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.

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Isotopic and molecular analysis on human, fauna and pottery remains can provide valuable new insights into the diets and subsistence practices of prehistoric populations. These are crucial to elucidate the resilience of social-ecological systems to cultural and environmental change. Bulk collagen carbon and nitrogen isotopic analysis of 82 human individuals from mid to late Holocene Brazilian archaeological sites (∼6,700 to ∼1,000 cal BP) reveal an adequate protein incorporation and, on the coast, the continuation in subsistence strategies based on the exploitation of aquatic resources despite the introduction of pottery and domesticated plant foods. These results are supported by carbon isotope analysis of single amino acid extracted from bone collagen. Chemical and isotopic analysis also shows that pottery technology was used to process marine foods and therefore assimilated into the existing subsistence strategy. Our multidisciplinary results demonstrate the resilient character of the coastal economy to cultural change during the late Holocene in southern Brazil.

a b s t r a c tOxygen isotope analyses were carried out on the topshell Osilinus turbinatus from archaeological sites with the aim to investigate the temporal exploitation patterns by Mesolithic groups inhabiting coastal caves in SW Italy. In order to assess the present day O. turbinatus intra-annual d18 O variability, living specimens were collected monthly at Marina di Camerota (SW Italian peninsula). Their shell-edges were analysed and the seasonal results were compared with archaeozoological material. Our findings show that Mesolithic O. turbinatus exploitation was carried out almost exclusively during the colder and intermediary seasons (e.g. autumn, winter, spring), with very sporadic harvesting during the warmer seasons. Results suggest a possible regional exploitation pattern of O. turbinatus by Mesolithic groups inhabiting this region.