Neolithic culinary traditions revealed by cereal, milk and meat lipids in pottery from Scottish crannogs

Abstract

Cereal cultivation in Britain dates back to ca. 4000 BCE, probably introduced by migrant farmers from continental Europe. Widespread evidence for livestock appears in the archaeozoological record, also reflected by ubiquitous dairy lipids in pottery organic residues. However, despite archaeobotanical evidence for domesticated plants (such as cereals), organic residue evidence has been near-absent. Our approach, targeting low-abundance cereal-specific markers, has now revealed evidence for cereals (indicating wheat) in Neolithic pottery from Scottish ‘crannogs’, dating to ca. 3600 – 3300 BCE. Their association with dairy products suggests cereals may have been regularly prepared together as a milk-based gruel. We also observed a strong association between the occurrence of dairy products and smaller-mouthed vessels. Here, we demonstrate that cereal-specific markers can survive in cooking pots for millennia, revealing the consumption of specific cereals (wheat) that are virtually absent from the archaeobotanical record for this region and illuminating culinary traditions among early farming communities.

Alkylresorcinol detection and identification in archaeological pottery using ultra‐high‐performance liquid chromatography‐quadrupole/Orbitrap mass spectrometry

“…11,23,46 Previous studies have demonstrated that these distribution patterns are relatively stable and can be used for species identification in archaeological material, at least as old as the 4th millennium BCE. 10,12,36 If so, the pattern observed in this study suggests that a Triticum species was processed rather than barley, the other relevant cereal crop at the settlement. 27 This conclusion is based on the dominance of AR 21:0, a characteristic of wheat species, and the presence of AR 25:0, the predominant homologue in barley, in only one sample.…”

“…27 As discussed in Section 3.3.3, AR distribution patterns can be used for cereal species discrimination in modern samples. 10,[12][13][14]36 Its usage, however, has to be executed with care when dealing with archaeological samples because the AR homologues' concentration and distribution may change over time. 11,23,46 Previous studies have demonstrated that these distribution patterns are relatively stable and can be used for species identification in archaeological material, at least as old as the 4th millennium BCE.…”

“…9 Alkylresorcinols (ARs) have been recently recognised as biomarkers for the presence of cereals in archaeological pottery from cold climates (e.g., the Alps) 10 and in anoxic conditions (e.g., waterlogged environments). 11,12 They are a class of phenolic lipids characterised by a nonpolar odd-numbered alkyl side chain attached to a polar resorcinol ring (Figure 1A). 13 ARs are reported to be present in high concentrations in rye and wheat, and in low concentrations in barley and millet, [13][14][15] with alkyl chains ranging from 15 to 27 carbon atoms.…”

“…Analysis of ARs has typically been carried out using gas chromatography mass spectrometry (GC/MS)-based methods. [10][11][12]17 Their high susceptibility to degradation during cooking and microbial attack in burial environments 10,[17][18][19] make these phenolic lipids elusive. Several strategies have been developed to increase the probability of detecting ARs using GC/MS.…”

“…11,20 Gas chromatography-quadrupole time-of-flight mass spectrometry (GC-Q/TOFMS) has also been used to increase the sensitivity of the approach. 11,12,17 Whereas GC/MS is becoming a conventional method for AR identification in archaeological ceramics, 10,11,17 liquid chromatography mass spectrometry (LC/MS) has been extensively used for decades for AR profiling and quantification in modern cereals. [21][22][23][24] High-performance liquid chromatography-diode array detector/fluorescence detectormulti-stage mass spectrometry (HPLC-DAD/FLD-MS n ) was used by Ziegler et al 23 The study revealed that the relative abundance of AR homologues differed significantly among hexaploid (common wheat), tetraploid (Khorasan wheat and emmer) and diploid (einkorn) species.…”