Scientists gain insights into life of Neolithic people 8,000 years ago from their food habits
Today people of every region, country, city, and town have their own food or variations of the same dishes, which are part of their cultural identity. Food also reveals a lot about the beliefs, socio-economic conditions, and history of the local population. The Neolithic period began nearly 12,000 years ago and it marked the end of the Stone Age, this is when agriculture gained ground and mankind stopped relying only on hunting and gathering. This development also led to the evolution of dietary habits and a recent study has analyzed the kind of food consumed by people living during the Neolithic Age. A team of scientists from the University of Bristol gained insights into the dietary habits of Neolithic people who lived in the areas close to the Danube River in southeastern Europe about 8,000 years ago.
The study was published in the Proceedings of The Royal Society B which analyzed over 200 pottery shards from that era. The results from the study deduced that the people in that region used to rely heavily on meat and dairy-based diets and consumed large quantities of fish. These people used to have settlements in the Iron Gates region of the Danube River which lies in the area between modern-day Russia and Serbia.
The scientists used a sophisticated technological process called chromatography-mass spectrometry to figure out the kind of organic substances that were extracted from the fatty acids on the pottery shards. “The findings revealed that the majority of Neolithic pots analyzed here were being used for processing fish or other aquatic resources,” Dr. Lucy Cramp, the lead researcher of the study and professor of the university’s Department of Anthropology and Archaeology, explained in the study. “This is a significant contrast with an earlier study showing the same type of pottery in the surrounding region was being used for cattle, sheep for goat meat and dairy products.”
“It is also completely different to nearly all other assemblages of Neolithic farmer-type pottery previously analyzed from across Europe (nearly 1,000 residues) which also show predominantly terrestrial-based resources being prepared in cooking pots (cattle/sheep/goat, possibly also deer), even from locations near major rivers or the coast," Cramp added. According to The Guardian, the European Neolithic population also feasted on roast and sweetened pork paired with dairy products like cheese and butter after a long day at work in the fields.
During an English Heritage exhibition called "Feeding Stonehenge" hosted at Stonehenge in Wiltshire, England, the curator Susan Greaney shared her thoughts on the feasts that these ancient communities used to enjoy. “More than 4,500 years have passed since the main part of Stonehenge was constructed,” she told the outlet. “But thanks to the sophistication of techniques we now have for dating and identifying chemicals, we can deduce – from food fragments left in pots and from the bones left in the ground – what meals were being consumed there.”
“There are bits of pig skeleton, dated from this period, all over the place,” Greaney added. “And when you look at the teeth of these animals, it is noticeable that there are strong signs of decay – which suggests they were being fattened up on fairly sweet diets, possibly using honey. So honey-sweetened pork could well have been on the menu at these feasts.” A Stonehenge researcher and professor, Oliver Craig from York University revealed that they had dug out shards of pottery and animal bones from the Durrington Walls area that are possible remains of the feasts the Neolithic people used to have.
“These have provided an immense amount of information," Craig told the outlet. Scientists were able to extract waxes, oils, and fats that had seeped into the pottery and collected in its pores. These fragments were analyzed by a technique called lipid analysis that determined the presence of specific food items that were consumed by them. "We found the larger pots contained mainly pork,” Craig stated. “However, smaller pots – which were found at different parts of the Durrington Walls site – contained dairy products. We think these milk-based foodstuffs had special significance. They may have been associated with purity or fertility, for example, and were consumed in a special area."
