Determination of Milk Products in Ceramic Vessels of Corded Ware Culture from a Late Eneolithic Burial. Molecules 2018, 23(12), 3247; https://doi.org/10.3390/molecules23123247. (original) (raw)
Related papers
Molecules
In this study, a soil from two ceramic vessels belonging to Corded Ware culture, 2707–2571 B.C., found in a cremation grave discovered in Central Moravia, Czech Republic, was analyzed using matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization–mass spectrometry (MALDI–MS) combined with advanced statistical treatment (principal component analysis, PCA, and orthogonal projection to latent structures discriminant analysis, OPLS-DA) and by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA). MALDI–MS revealed the presence of triacylglycerols in both vessels. This analytical technique was used for the analysis of the soil content from archaeological ceramic vessels for the first time. Targeted ELISA experiments consequently proved the presence of milk proteins in both ceramic vessels. These results represent the first direct evidence of the use of milk or dairy products in the Eneolithic period in Moravian Corded Ware Culture and help to better understand the diet habits and living conditions of Eneolithic ...
Royal Society Open Science, 2023
The detection of dairy processing is pivotal to our understanding of ancient subsistence strategies. This culinary process is linked to key arguments surrounding the evolution of lactase persistence in prehistory. Despite extensive evidence indicating the presence of dairy products in ceramics in the European Neolithic, questions remain about the nature and extent of milk (and lactose) processing and consumption. In order to investigate past patterns of dairy processing, here we analyse ancient proteins identified from Late Neolithic Funnel Beaker ceramics, scrutinizing the principle that curd and whey proteins partition during the production of dairy foods from milk. Our results indicate the presence of casein-rich dairy products in these vessels suggesting the creation of curd-enriched products from raw milk. Moreover, this analysis reveals the use of multiple species for their dairy products in the Late Neolithic, adding to a growing body of evidence for the period. Alongside palaeoproteomic analysis, we applied well-established lipid residue analysis. Differential interpretations between these two approaches show that palaeoproteomics is especially useful where the effects from isotope mixing may underestimate the frequency of dairy products in archaeological ceramics, highlighting the potential utility of a multi-stranded approach to understand life histories of vessel use.
Analyses of organic residues preserved in ceramic potsherds enable the identification of foodstuffs processed in rchaeological vessels. Differences in the isotopic composition of fatty acids allow differentiation of non-ruminant and ruminant fats, as well as adipose and dairy fats. This paper investigates the trends in milk use in areas where sheep and goats are dominant in the faunal assemblage and in some sites from the inearbandkeramik culture. Sites include: Colle Santo Stefano, Abruzzo, Italy, and the Oldest to Young Linearbandkeramik sites of Zwenkau, Eythra and Brodau, Saxony, and Wang and Niederhummel, Bavaria, Germany. More than 160 potsherds were investigated including cooking pots, bowls, jars, and ceramic sieves. The lipid residues presented provide direct evidence for the processing of ruminant and non-ruminant commodities at Zwenkau and Eythra, despite the absence of faunal remains at the sites. No dairy residues were detected in potsherds from LBK sites, except in a ceramic sieve at Brodau. Lipids from non-ruminant and ruminant fats, including from dairy fats, were detected at the site of Colle Santo Stefano showing a reliance on dairy products during the first half of the sixth millennium at this site; where sheep and goats were the major domestic animals.
Journal of Mass Spectrometry, 2001
Mass spectrometry for cultural heritage knowledge: gas chromatographic/mass spectrometric analysis of organic remains in Neolithic potsherds † The application of scientific methods to study materials and handicrafts of archaeological interest contributes to solve successfully various problems of identification, dating, utilization of objects and shreds found by the archaeologist. 1 In this way, it is possible to obtain interesting information on the everyday life of ancient peoples. Mass spectrometry is a powerful tool for research in this field, thanks to its high analytical sensitivity and specificity; many of its applications are in the study of organic materials such as bones, food remains, seeds, resins, waxes, natural dyes, etc. 2-4 In order to achieve new knowledge on trade, storage, cooking, processing of foods and diet of Neolithic peoples, we carried out a study by gas chromatography/mass spectrometry (GC/MS) on some pottery sherds found during an archaeological excavation at S. Marco hill, near Paternò, a country town in the Etna volcano area, Eastern Sicily. Lipids absorbed into the porous structure of the potsherds are generally well preserved. Compositional alteration through microbial activity is small and therefore the lipids are often a direct reflection of the original contents and usage of ceramic vessels (vases, pans, bowls, etc.). 5,6 The identification of the lipid profile can provide important information for the classification of artefact use. In this kind of research, attention must be paid to contamination arising from migration of soil components. 7 Our program consisted in studying the composition of the fatty acid fraction extracted from eight sherds buried in a late Neolithic settlement; four are fragments (a few square centimeters) of pans or bowls (samples 1-4) and the other four are fragments of strainerlike objects, showing many holes (samples 5-8). These holes are of different sizes in the four fragments (2-6 mm). Two solvents, light petroleum and dichloromethane were used to extract intact potsherds in an ultrasonic bath for 30 min at room temperature and then for 6 h under reflux in a specially designed all-glass device. The combined extracts were hydrolyzed in an alkaline 0.5 M solution of sodium hydroxide in water-methanol (1 : 1) for 90 min.
Journal of Archaeological Science, 2006
Fatty acids distribution and stable isotope ratios (bulk d 13 C, d 15 N and d 13 C of individual fatty acids) of organic residues from 30 potsherds have been used to get further insights into the diet at the Late Neolithic (3384e3370 BC) site of Arbon Bleiche 3, Switzerland. The results are compared with modern equivalents of animal and vegetable fats, which may have been consumed in a mixed ecology community having agrarian, breeding, shepherd, gathering, hunting, and fishing activities. The used combined chemical and isotopic approach provides valuable information to complement archaeological indirect evidence about the dietary trends obtained from the analysis of faunal and plant remains. The small variations of the d 13 C and d 15 N values within the range expected for degraded animal and plant tissues, is consistent with the archaeological evidence of animals, whose subsistence was mainly based on C 3 plants. The overall fatty acid composition and the stable carbon isotopic compositions of palmitic, stearic and oleic acids of the organic residues indicate that the studied Arbon Bleiche 3 sherds contain fat residues of plant and animal origin, most likely ruminant (bovine and ovine). In several vessels the presence of milk residues provides direct evidence for dairying during the late Neolithic in central Europe.
Paleoproteomic profiling of organic residues on prehistoric pottery from Malta
Amino Acids, 2021
Mass spectrometry-based approaches have been successfully applied for identifying ancient proteins in bones and other tissues. On the contrary, there are relatively few examples of the successful recovery and identification of archeological protein residues from ceramic artifacts; this is because ceramics contain much lower levels of proteins which are extensively degraded by diagenetic effects. In this paper, we report the results of the characterization of proteins extracted from pottery of the Maltese site of Baħrija, the guide-site for the Baħrija period (half of 9th-second half of eighth century BCE), recently identified as the final part of the Borġ in-Nadur culture. Proteomic data here reported confirm that one of the major issue of these kind of studies is represented by contamination of animal and human agents that may complicate endogenous protein identification and authentication. The samples tested included a small group of ceramic forms, namely three tableware and six coarse ware thought to have been used in food preparation and/or storage. In this context, the limited availability of paleobotanical and archeozoological analyses may be compensated by the outcomes of the first proteomics profiling which, even if obtained on a limited selection of vessels, revealed the centrality of wheat in the diet of the ancient community of Baħrija. The data have been deposited to the ProteomeXchange with identifier < PXD022848 > .
2012
This study address the question of the use and function of Early Neolithic (4000–3000 cal. BC) funnel-beaker pots from Mälardalen in eastern Central Sweden. The material studied is pottery from a wetland offering at the site Skogsmossen in the province of Västmanland. While deposited under ritual circumstances in a fen, the pots were likely used in a domestic domain on the settlement adjacent to the offering fen, prior to final deposition. The lipid analysis indicate a varied vessel use, there are traces of aquatic resources, plants, terrestrial animals and milk. The identification of milk residue is the oldest so far from Sweden.
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
Direct, accurate, and precise dating of archaeological pottery vessels is now achievable using a recently developed approach based on the radiocarbon dating of purified molecular components of food residues preserved in the walls of pottery vessels. The method targets fatty acids from animal fat residues, making it uniquely suited for directly dating the inception of new food commodities in prehistoric populations. Here, we report a large-scale application of the method by directly dating the introduction of dairying into Central Europe by the Linearbandkeramik (LBK) cultural group based on dairy fat residues. The radiocarbon dates ( n = 27) from the 54th century BC from the western and eastern expansion of the LBK suggest dairy exploitation arrived with the first settlers in the respective regions and were not gradually adopted later. This is particularly significant, as contemporaneous LBK sites showed an uneven distribution of dairy exploitation. Significantly, our findings demon...
Archaeology: The milk revoultion
The domestication of cattle, sheep and goats had already taken place in the Near East by the eighth millennium BC 1-3 . Although there would have been considerable economic and nutritional gains from using these animals for their milk and other products from living animals-that is, traction and wool-the first clear evidence for these appears much later, from the late fifth and fourth millennia BC 4,5 . Hence, the timing and region in which milking was first practised remain unknown. Organic residues preserved in archaeological pottery 6,7 have provided direct evidence for the use of milk in the fourth millennium in Britain 7-9 , and in the sixth millennium in eastern Europe 10 , based on the d 13 C values of the major fatty acids of milk fat 6,7 . Here we apply this approach to more than 2,200 pottery vessels from sites in the Near East and southeastern Europe dating from the fifth to the seventh millennia BC. We show that milk was in use by the seventh millennium; this is the earliest direct evidence to date. Milking was particularly important in northwestern Anatolia, pointing to regional differences linked with conditions more favourable to cattle compared to other regions, where sheep and goats were relatively common and milk use less important. The latter is supported by correlations between the fat type and animal bone evidence.