Chemical evidence of dairying by hunter-gatherers in the highlands of Lesotho in the late first millennium AD

The recovery of Early Iron Age artefacts and domestic animal remains from hunter-gatherer contexts at Likoaeng, Lesotho, has been argued to indicate contact between highland hunter-gatherers and Early Iron Age agropastoralist communities settled in lowland areas of southeastern Africa during the second half of the first millennium ad. However, disagreement between archaeozoological studies and ancient DNA means that the possibility that those hunter-gatherers kept livestock themselves remains controversial. Here we report analyses of pottery-absorbed organic residues from two hunter-gatherer sites and one agriculturalist site in highland Lesotho to reconstruct prehistoric subsistence practices. Our results demonstrate the exploitation of secondary products from domestic livestock by hunter-gatherers in Lesotho, directly dated to the seventh century ad at Likoaeng and the tenth century ad at the nearby site of Sehonghong. The data provide compelling evidence for the keeping of livestock by hunter-gatherer groups and their probable incorporation as ancillary resources into their subsistence strategies

Four millennia of dairy surplus and deposition revealed through compound-specific stable isotope analysis and radiocarbon dating of Irish bog butters

Bog butters are large white or yellow waxy deposits regularly discovered within the peat bogs of Ireland and Scotland. They represent an extraordinary survival of prehistoric and later agricultural products, comprising the largest deposits of fat found anywhere in nature. Often found in wooden containers or wrapped in animal bladders, they are considered to have been buried intentionally by past farming communities. While previous analysis has determined that Irish bog butters derive from animal fat, their precise characterisation could not be achieved due to diagenetic compositional alterations during burial. Via compound-specific stable isotope analysis, we provide the first conclusive evidence of a dairy fat origin for the Irish bog butter tradition, which differs from bog butter traditions observed elsewhere. Our research also reveals a remarkably long-lived tradition of deposition and possible curation spanning at least 3500 years, from the Early Bronze Age (c. 1700 BC) to the 17th century AD. This is conclusively established via an extensive suite of both bulk and compound-specific radiocarbon dates

Compound-specific radiocarbon, stable carbon isotope and biomarker analysis of mixed marine/terrestrial lipids preserved in archaeological pottery vessels.

At archaeological sites located on islands or near the coast, the potential exists for lipid extracts of potsherds to contain fatty acids (FA) from both aquatic and terrestrial organisms, meaning that consideration must be given to marine reservoir effects (MRE) in radiocarbon (14C) analyses. Here we studied the site of Bornais (Outer Hebrides, UK) where a local MRE, ΔR of –65 ± 45 yr was determined through the paired 14C determinations of terrestrial and marine faunal bones. Lipid analysis of 49 potsherds, revealed aquatic biomarkers in 45% of the vessels, and δ13C values of C16:0 and C18:0 FAs revealed ruminant and marine product mixing for 71% of the vessels. Compound-specific 14C analysis (CSRA) of FAs yielded intermediate 14C ages between those of terrestrial and marine bones from the same contexts, confirming an MRE existed. A database containing δ13C values for FAs from reference terrestrial and marine organisms provided endmembers for calculating the percentage marine-derived C (%marine) in FAs. We show that lipid 14C dates can be corrected using determined %marine and ΔR values, such that pottery vessels from coastal locations can be 14C dated by CSRA of FAs

The Milky Way:Mobility and Economy at the Turn of the 3rd Millennium in Southern Central Europe

In the light of discussions surrounding the social changes attributed to the arrival of the Corded Ware culture in central Europe, here we investigate the economic strategies of one of the cultural complexes of the immediately preceding Late Neolithic. The Cham culture of southern Bavaria is characterised by a variety of economic choices but problems remain in synthesising and combining archaeozoological and archaeobotanical evidence. Using lipid residue analysis from Cham culture pottery excavated at the unenclosed settlement of Riedling, Lower Bavaria, we succeed in identifying a dairying economy at this time. Compound-specific lipid radiocarbon dates are then combined with other samples to provide a formal estimate for the duration of activity at Riedling and the first Bayesian chronological model for the Cham culture as a whole. Although data are currently not fine-grained enough to distinguish between competing models for site permanence, we suggest that the Cham culture pattern fits into a wider central European trend of greater mobility and economic flexibility in the pre-Corded Ware horizon, concluding that key economic strategies previously associated with ‘steppe invasions’ were already present in the preceding centuries. Finally, the demonstrated use of cups for milk-based products, as opposed to alcoholic drinks as previously suggested, leads us to propose possible alternative uses and users for these items

Practical Considerations in High-Precision Compound-Specific Radiocarbon Analyses:Eliminating the Effects of Solvent and Sample Cross-Contamination on Accuracy and Precision

Preparative capillary gas chromatography (pcGC) is widely used for the isolation of single compounds for radiocarbon determinations. While being effective at isolating compounds, there are still genuine concerns relating to contamination associated with the isolation procedure, such as incomplete removal of solvent used to recover isolated compounds from the traps and cross-contamination, which can lead to erroneous 14C determinations. Herein we describe new approaches to identifying and removing these two sources of contamination. First, we replaced the common “U” trap design, which requires recovery of compounds using organic solvent, with a novel solventless trapping system (STS), consisting of a simple glass tube containing a glass wool plug, allowing condensation of a target compound in the wool and its solventless recovery by pushing the glass wool directly into a foil capsule for graphitization. With the STS trap, an average of 95.7% of the target compound was recovered, and contamination from column bleed was reduced. In addition, comparison of 14C determinations of fatty acid methyl ester (FAME) standards determined offline to those isolated by pcGC in STS traps showed excellent reproducibility and accuracy compared to those isolated using the commercial “U” traps. Second, “coldspots” were identified in the instrument, i.e., the termini of capillaries in the preparative unit, which can be cleaned of compounds condensed from earlier runs using a heat gun. Our new procedure, incorporating these two modifications, was tested on archeological fat hoards, producing 14C dates on isolated C16:0 and C18:0 fatty acids statistically consistent with the bulk dates of the archeological material

Early Neolithic Pits at Principal Place, Shoreditch, London Borough of Hackney

A group of four pits excavated in the upper Walbrook valley at Principal Place, Shoreditch by MOLA in 2015 produced the largest assemblage of Early Neolithic Bowl pottery recovered to date from the City of London and its immediate surrounds. The Neolithic pits had been fortuitously preserved within part of the northern extramural Roman cemetery of Londinium and conjoining sherds of Bowl pottery were also recovered from the fill of an isolated late Roman cremation. A range of analyses showed that the vessels – comprising essentially Plain Bowl with some Decorated Bowl, the latter incorporating Peterborough Ware traits – were probably locally made and had been used to process dairy products and to stew beef and mutton (though not pork). Radiocarbon dating of the lipids absorbed within the vessel walls – employing a novel technique developed at the University of Bristol – suggest that the pottery was being used in the mid-fourth millennium cal BC. The pits also contained small assemblages of struck flint, fauna (some burnt) and archaeobotanical remains (some intrusive) and may have been filled using material drawn from a long-vanished ‘pre-pit’ source, possibly a midden; they presumably represent episodic activity on the part of semi-sedentary Neolithic communities