Abstract

The analysis of lipids (fats, oils and waxes) absorbed within archaeological pottery has revolutionized the study of past diets and culinary practices. However, this technique can lack taxonomic and tissue specificity and is often unable to disentangle signatures resulting from the mixing of different food products. Here, we extract ancient proteins from ceramic vessels from the West Mound of the key early farming site of Çatalhöyük in Anatolia, revealing that this community processed mixes of cereals, pulses, dairy and meat products, and that particular vessels may have been reserved for specialized foods (e.g., cow milk and milk whey). Moreover, we demonstrate that dietary proteins can persist on archaeological artefacts for at least 8000 years, and that this approach can reveal past culinary practices with more taxonomic and tissue-specific clarity than has been possible with previous biomolecular techniques.

Details

Title
Ancient proteins from ceramic vessels at Çatalhöyük West reveal the hidden cuisine of early farmers
Author
Hendy, Jessica 1   VIAFID ORCID Logo  ; Colonese, Andre C 2 ; Franz, Ingmar 3 ; Fernandes, Ricardo 4 ; Fischer, Roman 5   VIAFID ORCID Logo  ; Orton, David 2   VIAFID ORCID Logo  ; Lucquin, Alexandre 2   VIAFID ORCID Logo  ; Spindler, Luke 6 ; Anvari, Jana 7 ; Stroud, Elizabeth 8 ; Biehl, Peter F 9 ; Speller, Camilla 10   VIAFID ORCID Logo  ; Boivin, Nicole 11 ; Mackie, Meaghan 12   VIAFID ORCID Logo  ; Jersie-Christensen, Rosa R 13 ; Olsen, Jesper V 13   VIAFID ORCID Logo  ; Collins, Matthew J 14   VIAFID ORCID Logo  ; Craig, Oliver E 2   VIAFID ORCID Logo  ; Rosenstock, Eva 7   VIAFID ORCID Logo 

 Department of Archaeology, Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History, Jena, Germany; BioArCh, Department of Archaeology, University of York, York, UK 
 BioArCh, Department of Archaeology, University of York, York, UK 
 Institute of Prehistoric and Protohistoric Archaeology, Christian-Albrechts-Universität zu Kiel, Kiel, Germany 
 Department of Archaeology, Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History, Jena, Germany; School of Archaeology, University of Oxford, Oxford, UK 
 Target Discovery Institute, University of Oxford, Oxford, UK 
 BioArCh, Department of Archaeology, University of York, York, UK; Oxford Radiocarbon Accelerator Unit, University of Oxford, Oxford, UK 
 Institute of Prehistoric Archaeology, Freie Universität Berlin, Berlin, Germany 
 School of Archaeology, University of Oxford, Oxford, UK 
 Department of Anthropology, University at Buffalo, Buffalo, NY, USA 
10  BioArCh, Department of Archaeology, University of York, York, UK; Department of Anthropology, The University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC, Canada 
11  Department of Archaeology, Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History, Jena, Germany 
12  EvoGenomics, Natural History Museum of Denmark, University of Copenhagen, Copenhagen, Denmark; Novo Nordisk Foundation Center for Protein Research, Faculty of Health and Medical Sciences, University of Copenhagen, Copenhagen, Denmark 
13  Novo Nordisk Foundation Center for Protein Research, Faculty of Health and Medical Sciences, University of Copenhagen, Copenhagen, Denmark 
14  BioArCh, Department of Archaeology, University of York, York, UK; EvoGenomics, Natural History Museum of Denmark, University of Copenhagen, Copenhagen, Denmark 
Pages
1-10
Publication year
2018
Publication date
Oct 2018
Publisher
Nature Publishing Group
e-ISSN
20411723
Source type
Scholarly Journal
Language of publication
English
ProQuest document ID
2116054899
Copyright
© 2018. This work is published under http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ (the “License”). Notwithstanding the ProQuest Terms and Conditions, you may use this content in accordance with the terms of the License.