Plant foods, stone tools and food preparation in prehistoric Europe: An integrative approach in the context of ERC funded project PLANTCULT

The transformation of food ingredients into meals corresponds to complex choices resulting from the interplay of environmental and cultural factors: available ingredients, technologies of transformation, cultural perceptions of food, as well as taste and food taboos. Project PLANTCULT (ERC Consolidator Grant, GA 682529) aims to investigate prehistoric culinary cultures from the Aegean to Central Europe by focusing on plant foods and associated food preparation technologies spanning the Neolithic through to the Iron Age. Our paper offers an overview of the lines of investigation pursued within the project to address plant food preparation and related stone tool technologies. The wide range of plant foods from the area under investigation (ground cereals, breads, beer, pressed grapes, split pulses, etc.) suggests great variability of culinary preparations. Yet, little is known of the transformation technologies involved (e.g., pounding, grinding, and boiling). Changes in size and shape of grinding stones over time have been associated with efficiency of grinding, specific culinary practices and socioeconomic organisation. Informed by ethnography and experimental data, as well as ancient texts, PLANTCULT integrates archaeobotanical food remains and associated equipment to address these issues. We utilize a multifaceted approach including the study of both published archaeological data and original assemblages from key sites. We aim to develop methods for understanding the interaction of tool type, use-wear formation and associated plant micro- and macro- remains in the archaeological record. Our experimental program aims to generate (a) reference material for the identification of plant processing in the archaeological record and (b) ingredients for the preparation of experimental plant foods, which hold a key role to unlocking the recipes of prehistory. Plant processing technologies are thus investigated across space and through time, in an attempt to explore the dynamic role of culinary transformation of plant ingredients into shaping social and cultural identities in prehistoric Europe

The contribution of phytoliths in recognising the use of space in prehistory: comparative study of an ethnographic environment and a neolithic site

Phytolith analyses were conducted in an ethnographic environment (Sarakini) and a neolithic site (Makri) of Thrace in order to reconstruct aspects of past human activities as a function of both space and time. The analyses were based on a reference collection of modern plant phytoliths from Greece. The results showed that regarding plants, grasses are the prolific producers and with taxonomic significance (species). The phytolith assemblages from the sediments of Sarakini verified the importance of phytoliths in recognising activity areas in an agropastoral community. The data from Sarakini helped us to get insights regarding the use of space in neolithic Makri it is an agropastoral community inhabited year round that produces and consumes its staples (wheat and barley).Η παρούσα διατριβή μελετά τους φυτόλιθους σε ένα εθνογραφικό περιβάλλον (Σαρακηνή) και μια νεολιθική θέση (Μάκρη) της Θράκης με σκοπό την αναγνώριση των ανθρώπινων δραστηριοτήτων στο χώρο και στο χρόνο. Πολύτιμος σύμμαχος της συγκεκριμένης μελέτης υπήρξε η συλλογή αναφοράς φωτολίθων από σύγχρονα φυτά της Ελλάδας που οργανώθηκε στα πλαίσια της διατριβής. Τα αποτελέσματα απέδειξαν ότι αναφορικά με τα φυτά. τα αγρωστώδη παράγουν το μεγαλύτερο αριθμό φυτολίθων, η αναγνώριση των οποίων φτάνει στο επίπεδο του είδους. Τα φυτολιθικά σύνολα από τα ιζήματα της Σαρακηνής επιβεβαίωσαν τη σπουδαιότητα των φυτολίθων ως εργαλείου αναγνώρισης χώρων δραστηριότητας σε μια γεωργοκτηνοτροφική κοινότητα. Τα δεδομένα της Σαρακηνής αποτέλεσαν αρχείο άντλησης ιδεών για την αναγνώριση των χώρων δραστηριότητας στη Νεολιθική Μάκρη. Πρόκειται για ένα γεωργοκτηνοτροφικό οικισμό που κατοικείται όλη τη διάρκεια του έτους και παράγει και καταναλώνει σιτηρά (κριθάρι - σιτάρι)

A new Minoan-type peak sanctuary on Stelida, Naxos

A long-recognised characteristic of Crete’s later Bronze Age [BA] state-level society – the ‘Minoan civilization’ of the 2nd millennium cal. BC – was the establishment of socio-economic connections with off-island populations. The nature of these relationships has been interpreted in various ways, from the establishment of overseas colonies to a more mutually beneficial relationship between local political agents and their Cretan partners, not least Knossos. Minoan influence has been documented throughout the southern Aegean in the form of material culture, iconography, metrological systems and socio-religious practices. It is the latter theme that concerns us here, specifically in the form of ‘peak sanctuaries’, i.e. upland foci of ritual activity associated with settlements and palatial centres throughout Crete, a handful of which are claimed to have been established overseas, on Kythera, Kea, Naxos, Rhodes and possibly Andros (Figure 1). We report here on what we claim to be a new example from Stelida on Naxos, whose southern peak dominates the skyline of nearby Grotta, the island’s main harbour and BA centre (Figures 1-3). The argument is based upon (i) the character of the finds, (ii) the presence of architecture and (iii), the site’s location and the vistas afforded from it, all of which have excellent comparanda from recognised peak sanctuaries in Crete (Table 1). We start by providing a brief overview of peak sanctuaries, followed by a presentation of the new excavations at Stelida, after which we discuss the site’s larger significance, arguing that these new discoveries suggest that Naxos was a much more dynamic participant in relations with communities in Neopalatial Crete – not least Knossos ­than hitherto suggested

A forager-herder trade-off, from broad-spectrum hunting to sheep management at Asikli Hoyuk, Turkey

Asikli Hoyuk is the earliest known preceramic Neolithic mound site in Central Anatolia. The oldest Levels, 4 and 5, spanning 8,200 to approximately 9,000 cal B. C., associate with round-house architecture and arguably represent the birth of the Pre-Pottery Neolithic in the region. Results from upper Level 4, reported here, indicate a broad meat diet that consisted of diverse wild ungulate and small animal species. The meat diet shifted gradually over just a few centuries to an exceptional emphasis on caprines (mainly sheep). Age-sex distributions of the caprines in upper Level 4 indicate selective manipulation by humans by or before 8,200 cal B. C. Primary dung accumulations between the structures demonstrate that ruminants were held captive inside the settlement at this time. Taken together, the zooarchaeological and geoarchaeological evidence demonstrate an emergent process of caprine management that was highly experimental in nature and oriented to quick returns. Stabling was one of the early mechanisms of caprine population isolation, a precondition to domestication

Tephra correlations and climatic events between the MIS6/5 transition and the beginning of MIS3 in Theopetra Cave, central Greece

Three cryptotephra layers associated with important periods of climatic change were identified in the Middle Palaeolithic sequence of Theopetra Cave, Greece. The lower cryptotephra layer, THP-TII5, is correlated with the P-11 Pantellerian eruption dated to ?128–131 ka. This cryptotephra postdates a thick sequence of combustion layers that show a complex vegetation succession quite similar to that of the last deglaciation succession in the cave. Two other cryptotephras, THP-TII10 and THP-TII12, are correlated with the Nisyros Upper Pumice and the Pantellerian Y6/Green Tuff, dated to >50 ka and 45.7 ka, respectively. This sequence confirms the position of the Nisyros Upper tephra, below the Pantellerian Green Tuff, in the volcanic event stratigraphy of the Mediterranean. Moreover, these two upper cryptotephras bracket an extended combustion layer with interstadial vegetation characteristics that may be coincident with the complex Greenland Interstadial 13–14. On the basis of this new chronology it can be deduced that the intensity of occupation and presence or absence of humans in the cave were closely related to climatic changes. In addition, a remarkable similarity in the pattern of occupational intensity during the last two deglaciations can be suggested