New insights into Early Celtic consumption practices: Organic residue analyses of local and imported pottery from Vix-Mont Lassois

Abstract

The rich Mediterranean imports found in Early Celtic princely sites (7 th -5 th cent. BC) in Southwestern Germany, Switzerland and Eastern France have long been the focus of archaeological and public interest. Consumption practices, particularly in the context of feasting, played a major role in Early Celtic life and imported ceramic vessels have consequently been interpreted as an attempt by the elite to imitate Mediterranean wine feasting. Here we present the first scientific study carried out to elucidate the use of Mediterranean imports in Early Celtic Central Europe and their local ceramic counterparts through organic residue analyses of 99 vessels from Vix-Mont Lassois, a key Early Celtic site. In the Mediterranean imports we identified imported plant oils and grape wine, and evidence points towards appropriation of these foreign vessels. Both Greek and local wares served for drinking grape wine and other plant-based fermented beverage(s). A wide variety of animal and plant by-products (e.g. fats, oils, waxes, resin) were also identified. Using an integrative approach, we show the importance of beehive products, millet and bacteriohopanoid beverage(s) in Early Celtic drinking practices. We highlight activities related to biomaterial transformation and show intra-site and status-related differences in consumption practices and/or beverage processing.

The dynamics of Early Celtic consumption practices: A case study of the pottery from the Heuneburg

“…These novel commensal practices seem to have served as a means of creating/enforcing their identities and to further establish/secure their position within society. It is most interesting to note that the findings from the Ha D2/D3-phases of the Heuneburg mirror the previous results for the contemporaneous Ha D2/D3 settlement of Vix-Mont Lassois [71]. This new relation between conspicuous wine consumption and social elites established in Ha D2/D3 extended into later Celtic society, when the Greek author Poseidonius reports that Celtic elites drank wine whereas the lower parts of Celtic society consumed beer (cf.…”

“…This assemblage of short-chain carboxylic acids and phenolic compounds suggests the presence of fruit products. Tartaric acid, identified in 24 vessels, is usually interpreted as a biomarker for grape products/wine because of its higher concentration in grapes [25, 26, 69–71] compared to other fruits available in Europe during the Early Iron Age. When present in the Heuneburg vessels, tartaric acid was mostly identified together with other short-chain carboxylic compounds including succinic acid (Fig 9, Tables A-F in S1 Tables), which are known wine fermentation markers [25, 26].…”

“…It has been increasingly emphasized in the last two decades that one should not assume a mere adoption of Mediterranean drinking practices, and instead consider the complexity of processes of appropriation [86, 90, 94, 95, 100–107]. A recent study of drinking practices in the Early Iron Age settlement of Vix-Mont Lassois seems to show that the conspicuous consumption of imported grape wine from Attic feasting dishes was limited to the Ha D2/D3 elites living on the plateau [71].…”

Is it possible to identify ancient wine production using biomolecular approaches?

“…Increasing the number of samples analysed would help verify the robustness of the method. For example, at the Iron Age site of Vix Mont-Lassois in Eastern France, tartaric acid was found to be only associated with specific vessel forms (Greek fine wares) despite the fact that a much larger assemblage was analysed, thereby increasing the confidence of the interpretation (Rageot et al 2019). The acid extraction method is also very effective in extracting polar compounds strongly bound to the ceramic matrix so, if applied more widely, this approach could greatly enhance the detection of plant products in general (especially fruits) in the future.…”

“…Historical sources from the Classical period described the following amphorae as specific wine containers and several studies tried to check this hypothesis: amphorae from Corfu and Mende (Greece, fifth to third century B.C; Foley et al 2012), Roman Dressel amphorae (first century BC to first century AD; Arobba et al 2014;Condamin and Formenti 1978;Formenti, Hesnard, and Tchernia 1978;Garnier et al 2003;Pecci et al 2017), Late Roman (LR, fourth century AD; Pecci, Salvini, and Cantini 2010), and Keay amphorae (fourth to fifth century BC; Woodworth et al 2015). More recently, the wine was claimed to be identified in an Early Celtic princely site (seventh to fifth centuries BC), which demonstrates trade between the Mediterranean and the Celtic spheres (Rageot et al 2019).…”