Mélanie Roffet-Salque

In recent years, extensive archaeological and laboratory investigations have been conducted at prehistoric sites in southwestern Georgia. The integrated analysis of data obtained through interdisciplinary research has made it possible to develop a clearer understanding of ancient human activities, stone-processing technologies, climatic conditions, mobility patterns, chronology, and other aspects of prehistoric life. Within the assemblage from the Neolithic settlement of Makhvilauri, pottery occupies a prominent place. From a typological perspective, vessel bases are particularly informative, as they clearly preserve traces of use. The present study provides the first comprehensive analysis of the Neolithic ceramic assemblage from Makhvilauri, carried out in laboratories in Georgia and abroad. For this research, two ceramic fragments dated to the 7th-6th millennia BCE were selected. The investigations have made it possible to draw several important preliminary conclusions, which lay the foundation for future research involving a larger number of ceramic samples.

This study details the analysis of an assemblage of Funnel Beaker pottery from Wanna in Northern Germany investigated using petrographic, geochemical, and organic residue analyses. The analyses revealed specialized production of pottery vessels for funerary contexts, but that domestic and funerary pottery were used intensively to process animal products. Dairy fats dominated, underlining the important role of domestic ruminants to the economy of the community at Wanna. Lack of evidence of aquatic resource processing suggests key differences in the dietary habits of the Funnel Beaker West group compared with preceding and neighbouring cultural groups.

The processing of aquatic (marine and freshwater) resources in archaeological pottery is identified through the detection of ω-(o-alkylphenyl)alkanoic acids (APAAs), dihydroxy fatty acids (DHYAs), and isoprenoid fatty acids in preserved lipid residues. Certain biomarkers are considered more diagnostic of aquatic resources, but published methodologies use different combinations of biomarkers as evidence for freshwater resource processing. This study determines the most diagnostic biomarkers of freshwater resource processing in European prehistory. A literature survey compared the fatty acid composition of relevant freshwater and terrestrial species, finding that long chain (≥C20) mono- and polyunsaturated fatty acids occur in higher abundance in freshwater fish, but considerable inter- and intraspecies variation was observed. The occurrence of isoprenoid fatty acids was also investigated through the analysis of modern reference fats and lipids extracted from experimental cooking vessels, demonstrating that 4,8,12-trimethyltetradecanoic acid (TMTD) occurs in freshwater fish, ducks, and mussels, but is not exclusive to aquatic products. Analysis of archaeological and experimental vessels found that various combinations of aquatic biomarkers were detected in extracts derived from freshwater resource processing, and that the most diagnostic biomarkers (≥C20 APAAs/DHYAs) were not consistently detected. Findings are integrated into an interpretive framework for the analysis of archaeological lipid residues and the identification of freshwater resource processing. The results promote a standardised interpretive approach to freshwater resource identification and highlight the limitations of aquatic biomarkers.

Organic residue analysis (ORA) is widely used to investigate lipids preserved in archeological pottery. However, the amount of sample typically involved (2 g) precludes its application to particularly precious, small, or brittle sherds. This paper presents a novel, minimally invasive, protocol to overcome this limitation. By using a thermal separation probe (TSP) coupled to gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS), this approach utilizes thermally assisted hydrolysis and methylation (THM), reducing sample sizes to as little as 1 mg. Testing with standard solutions and modern lipid-doped sherds confirmed that the method enables recovery of fatty acids (FAs) and determination of their carbon isotope compositions. The new approach was then validated using a range of archeological sherds previously analyzed using established liquid extraction-ORA approaches. In addition to fatty acids, other lipid biomarkers such as miliacin and ω-(o-alkylphenyl)alkanoic acids (APAAs) were recovered. With the presented THM method, results comparable to established ORA methods are obtained but, crucially, sample sizes are reduced by nearly 3 orders of magnitude. This widens the application of ORA, for example, by enabling the study of valuable objects, permitting lipid profiling on different areas of one sherd, or serving as a rapid screening method ahead of compound-specific radiocarbon dating.

During the sixth millennium bce, the first farmers of Central Europe rapidly expanded across a varied mosaic of forested environments. Such environments would have offered important sources of mineral-rich animal feed and shelter, prompting the question: to what extent did early farmers exploit forests to raise their herds? Here, to resolve this, we have assembled multi-regional datasets, comprising bulk and compound-specific stable isotope values from zooarchaeological remains and pottery, and conducted cross-correlation analyses within a palaeo-environmental framework. Our findings reveal a diversity of pasturing strategies for cattle employed by early farmers, with a notable emphasis on intensive utilization of forests for grazing and seasonal foddering in some regions. This experimentation with forest-based animal feeds by early farmers would have enhanced animal fertility and milk yields for human consumption, concurrently contributing to the expansion of prehistoric farming settlements and the transformation of forest ecosystems. Our study emphasizes the intricate relationship that existed between early farmers and forested landscapes, shedding light on the adaptive dynamics that shaped humans, animals and environments in the past.

Parchment is an ancient writing support formed from dehaired animal skins. Its manufacture comprises a series of liming and scraping steps before being stretched and dried under tension. Historical parchment represents a valuable source of cultural heritage which, until now, has limited investigations to noninvasive analyses to infer ink composition, degradation, or physical changes over time. We highlight the prospect of the molecular and isotope compositions of animal lipids from parchment as an untapped record of its production and the animal’s diet and environment. We report a minimally invasive, total lipid extraction aided by a vacuum for historical parchments. The quantitative and qualitative compositions of lipid extracts obtained using this method are compared with those obtained using invasive sampling for nine sacrificial membranes dated 1765–1825 CE. This extraction method is then applied to membranes from the Chancery Parliament Rolls (1814–1820 CE) held by The National Archives, UK to obtain lipids and derive taxonomic and dietary information using their stable carbon isotope compositions. This novel vacuum-aided extraction allows, for the first time, animal lipids to be obtained from parchment minimally invasively, paving the way for dietary and paleoclimate studies using this well-dated and common material.