- Geschwister-Scholl-Platz 1,
D-80539 München
Germany
Robert C Power
University College Dublin, School of Archaeology, Department Member
- Geoarchaeology, Ceramic Analysis (Archaeology), Mesolithic Archaeology, Middle to Upper Paleolithic Transition, Origins of Agriculture, Phytolith Analysis, and 36 moreStarch analysis (Archaeology), Plant foods in hominin dietary ecology, Experimental Archaeology, Archaeobotany, Paleodiet, Phytoliths, Indigenous Agricultural Systems, Dental Calculus, Starch, Neolithic Ireland, Natufian, Archaeology, Material Culture Studies, Near Eastern Archaeology, Ancient Near East, Environmental Archaeology, Levantine Archaeology, Neanderthals (Palaeolithic Archaeology), Iberian Prehistory (Archaeology), Residue Analysis (Archaeology), Archeobotany, Subsistance Strategies (Archaeology), Neanderthal subsistence, Natufian culture in the Levant, Hunter-gatherer archaeobotany, Ancient Mediterranean Dietary Practice, History, Prehistoric Archaeology, Human Evolution, Archaeological Science, Stable Isotopes, Archaeological Chemistry, Climate modeling, Human diet, Anthropology, and Mesolithic Irelandedit
- I am a researcher at Ludwig-Maximilians-University Munich. My work is dedicated to exploring the role of diet in huma... moreI am a researcher at Ludwig-Maximilians-University Munich. My work is dedicated to exploring the role of diet in human origins. Much of my work uses plant microremains (e.g. phytoliths) to understand plant consumption in hunter gatherer and early farming societies.edit
availability is in turn governed by changing vegetation cover that hindered or fostered sediment redeposition as a provider of flint from the primary source of the glacial sediments nearby.
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Purpose: Dental calculus forms on teeth during the life of an individual and its investigation can yield information about diet, health status, and environmental pollution. Currently, the analytical techniques used to visualize the... more
Purpose: Dental calculus forms on teeth during the life of an individual and its investigation can yield information about diet, health status, and environmental pollution. Currently, the analytical techniques used to visualize the internal structure of human dental calculus and entrapped inclusions are limited and require destructive sampling, which cannot always be justified. Approach: We used propagation phase-contrast synchrotron radiation micro-computed tomography (PPC-SR-μCT) to non-destructively examine the internal organization of dental calculus, including its microstructure and entrapped inclusions, on both modern and archeological samples. Results: The virtual histological exploration of the samples shows that PPC-SR-μCT is a powerful approach to visualize the internal organization of dental calculus. We identified several important features, including previously undetected negative imprints of enamel and dentine growth markers (perikymata and periradicular bands, respectively), the non-contiguous structure of calculus layers with multiple voids, and entrapped plant remains. Conclusions: PPC-SR-μCT is an effective technique to explore dental calculus structural organization, and is especially powerful for enabling the identification of inclusions. The non-destructive nature of synchrotron tomography helps protect samples for future research. However, the irregular layers and frequent voids reveal a high heterogeneity and variability within calculus, with implications for research focusing on inclusions.
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In recent years, new applications of microremain dietary analysis using dental calculus as a source of dietary data on ancient human subsistence and behaviours have accelerated. The dental calculus of contemporary human and non-human... more
In recent years, new applications of microremain dietary analysis using dental calculus as a source of dietary data on ancient human subsistence and behaviours have accelerated. The dental calculus of contemporary human and non-human populations with known diets have been used as reference datasets, including the chimpanzees of Taï National Park (Côte d'Ivoire), but explaining the preservation mechanism involved is challenged by our incomplete knowledge of the microremain content within the diets of these reference populations and our rudimentary information on microremain incorporation into dental calculus. Here, we analyse phytoliths in faecal samples to assess to what extent plant phytoliths of a diet are reflected in the dental calculus as well as in the egested faeces. In this study, we identify and document the faecal phytolith assemblages as an indicator of plant consumption in two Western chimpanzees of the Taï National Park (Côte d'Ivoire) before (wet season), during (dry season) and after (dry season) a dust-rich period. Moreover, observational dietary records of these two individuals were compiled to improve the interpretability of this dental calculus phytolith dataset. The faecal phytolith assemblages vary significantly across samples in terms of abundance and diversity. The most common phytolith morphotypes were eudicot plates, single-cell and multi-cell tracheids, monocot rugulose and echinate spheroids and, to a lesser extent, unspecified thick and thin elongates. High loads of grit and other micro-remains (e.g. diatoms) are found during the dry period. Using observational dietary records as a starting point and our faecal results as a terminus, we consider how dental calculus can accumulate phytoliths. Our findings enable identification of the phytolith morphotypes that are under-represented in dental calculus, which is highly informative for future dental calculus research strategies.
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Africa hosts the greatest human genetic diversity globally, but legacies of ancient population interactions and dispersals across the continent remain understudied. Here, we report genome-wide data from 20 ancient sub-Saharan African... more
Africa hosts the greatest human genetic diversity globally, but legacies of ancient population interactions and dispersals across the continent remain understudied. Here, we report genome-wide data from 20 ancient sub-Saharan African individuals, including the first reported ancient DNA from the DRC, Uganda, and Botswana. These data demonstrate the contraction of diverse, once contiguous hunter-gatherer populations, and suggest the resistance to interaction with incoming pastoralists of delayed-return foragers in aquatic environments. We refine models for the spread of food producers into eastern and southern Africa, demonstrating more complex trajectories of admixture than previously suggested. In Botswana, we show that Bantu ancestry post-dates admixture between pastoralists and foragers, suggesting an earlier spread of pastoralism than farming to southern Africa. Our findings demonstrate how processes of migration and admixture have markedly reshaped the genetic map of sub-Saharan Africa in the past few millennia and highlight the utility of combined archaeological and archaeogenetic approaches.
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Consuming the milk of other species is a unique adaptation of Homo sapiens, with implications for health, birth spacing and evolution. Key questions nonetheless remain regarding the origins of dairying and its relationship to the... more
Consuming the milk of other species is a unique adaptation of Homo sapiens, with implications for health, birth spacing and evolution. Key questions nonetheless remain regarding the origins of dairying and its relationship to the genetically-determined ability to drink milk into adulthood through lactase persistence (LP). As a major centre of LP diversity, Africa is of significant interest to the evolution of dairying. Here we report proteomic evidence for milk consumption in ancient Africa. Using liquid chromatography tandem mass spectrometry (LC-MS/MS) we identify dairy proteins in human dental calculus from northeastern Africa, directly demonstrating milk consumption at least six millennia ago. Our findings indicate that pastoralist groups were drinking milk as soon as herding spread into eastern Africa, at a time when the genetic adaptation for milk digestion was absent or rare. Our study links LP status in specific ancient individuals with direct evidence for their consumption of dairy products.
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Neanderthals are known primarily from their habitation of Western Eurasia, but they also populated large expanses of Northern Asia for thousands of years. Owing to a sparse archaeological record, relatively little is known about these... more
Neanderthals are known primarily from their habitation of Western Eurasia, but they also populated large expanses of Northern Asia for thousands of years. Owing to a sparse archaeological record, relatively little is known about these eastern Neanderthal populations. Unlike in their western range, there are limited zooarchaeological and paleobotanical studies that inform us about the nature of their subsistence. Here, we perform a combined analysis of carbon and nitrogen stable isotopes on bone collagen and microbotanical remains in dental calculus to reconstruct the diet of eastern Neanderthals at Chagyrskaya Cave in the Altai Mountains of Southern Siberia, Russia. Stable isotopes identify one individual as possessing a high trophic level due to the hunting of large-and medium-sized ungulates, while the analysis of dental calculus also indicates the presence of plants in the diet of this individual and others from the site. These findings indicate eastern Neanderthals may have had broadly similar subsistence patterns to those elsewhere in their range.
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Although the key role of long-distance trade in the transformation of cuisines worldwide has been well-documented since at least the Roman era, the prehistory of the Eurasian food trade is less visible. In order to shed light on the... more
Although the key role of long-distance trade in the transformation of cuisines worldwide has been well-documented since at least the Roman era, the prehistory of the Eurasian food trade is less visible. In order to shed light on the transformation of Eastern Mediterra-nean cuisines during the Bronze Age and Early Iron Age, we analyzed microremains and proteins preserved in the dental calculus of individuals who lived during the second millennium BCE in the Southern Levant. Our results provide clear evidence for the consumption of expected staple foods, such as cereals (Triticeae), sesame (Sesamum), and dates (Phoenix). We additionally report evidence for the consumption of soybean (Glycine), probable banana (Musa), and turmeric (Curcuma), which pushes back the earliest evidence of these foods in the Mediterranean by centuries (turmeric) or even millennia (soybean). We find that, from the early second millennium onwards, at least some people in the Eastern Mediterranean had access to food from distant locations, including South Asia, and such goods were likely consumed as oils, dried fruits, and spices. These insights force us to rethink the complexity and intensity of Indo-Mediterranean trade during the Bronze Age as well as the degree of globalization in early Eastern Mediterranean cuisine. proteomics | Bronze Age | Eastern Mediterranean | spice trade | early globalization
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Shotgun metagenomics applied to archaeological feces (paleofeces) can bring new insights into the composition and functions of human and animal gut microbiota from the past. However, paleofeces often undergo physical distortions in... more
Shotgun metagenomics applied to archaeological feces (paleofeces) can bring new insights into the composition and functions of human and animal gut microbiota from the past. However, paleofeces often undergo physical distortions in archaeological sediments, making their source species difficult to identify on the basis of fecal morphology or microscopic features alone. Here we present a reproducible and scalable pipeline using both host and microbial DNA to infer the host source of fecal material. We apply this pipeline to newly sequenced archaeological How to cite this article
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Three piles of shoots, leaves, and pods were discovered in the Zagunluk cemetery (about AD 100-400 based on 14C dating), Xinjiang, NW China. Morphological characteristics assigned the specimens to Medicago sativa L. (alfalfa). The... more
Three piles of shoots, leaves, and pods were discovered in the Zagunluk cemetery (about AD 100-400 based on 14C dating), Xinjiang, NW China. Morphological characteristics assigned the specimens to Medicago sativa L. (alfalfa). The preserved condition of alfalfa remains unambiguously indicate that the plant was of great economic importance and used as hay fodder at that time. This study provides the first systematic archeobotanical data about the forage utilization of alfalfa and the earliest relevant physical material so far known in China. Our results also help us to understand the dispersal of alfalfa across the Eurasia via the southern Xinjiang region and the cultural exchange information between China and the West.
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Occupation of the humid tropics by Late Holocene food producers depended on the use of vegetative agricultural systems. A small number of vegetative crops from the Americas and Asia have come to dominate tropical agriculture globally in... more
Occupation of the humid tropics by Late Holocene food producers depended on the use of vegetative agricultural systems. A small number of vegetative crops from the Americas and Asia have come to dominate tropical agriculture globally in these warm and humid environments, due to their ability to provide reliable food output with low labour inputs, as well as their suitability to these environments. The prehistoric arrival in Africa of Southeast Asian crops, in particular banana, taro and greater yam but also sugar cane and others, is commonly regarded as one of the most important examples of transcontinental exchanges in the tropics. Although chronologies of food-producer expansions in Central Africa are increasingly gaining resolution, we have very little evidence for the agricultural systems used in this region. Researchers have recovered just a handful of examples of archaeobotanical banana, taro and sugar cane remains, and so far none from greater yam. Many of the suggested dispersal routes have not been tested with chronological, ecological and linguistic evidence of food producers. While the impact of Bantu-speaking people has been emphasised, the role of non-Bantu farmers speaking Ubangi and Central Sudanic languages who have expanded from the (north)east has hardly been considered. This article will review the current hypotheses on dispersal routes and suggest that transmissions via Northeast Africa should become a new focus of research on the origins of Asian vegeculture crops in Africa.
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Archaeologists have suggested that subsistence is central to understanding the population trajectory of Middle Paleolithic Neanderthals and Upper Paleolithic modern humans in western Eurasia. Zooarchaeology and stable isotope data have... more
Archaeologists have suggested that subsistence is central to understanding the population trajectory of Middle Paleolithic Neanderthals and Upper Paleolithic modern humans in western Eurasia. Zooarchaeology and stable isotope data have revealed that hunting supplied most of the protein requirements for Middle Paleolithic Neanderthals and early Upper Paleolithic modern humans. However, the application of dental wear, archaeobotany, and other techniques have shown that plants were an important part of the diet in both Middle and Upper Paleolithic societies in warm and cool regions of western Eurasia. Some lines of evidence have indicated that both groups potentially used a relatively similar range of plants even though this contradicts expectations from optimal foraging theory and diet breadth models positing that Middle Paleolithic societies used fewer plant foods. In this contribution, we identify evidence for increases in the use of Upper Paleolithic processing of plant foods in western Eurasia. We propose that increases in human population density throughout the Upper Paleolithic and especially during the late glacial period were supported by the more frequent use of plant food processing technologies, rather than the use of new plant food taxa.
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The Natufian culture marks a dramatic shift in the cultural evolution of our species, the shift from mobile to sedentary communities. Within this framework, analysis of their use of plants is pivotal for social and economic... more
The Natufian culture marks a dramatic shift in the cultural evolution of our species, the shift from mobile to sedentary communities. Within this framework, analysis of their use of plants is pivotal for social and economic reconstruction. While most researchers believe the Natufians collected the grains of grasses, little direct evidence (e.g. macrobotanical remains) has been found. This current study uses phytoliths (opal silica bodies) to interpret Late Natufian plant use at Raqefet Cave (Mt. Carmel, Israel). We analyzed a wide range of sediment samples for microbotanical phytoliths remains. This analysis, of an assemblage of 35 samples, was aimed at exposing plant use at the site both in burial contexts and hewn bedrock features (e.g. mortars, cupmarks).
The results indicate economic use of grass seeds, including both small-seeded varieties and large-seeded grasses such as barley and wheat. They also suggest an opportunistic approach to grass seed collection. Phytoliths found in the burials of Homo 19 and Homo 22 may be the remnants of a final meal. The phytolith assemblages from burial contexts also show abundant morphotypes from dicotyledons that are rare elsewhere in the cave. The evidence suggests that a multi-species layer of vegetation including flowering plants and Phragmites lined the graves, accompanying the dead. This adds new insights to the range of known Late Natufian mortuary practices.
The results indicate economic use of grass seeds, including both small-seeded varieties and large-seeded grasses such as barley and wheat. They also suggest an opportunistic approach to grass seed collection. Phytoliths found in the burials of Homo 19 and Homo 22 may be the remnants of a final meal. The phytolith assemblages from burial contexts also show abundant morphotypes from dicotyledons that are rare elsewhere in the cave. The evidence suggests that a multi-species layer of vegetation including flowering plants and Phragmites lined the graves, accompanying the dead. This adds new insights to the range of known Late Natufian mortuary practices.
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Since the birth of archaeology, ceramics have maintained a dominant yet arguably underutilised role in archaeology. Trends in the discipline have largely fixated on pottery as a proxy to examine material culture change. This is despite... more
Since the birth of archaeology, ceramics have maintained a dominant yet arguably underutilised role in archaeology. Trends in the discipline have largely fixated on pottery as a proxy to examine material culture change. This is despite the plethora of data which now may be extracted from ceramic vessels following the expansion of archaeological science. Due to archaeological theoretical developments and the increasing diversity from new artefact finds the role of potteries in interpretation has being shrouded in ambiguity. In this framework engagement of questions of core territory area, diet and subsistence patterns offer the best opportunity for elucidating past cultures. Indeed this research approach is encouraged by the advance of innovations in archaeological science such as residue analysis and vessel fabric analysis.
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Flowering plants possess mechanisms that stimulate positive emotional and social responses in humans. It is difficult to establish when people started to use flowers in public and ceremonial events because of the scarcity of relevant... more
Flowering plants possess mechanisms that stimulate positive emotional and social responses in humans. It is difficult to establish when people started to use flowers in public and ceremonial events because of the scarcity of relevant evidence in the archaeological record. We report on uniquely preserved 13,700–11,700-y-old grave linings made of flowers, suggesting that such use began much earlier than previously thought. The only potentially older instance is the questionable use of flowers in the Shanidar IV Neanderthal grave. The earliest cemeteries (ca. 15,000–11,500 y ago) in the Levant are known from Natufian sites in northern Israel, where dozens of burials reflect a wide range of inhumation practices. The newly discovered flower linings were found in four Natufian graves at the burial site of Raqefet Cave, Mt. Carmel, Israel. Large identified plant impressions in the graves include stems of sage and other Lamiaceae (Labiatae; mint family) or Scrophulariaceae (figwort family) species; accompanied by a plethora of phytoliths, they provide the earliest direct evidence now known for such preparation and decoration of graves. Some of the plant species attest to spring burials with a strong emphasis on colorful and aromatic flowers. Cave floor chiseling to accommodate the desired grave location and depth is also evident at the site. Thus, grave preparation was a sophisticated planned process, embedded with social and spiritual meanings reflecting a complex preagricultural society undergoing profound changes at the end of the Pleistocene.
Research Interests: Archaeology, Archaeobotany, Archaeology of Ancient Israel, Symbolism, Archaeology of Religion, and 11 moreFunerary Archaeology, Middle East Anthropology, Phytolith Analysis, Origins of Agriculture, Death and Burial (Archaeology), Ancient Near East, Anthropology of Death, Mortuary archaeology, Archaeology of death and burial, Natufian, and Flowers
During recent decades, Neanderthal diet has been a major research topic in palaeoanthropology. This has been accelerated by the maturation of different techniques, which have produced a plethora of new information. However, this... more
During recent decades, Neanderthal diet has been a major research topic in palaeoanthropology. This has been accelerated by the maturation of different techniques, which have produced a plethora of new information. However, this proliferation of data has led to confusing and contradictory results. Furthermore, most of the ecological dietary studies have been carried out on specimens drawn from different time periods and regions, almost exclusively those characterized by cold, open environmental conditions. Subsistence models based on these fragmentary data have been applied to Neanderthals living in a variety of different regions and environments, even though their dietary strategies may have been as variable as regions they inhabited. In this paper we integrate different dietary approaches (studies of the zooarchaeology, stable isotopes and plant remains) from the central and southeastern Mediterranean coast of Iberia in order to develop a broader and more complex picture of Neanderthal diet in different Mediterranean environmental conditions. Our results suggest that there may have been some minor dietary variation due to climatic or environmental differences, but that Neanderthal diet focussed on large terrestrial game, supplemented by plant foods when these were available.
Research Interests: Zooarchaeology, Archaeobotany, Environmental Archaeology, Paleodiet, Neanderthals (Palaeolithic Archaeology), and 11 moreArqueología, Middle Palaeolithic, Neandertales, Stable Isotopes and Palaeodiet, Arqueozoología, Paleolítico, Neanderthal subsistence, Palaeolithic Zooarchaeology, Palaeoethnobotany, Achelense, and Musteriense
Dental calculus is increasingly recognized as a major reservoir of dietary information. Palaeodietary studies using plant and animal micro remains (e.g. phytoliths, pollen, sponge spicules, and starch grains) trapped in calculus have the... more
Dental calculus is increasingly recognized as a major reservoir of dietary information. Palaeodietary studies using plant and animal micro remains (e.g. phytoliths, pollen, sponge spicules, and starch grains) trapped in calculus have the potential to revise our knowledge of the dietary role of plants in past populations. The conventional methods used to isolate and identify these micro remains rely on removing them from their microenvironment in the calculus, thus the microenvironment that traps and preserves micro remains is not understood.
By using scanning electron microscopy and energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (SEMeEDX) on modern chimpanzee calculus from the Taï Forest, Côte d’Ivoire, and human calculus from the Chalcolithic site of Camino del Molino, Spain, we present the first reported observations on characteristics of the matrix setting that are conducive to the survival of starch in dental calculus. We also assess the potential for SEM-EDX to detect starch and differentiate it from structurally and molecularly similar substrates. We demonstrate that SEM-EDX may offer a non destructive technique for studying micro remains in certain contexts. Finally, we compare traditional optical analytical techniques (OM) with less invasive electron microscopy. The results indicate that SEM-EDX and OM are both effective for observing micro remains in calculus, but differ in their analytical resolution to identify different micro remains, and we therefore recommend a sequential use of both techniques.
By using scanning electron microscopy and energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (SEMeEDX) on modern chimpanzee calculus from the Taï Forest, Côte d’Ivoire, and human calculus from the Chalcolithic site of Camino del Molino, Spain, we present the first reported observations on characteristics of the matrix setting that are conducive to the survival of starch in dental calculus. We also assess the potential for SEM-EDX to detect starch and differentiate it from structurally and molecularly similar substrates. We demonstrate that SEM-EDX may offer a non destructive technique for studying micro remains in certain contexts. Finally, we compare traditional optical analytical techniques (OM) with less invasive electron microscopy. The results indicate that SEM-EDX and OM are both effective for observing micro remains in calculus, but differ in their analytical resolution to identify different micro remains, and we therefore recommend a sequential use of both techniques.
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The ecology of Neanderthals is a pressing question in the study of hominin evolution. Diet appears to have played a prominent role in their adaptation to Eurasia. Based on isotope and zooarchaeological studies, Neanderthal diet has been... more
The ecology of Neanderthals is a pressing question in the study of hominin evolution. Diet appears to have played a prominent role in their adaptation to Eurasia. Based on isotope and zooarchaeological studies, Neanderthal diet has been reconstructed as heavily meat-based and generally similar across different environments. This image persists, despite recent studies suggesting more plant use and more variation. However, we have only a fragmentary picture of their dietary ecology, and how it may have varied among habitats, because we lack broad and environmentally representative information about their use of plants and other foods. To address the problem, we examined the plant microremains in Neanderthal dental calculus from five archaeological sites representing a variety of environments from the northern Balkans, and the western, central and eastern Mediterranean. The recovered microremains revealed the consumption of a variety of non-animal foods, including starchy plants. Using a modelling approach, we explored the relationships among microremains and environment, while controlling for chronology. In the process we compared the effectiveness of various diversity metrics and their shortcomings for studying microbotanical remains, which are often morphologically redundant for identification. We developed Minimum Botanical Units as a new way of estimating of how many plant types or parts are present in a microbotanical sample. In contrast to some previous work, we find no evidence that plant use is confined to the southern-most areas of Neanderthal distribution. Although the interpreting ecogeographic variation is limited by the incomplete preservation of dietary microremains, it is clear that plant exploitation was a widespread and deeply rooted Neanderthal subsistence strategy even if they were predominately game hunters. Given the limited dietary variation across Neanderthal range in time and space in both plant and animal food exploitation, we argue that vegetal consumption was a feature of a generally static dietary niche
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Dental calculus (calcified dental plaque) is a source of multiple types of data on life history. Recent research has targeted the plant microremains preserved in this mineralised deposit as a source of dietary and health information for... more
Dental calculus (calcified dental plaque) is a source of multiple types of data on life history. Recent research has targeted the plant microremains preserved in this mineralised deposit as a source of dietary and health information for recent and past populations. However, it is unclear to what extent we can interpret behaviour from microremains. Few studies to date have directly compared the microremain record from dental calculus to dietary records, and none with long-term observation dietary records, thus limiting how we can interpret diet, food acquisition and behaviour. Here we present a high-resolution analysis of calculus microremains from wild chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes verus) of Taï National Park, Côte d’Ivoire. We test microremain assemblages against more than two decades of field behavioural observations to establish the ability of calculus to capture the composition of diet. Our results show that some microremain classes accumulate as long-lived dietary markers. Phytolith abundance in calculus can reflect the proportions of plants in the diet, yet this pattern is not true for starches. We also report microremains can record information about other dietary behaviours, such as the age of weaning and learned food processing techniques like nut-cracking.
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Despite more than a century of detailed investigation of the Magdalenian period in Northern Iberia, our understanding of the diets during this period is limited. Methodologies for the reconstruction of Late Glacial subsistence strategies... more
Despite more than a century of detailed investigation of the Magdalenian period in Northern Iberia, our understanding of the diets during this period is limited. Methodologies for the reconstruction of Late Glacial subsistence strategies have overwhelmingly targeted animal exploitation, thus revealing only a
portion of the dietary spectrum. Retrieving food debris from calculus offers a means to provide missing information on other components of diet.We undertook analysis of human dental calculus samples from Magdalenian individuals (including the “Red Lady”) at El Miron Cave (Cantabria, Spain), as well as several control samples, to better understand the less visible dietary components. Dental calculus yielded a diverse assemblage of microremains from plant, fungal, animal and mineral sources that may provide data on diet and environment. The types of microremains show that the individuals at El Miron consumed a variety of plants, including seeds and underground storage organs, as well as other foods, including possibly bolete mushrooms. These findings suggest that plant and plant-like foods were parts of local diet, supplementing staples derived from animal foods. As faunal evidence suggests that the Magdalenian Cantabrian diet included a large proportion of animal foods, we argue here for a mixed subsistence pattern.
portion of the dietary spectrum. Retrieving food debris from calculus offers a means to provide missing information on other components of diet.We undertook analysis of human dental calculus samples from Magdalenian individuals (including the “Red Lady”) at El Miron Cave (Cantabria, Spain), as well as several control samples, to better understand the less visible dietary components. Dental calculus yielded a diverse assemblage of microremains from plant, fungal, animal and mineral sources that may provide data on diet and environment. The types of microremains show that the individuals at El Miron consumed a variety of plants, including seeds and underground storage organs, as well as other foods, including possibly bolete mushrooms. These findings suggest that plant and plant-like foods were parts of local diet, supplementing staples derived from animal foods. As faunal evidence suggests that the Magdalenian Cantabrian diet included a large proportion of animal foods, we argue here for a mixed subsistence pattern.
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Archaeoparasitology is increasingly being used as a tool in archaeological research to investigate relationships between past humans, environments, diets and disease. It can be particularly useful in contexts where parasite eggs preserve,... more
Archaeoparasitology is increasingly being used as a tool in archaeological research to investigate relationships between past humans, environments, diets and disease. It can be particularly useful in contexts where parasite eggs preserve, but human and faunal remains do not, including in the identification of disease and/or dietary items otherwise absent from the local archaeological record. We analyzed soil samples from the Late Mesolithic layers of the lake island site of Derragh in County Longford, Ireland. All samples were positive for the presence of Diphyllobothrium sp., an intestinal fish tapeworm that infects humans, causing diphyllobothriasis. Though fish are thought to be a staple food in Mesolithic Ireland, evidence for fishing and subsistence from this period is extremely fragmentary. Similarly, there is little available evidence for disease, primarily due to the lack of human remains. This finding represents the earliest known presence of human-derived parasites in Ireland, the earliest known finding of Diphyllobothrium sp. in Europe and the only finding of the tapeworm from hunter-gatherer contexts. It suggests parasitic infections, particularly those resulting from undercooked food, may be more common in ancient hunter-gatherer populations than previously suspected. The presence of these zoonotic parasites at hunter-gatherer sites can provide important insight into local environments, health and disease, and culinary practices. In locations like Mesolithic Ireland, the presence of parasites may assist in the identification of subsistence activities, such as fishing, and specific prey.
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The Natufian culture was a critical junction in human subsistence, marking the first steps towards sedentism and the domestication of cereals and pulses. The Natufians are known to have collected large seeded grasses (wild barley and... more
The Natufian culture was a critical junction in human subsistence, marking the first steps towards sedentism and the domestication of cereals and pulses. The Natufians are known to have collected large seeded grasses (wild barley and wheat) and small-seeded grasses prior to the onset of cultivation but in most of the Levant little direct evidence of this survives. A variety of stone mortars and mortars carved into bedrock are common on Natufian sites. These were often interpreted as reflecting intensification of cereal or acorn food preparation, though the proposition was rarely tested. This study uses phytoliths to interpret Late Natufian plant-use at Raqefet Cave in southeastern Mount Carmel, Israel. Phytolith analysis focused on 35 samples from bedrock mortars, human burials, and cave floor sediments in the cave. We show that the Late Natufians at Raqefet were consuming both small-grained grasses and wheat and barleys. Our findings also suggest that the mortars did not serve primarily as specialised grass-seed processing implements. There is also evidence the occupants of Raqefet Cave continued to utilise forest resources, even as Late Natufians shifted towards more exploitation of wild grasses elsewhere in the southern Levant.
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Neanderthals are a Late Pleistocene hominin adapted to cool high-latitudes environments. Popular views on how Neanderthals adapted to these environments have changed over time. While once thought of as a largely scavenging hominin,... more
Neanderthals are a Late Pleistocene hominin adapted to cool high-latitudes environments. Popular views on how Neanderthals adapted to these environments have changed over time. While once thought of as a largely scavenging hominin, Neanderthals are now accepted to be competent hunters who sourced a major part of their nutrition from ungulates. Neanderthal diet appears to be highly terrestrial but there are difficulties ruling out a contribution of marine foods in many regions. While the important role of large and medium ungulates in debates about Neanderthal diet has largely been settled, recent discussions about Neanderthal diet have explored the extent of their diet varied, the role of minor foods (plant, small mammal and marine foods) and dietary flexibility.
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Shotgun metagenomics applied to archaeological feces (paleofeces) can bring new insights into the composition and functions of human and animal gut microbiota from the past. However, paleofeces often undergo physical distortions in... more
Shotgun metagenomics applied to archaeological feces (paleofeces) can bring new insights into the composition and functions of human and animal gut microbiota from the past. However, paleofeces often undergo physical distortions in archaeological sediments, making their source species difficult to identify on the basis of fecal morphology or microscopic features alone. Here we present a reproducible and scalable pipeline using both host and microbial DNA to infer the host source of fecal material. We apply this pipeline to newly sequenced archaeological specimens and show that we are able to distinguish morphologically similar human and canine paleofeces, as well as non-fecal sediments, from a range of archaeological contexts.
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Although in popular imagination oceans are often seen as barriers, in archaeology oceans tend to be understood as connectors of different human societies. For thousands of years, oceans were highways of trade, migration and diffusion that... more
Although in popular imagination oceans are often seen as barriers, in archaeology oceans tend to be understood as connectors of different human societies. For thousands of years, oceans were highways of trade, migration and diffusion that facilitated some of the most important cultural transitions in human history. One of the most tangible traces of these ancient connections is the foods people eat and the languages they speak. Botanical research shows many crops that are hugely important in Africa derive from wild progenitors that must have been domesticated in Asia, while many Asian staples must have domesticated initially in Africa. Some of these crops dispersal broadly followed population movements, which are potentially contemporaneous but many poorly understood examples clearly do not. This talk will highlight how new scientific methods of analysis are allowing researchers to question how and when these interactions occurred. Growing evidence suggests that very different types of societies (forager-farmer-pastoralist) interacted more than once believed and transoceanic movements were more complex than previously thought.
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Reconstructing hominin diets is hindered by biases in the methods used to recover dietary information, and by our narrow interpretations of modern forager behavior. A better understanding of these limitations necessitates re-examination... more
Reconstructing hominin diets is hindered by biases in the methods used to recover dietary information, and by our narrow interpretations of modern forager behavior. A better understanding of these limitations necessitates re-examination of dietary evidence in the archaeological record. Zooarchaeological and stable isotope data suggest that medium and large game dominated the diets of Middle and Upper Paleolithic foragers, and environmental reconstructions indicate that energetic returns from large game far exceeded returns from plants and smaller animals. Yet our studies of
dental calculus from several Paleolithic populations demonstrate consumption of starchy plant foods.
Furthermore, our data on plant food consumption among Hadza foragers of Tanzania and Twe foragers-horticulturalists of Namibia demonstrate that 1) caloric and biological value (digestibility) of plant foods are not always predictive of foraging strategy, and 2) microfossils in dental calculus present an incomplete record of plant consumption. These results indicate that we continue to underestimate the importance and presence of plants in ancient diets. We suggest that calories must have come from both plant and animal origin in Paleolithic Eurasia, not only to enable macronutrient balance, but also to ensure acquisition of essential micronutrients in the diet despite the lower energetic returns of plant food resources
dental calculus from several Paleolithic populations demonstrate consumption of starchy plant foods.
Furthermore, our data on plant food consumption among Hadza foragers of Tanzania and Twe foragers-horticulturalists of Namibia demonstrate that 1) caloric and biological value (digestibility) of plant foods are not always predictive of foraging strategy, and 2) microfossils in dental calculus present an incomplete record of plant consumption. These results indicate that we continue to underestimate the importance and presence of plants in ancient diets. We suggest that calories must have come from both plant and animal origin in Paleolithic Eurasia, not only to enable macronutrient balance, but also to ensure acquisition of essential micronutrients in the diet despite the lower energetic returns of plant food resources
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
The disappearance of the Neanderthal populations of Western Eurasia following the arrival of Modern Humans is poorly understood. Some models suggest that the Neanderthal’s narrower diet may have been a competitive disadvantage that was a... more
The disappearance of the Neanderthal populations of Western Eurasia following the arrival of Modern Humans is poorly understood. Some models suggest that the Neanderthal’s narrower diet may have been a competitive disadvantage that was a factor in their demise. Until recently there is limited data available on Neanderthal dietary breadth, particularly about plant foods.
The Neanderthals from southern Europe are less widely-understood than their more northern counterparts, though there is evidence that they persisted late in this area and likely had access to a wider spectrum of dietary resources. However, the vegetal component of diet in Palaeolithic Western Mediterranean is almost entirely unknown.
We analysed the plant microremains (phytoliths and starch grains) preserved in dental calculus and on stone tools in order to assess the vegetal component of the diet at Sima de las Palomas in southeastern Iberia. Our results provide the first direct evidence of plant consumption within a range of niches in Middle Palaeolithic Western Mediterranean, which may influence our understanding of the behavioural variation among Neanderthal groups.
The Neanderthals from southern Europe are less widely-understood than their more northern counterparts, though there is evidence that they persisted late in this area and likely had access to a wider spectrum of dietary resources. However, the vegetal component of diet in Palaeolithic Western Mediterranean is almost entirely unknown.
We analysed the plant microremains (phytoliths and starch grains) preserved in dental calculus and on stone tools in order to assess the vegetal component of the diet at Sima de las Palomas in southeastern Iberia. Our results provide the first direct evidence of plant consumption within a range of niches in Middle Palaeolithic Western Mediterranean, which may influence our understanding of the behavioural variation among Neanderthal groups.
Research Interests:
The emergence of Neolithic societies was transformative, impacting many aspects of life, particularly diet. The process of Neolithization in Iberia is increasingly understood as the arrival of new people from the Central Mediterranean,... more
The emergence of Neolithic societies was transformative, impacting many aspects of life, particularly diet. The process of Neolithization in Iberia is increasingly understood as the arrival of new people from the Central Mediterranean, who dispersed along the Iberian coasts introducing cereal production, herding, and Cardial pottery and associated material culture. Although research has clarified aspects of the cultigen-dominated economy of these new people, questions remain due to the limitations of conventional archaeobotanical and archaeozoological methods that tend to produce indirect evidence. The extent to which these early farmers adopted Mesolithic staples, which are often difficult to detect with other methods, remains unclear. Furthermore, questions surround the nature of methods of food preparation Cardial Neolithic people used when incorporating grains into their diet. In this study, we examined direct evidence of the diet from the Iberian Cardial Neolithic site of Cova Bonica (Vallirana, Baix Llobregat, Catalonia) using CN stable isotopes on bone and plant microremains trapped in dental calculus from six human individuals and associated fauna. Isotopes show a diet based on terrestrial C3 resources, with no isotopic evidence of aquatic or C4 resource consumption. Plant microremains (starches and phytoliths) provide evidence of cereal use, as well as of other plant foods. However, perhaps due to Bonica’s early farmers’ choice of grain variety, their grain processing methods, or due to specific dental calculus formation factors, the grain assemblages are rather limited and provide scarce information on food preparation.
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This paper presents the earliest evidence for the exploitation of lignite (brown coal) in Europe and sheds new light on the use of combustion fuel sources in the 2nd millennium BCE Eastern Mediterranean. We applied Thermal... more
This paper presents the earliest evidence for the exploitation of lignite (brown coal) in Europe and sheds new light on the use of combustion fuel sources in the 2nd millennium BCE Eastern Mediterranean. We applied Thermal Desorption/Pyrolysis–Gas Chromatography-Mass Spectrometry and Polarizing Microscopy to the dental calculus of 67 individuals and we identified clear evidence for combustion markers embedded within this calculus. In contrast to the scant evidence for combustion markers within the calculus samples from Egypt, all other individuals show the inhalation of smoke from fires burning wood identified as Pinaceae, in addition to hardwood, such as oak and olive, and/or dung. Importantly, individuals from the Palatial Period at the Mycenaean citadel of Tiryns and the Cretan harbour site of Chania also show the inhalation of fire-smoke from lignite, consistent with the chemical signature of sources in the northwestern Peloponnese and Western Crete respectively. This first evid...