Research Project: AN_SUT. Anatolian Neolithic Studies of Unique Technologies for Food Preparation
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Contributors
Funders
ID
TB.00597
Authors
Breu, Adria
Researcher
Publications
From bowls to pots: the dairying revolution in northwest Turkey, a view from Barcın Höyük, 6600 to 6000 BCE
(Public Library Science, 2024) Breu, Adria; Özbal, Rana; Ozbal, Hadi; Thissen, Laurens; Gerritsen, Fokke; van den Bos, Elisha; Galik, Alfred; Doğan, Turhan; Cergel, Muhiddin; Şimşek, Adnan; Turkekul, Ayla; Department of Archaeology and History of Art; Yes; College of Social Sciences and Humanities
Research has identified Northwest Turkey as a key region for the development of dairying in the seventh millennium BCE, yet little is known about how this practice began or evolved there. This research studies Barc and imath;n H and ouml;y and uuml;k, a site located in Bursa's Yeni and scedil;ehir Valley, which ranges chronologically from 6600 BCE, when the first evidence of settled life appears in the Marmara Region, to 6000 BCE, when Neolithic habitation at the site ceases. Using pottery sherds diagnostic by vessel category and type, this paper aims at identifying which ones may have been primarily used to store, process, or consume dairy products. Organic residue analysis of selected samples helped address the process of adoption and intensification of milk processing in this region over time. The lipid residue data discussed in this paper derive from 143 isotopic results subsampled from 173 organic residues obtained from 805 Neolithic potsherds and suggest that bowls and four-lugged pots may have been preferred containers for processing milk. The discovery of abundant milk residues even among the earliest ceramics indicates that the pioneer farmers arrived in the region already with the knowhow of dairying and milk processing. In fact, these skills and the reliance on secondary products may have given them one of the necessary tools to successfully venture into the unfarmed lands of Northwest Anatolia in the first place.
Pottery spilled the beans: patterns in the processing and consumption of dietary lipids in Central Germany from the Early Neolithic to the Bronze Age
(Public Library of Science, 2024) Breu, Adria; Risch, Roberto; Molina, Elena; Friederich, Susanne; Meller, Harald; Knoll, Franziska; Department of Archaeology and History of Art; No; College of Social Sciences and Humanities
The need to better understand economic change and the social uses of long-ago established pottery types to prepare and consume food has led to the study of 124 distinct ceramic vessels from 17 settlement and funerary sites in Central Germany (present day Saxony-Anhalt). These, dated from the Early Neolithic (from 5450 cal. BCE onwards) to the Late Bronze Age (1300-750 cal. BCE;youngest sample ca. 1000 BCE), include vessels from the Linear Pottery (LBK), Schiepzig/Sch & ouml;ningen groups (SCHIP), Baalberge (BAC), Corded Ware (CWC), Bell Beaker (BBC), and & Uacute;n & ecaron;tice (UC) archaeological cultures. Organic residue analyses performed on this assemblage determined the presence of vessel contents surviving as lipid residues in 109 cases. These were studied in relation to the changing use of settlement and funerary pottery types and, in the case of burials, to the funerary contexts in which the vessels had been placed. The obtained results confirmed a marked increase in the consumption of dairy products linked to innovations in pottery types (e.g., small cups) during the Funnel Beaker related Baalberge Culture of the 4th millennium BCE. Although the intensive use of dairy products may have continued into the 3rd millennium BCE, especially amongst Bell Beaker populations, Corded Ware vessels found in funerary contexts suggest an increase in the importance of non-ruminant products, which may be linked to the production of specific vessel shapes and decoration. In the Early Bronze Age circum-Harz & Uacute;n & ecaron;tice group (ca. 2200-1550 BCE), which saw the emergence of a highly hierarchical society, a greater variety of animal and plant derived products was detected in a much more standardised but, surprisingly, more multifunctional pottery assemblage. This long-term study of lipid residues from a concise region in Central Europe thus reveals the complex relationships that prehistoric populations established between food resources and the main means to prepare, store, and consume them.
Caution! contents were hot: novel biomarkers to detect the heating of fatty acids in residues from pottery use
(Academic Press Ltd- Elsevier Science Ltd, 2023) Özbal, Rana; Breu, Adria; Turkekul, Ayla; Akyol, Semsettin; Bach-Gomez, Anna; Cakal, Cafer; Ilker, Mehmet Firat; Sari, Deniz; Sarialtun, Savas; Vijande-Vila, Eduardo; Department of Archaeology and History of Art; Graduate School of Social Sciences and Humanities; Yes; College of Social Sciences and Humanities; GRADUATE SCHOOL OF SOCIAL SCIENCES AND HUMANITIES
Understanding exposure of pottery vessels to fire is an important question in the agenda of researchers studying how prehistoric pottery was used to prepare food and the reasons leading to its widespread adoption across the world. In the case lipid residues from cooking, making sense of the range of biochemical compounds synthesised by the application of significant amounts of heat (i.e > 100 degree celsius) to lipid residues can reveal different use patterns in the repertoires of the earliest pottery productions. While knowledge about the thermal degradation of fats in archaeological pottery has been available since the mid-nineties, this paper presents and describes two previously unreported biomarkers detected during ongoing research on the earliest Mediterranean farming societies: the ketonic decarboxylation of saturated fatty acids and dicarboxylic acids resulting in very long chain oxo fatty acids, and, the cyclisation of monounsaturated fatty acids yielding omega-(2-alkylcyclopentyl)alkanoic acids. Therefore, combining experimentation with the analysis of several sets of Neolithic pottery, this paper aims at updating the available data on the range of known biomarkers for lipid thermal alteration by characterising said unreported compounds and facilitating their detection in further studies.
