence, rarely are these lines of evidence sufficient to capture the entire range of plant and animal species that were prepared for consumption, or their relative importance (and therefore, degree of exploitation) within a particular society and ecosystem context. Cooking practices can incorporate a diverse array of materials

show abstract

“…Increasingly high sensitivity mass spectrometry has further allowed the identification of a suite of diagnostic aquatic biomarkers which may be preserved in absorbed lipid residues, including dihydroxy acids (DHYA), ω-(o-alkylphenyl)alkanoic acids (APAAs) and isoprenoid fatty acids (IFAs) 63 . Recent advances in the direct radiocarbon dating of individual lipid compounds extracted from archaeological pottery now provide the potential to gain crucial chronological context for the interpretation of ancient diet 62,64,65 .…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Chemical evidence of dairying by hunter-gatherers in highland Lesotho in the late first millennium ad

et al. 2020

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

The recovery of Early Iron Age (EIA) artefacts and domestic animal remains from hunter-gatherer contexts at Likoaeng, Lesotho, has been argued to indicate contact between highland hunter-gatherers and EIA agropastoralist communities settled in lowland areas of southeastern Africa during the second half of the first millennium AD. However, disagreement between archaeozoological studies and ancient DNA means that the possibility that those hunter-gatherers kept livestock themselves remains controversial. Here we report analyses of pottery-absorbed organic residues from two hunter-gatherer and one agriculturalist sites in highland Lesotho to reconstruct prehistoric subsistence practices. Our results demonstrate the exploitation of secondary products from domestic livestock by hunter-gatherers in Lesotho, directly dated to the seventh century AD at Likoaeng and the tenth century AD at the nearby site of Sehonghong. The data provide compelling evidence for the keeping of livestock by huntergatherer groups and their likely incorporation as ancillary resources into their subsistence strategies.

show abstract

Accurate compound-specific 14C dating of archaeological pottery vessels

Cited by 58 publications

References 30 publications

Living off the land: Terrestrial-based diet and dairying in the farming communities of the Neolithic Balkans

Living off the land: Terrestrial-based diet and dairying in the farming communities of the Neolithic Balkans

Interpreting ancient food practices: stable isotope and molecular analyses of visible and absorbed residues from a year-long cooking experiment

Chemical evidence of dairying by hunter-gatherers in highland Lesotho in the late first millennium ad

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About