Project description:Analysis of organic residues from different typologies of ancient funerary pottery found in graves at two archaeological sites of Campania Region in southern Italy and dating back to the age of the Italic populations during the first millennium BC. Several analytical techniques have been exploited. Proteomics was decisive for the characterization of the proteins and the assignment of the species of origin. Samples were encrustations on two bowls of the 3rd-4th century BC unhearted in Capua and one Phoenician-type amphora with unusual shape, found in a grave at the necropolis of the Greek colony in Cuma (7th century BC). Concretions on bowls were identified with the decisive contribution of proteomics as bovine bone. The amphora contained 2,500 years old bovine milk.
Project description:Full mitogenomes in the critically endangered kākāpō reveal major post-glacial and anthropogenic effects on neutral genetic diversity
Project description: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 Mediterranean cuisines during the Bronze and Early Iron Age, we analyzed microremains and proteins preserved in the dental calculus of individuals who lived during the 2nd 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 known availability of these foods in the Mediterranean by centuries (turmeric) or even millennia (soybean). We find that, from the early 2nd millennium onwards, at least some people in the Eastern Mediterranean had access to food from distant locations, including South Asia, and such trade goods likely reached the Eastern Mediterranean in the form of oils, dried fruits, and spices. These novel insights force us to rethink the complexity and intensity of Indo-Mediterranean trade during the Bronze Age and also the degree of globalization in early Eastern Mediterranean cuisine.
2020-12-22 | PXD021498 | Pride
Project description:Paleolithic to Bronze Age Siberians reveal connections with First Americans and across Eurasia
