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Hopper C, Dunne J, Dewar G, Evershed RP. Chemical evidence for milk, meat, and marine resource processing in Later Stone Age pots from Namaqualand, South Africa. Sci Rep 2023; 13:1658. [PMID: 36717644 PMCID: PMC9887072 DOI: 10.1038/s41598-023-28577-1] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/03/2022] [Accepted: 01/20/2023] [Indexed: 01/31/2023] Open
Abstract
The subsistence practices of Later Stone Age (LSA) foragers and herders living in Namaqualand South Africa are often difficult to differentiate based on their archaeological signatures but characterizing their dietary choices is vital to understand the economic importance of domesticates. However, ethnohistoric accounts have provided information on the cooking/boiling of marine mammal fat, mutton, plants, and milk by early herders and foragers across the Western Cape. To further investigate these reports, we use lipid residue analysis to characterize 106 potsherds from four open-air LSA sites, spanning in time from the early first millennium to the late second millennium AD. Two sites (SK2005/057A, SK2006/026) are located on the Atlantic coast whereas sites Jakkalsberg K and Jakkalsberg M are located further inland on the southern bank of the Orange River. Notably, at the coastal sites, the presence of marine biomarkers suggests the intensive and/or specialized processing of marine products in many vessels. The dominance of ruminant carcass products at inland sites and probable sheep remains confirms the importance of stockkeeping. Furthermore, and in good agreement with ethnohistoric accounts for its use, our results provide the first direct chemical evidence for the use of dairy products in LSA western South Africa.
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Affiliation(s)
- Courtneay Hopper
- Department of Anthropology, University of Toronto Scarborough, 1265 Military Trail, Toronto, ON, M1C 1A, Canada. .,School of Environment, University of Toronto, Toronto, Canada.
| | - Julie Dunne
- Organic Geochemistry Unit, School of Chemistry, University of Bristol, Bristol, UK
| | - Genevieve Dewar
- Department of Anthropology, University of Toronto Scarborough, 1265 Military Trail, Toronto, ON, M1C 1A, Canada.,School of Environment, University of Toronto, Toronto, Canada.,Rock Art Research Institute, School of Geography, Archaeology, and Environmental Studies, University of Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa
| | - Richard P Evershed
- Organic Geochemistry Unit, School of Chemistry, University of Bristol, Bristol, UK
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Challis S, Sinclair-Thomson B. The Impact of Contact and Colonization on Indigenous Worldviews, Rock Art, and the History of Southern Africa. CURRENT ANTHROPOLOGY 2022. [DOI: 10.1086/722260] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/06/2022]
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Casanova E, Knowles TDJ, Outram AK, Stear NA, Roffet-Salque M, Zaibert V, Logvin A, Shevnina I, Evershed RP. Direct 14C dating of equine products preserved in archaeological pottery vessels from Botai and Bestamak, Kazakhstan. ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND ANTHROPOLOGICAL SCIENCES 2022; 14:175. [PMID: 35996450 PMCID: PMC9388454 DOI: 10.1007/s12520-022-01630-2] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/18/2022] [Accepted: 07/12/2022] [Indexed: 06/15/2023]
Abstract
UNLABELLED Direct and accurate radiocarbon dating of lipid residues preserved in ceramics is a recently established method that allows direct dating of specific food products and their inception in human subsistence strategies. The method targets individual fatty acids originating from animal fats such as ruminant dairy, ruminant adipose, non-ruminant adipose and aquatic fats. Horse lipid residues found in Central Asian pottery vessels are also directly dateable using this new method. Here we present the identification of equine lipid residues preserved in two pottery assemblages from the Neolithic and Eneolithic in Kazakhstan and their direct 14C dating. The site of Botai, previously radiocarbon-dated to the 4th millennium BC, was used as a reference to evaluate the dates obtained directly on horse lipids. The direct dating of equine products extracted from Botai potsherds are shown to be compatible with previous 14C dates at the site. The site of Bestamak, lacking previous14C measurements, had been relatively dated to the Neolithic based on pottery typologies. The direct dating of equine residues made it possible to anchor the pottery assemblage of Bestamak in the 6th millennium BC confirming their Neolithic attribution. These findings demonstrate the potential for dating horse products through a compound-specific approach, while highlighting challenges in 14C dating individual fatty acids from lipid extracts in which their abundances differ substantially. SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s12520-022-01630-2.
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Affiliation(s)
- Emmanuelle Casanova
- Organic Geochemistry Unit, School of Chemistry, University of Bristol, Cantock’s Close, Bristol, BS81TS UK
- Present Address: UMR7209 Archaeozoology and Archaeobotany, Centre national de la recherche scientifique/Museum National d’Histoire Naturelle, CP56 55 rue Buffon, 75005 Paris, France
| | - Timothy D. J. Knowles
- Organic Geochemistry Unit, School of Chemistry, University of Bristol, Cantock’s Close, Bristol, BS81TS UK
- Bristol Radiocarbon Accelerator Mass Spectrometry Facility, University of Bristol, 43 Woodland Road, Bristol, BS81UU UK
| | - Alan K. Outram
- Department of Archaeology, University of Exeter, Laver Building, North Park Road, Exeter, EX4 4QE UK
| | - Natalie A. Stear
- Organic Geochemistry Unit, School of Chemistry, University of Bristol, Cantock’s Close, Bristol, BS81TS UK
| | - Mélanie Roffet-Salque
- Organic Geochemistry Unit, School of Chemistry, University of Bristol, Cantock’s Close, Bristol, BS81TS UK
| | - Viktor Zaibert
- Institute of Archaeology and Steppe Civilizations, Al-Farabi Kazakh National University, 71 Al-Farabi St, Almaty, Kazakhstan
| | - Andrey Logvin
- Archaeological Laboratory, Kostanay Regional University Named After A. Baitursynov, Baitursynov St., 47, Kostanay, Kazakhstan
| | - Irina Shevnina
- Archaeological Laboratory, Kostanay Regional University Named After A. Baitursynov, Baitursynov St., 47, Kostanay, Kazakhstan
| | - Richard P. Evershed
- Organic Geochemistry Unit, School of Chemistry, University of Bristol, Cantock’s Close, Bristol, BS81TS UK
- Bristol Radiocarbon Accelerator Mass Spectrometry Facility, University of Bristol, 43 Woodland Road, Bristol, BS81UU UK
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Lander F, Russell T. A southern African archaeological database of organic containers and materials, 800 cal BC to cal AD 1500: Possible implications for the transition from foraging to livestock-keeping. PLoS One 2020; 15:e0235226. [PMID: 32639968 PMCID: PMC7343145 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0235226] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/18/2020] [Accepted: 06/10/2020] [Indexed: 11/24/2022] Open
Abstract
Although evidence of organic materials has consistently been reported in the archaeology of southern Africa little attention has been given to how this evidence, so slight in comparison to pottery and lithics, might be used to understand the transition from foraging to livestock-keeping in southern African Archaeology. We have compiled a geo-referenced, radiocarbon database of these organic, material culture remains, with particular reference to containers made of ostrich eggshell, wood, gourd, tortoise shell, twine, and leather over a 2300-year period to capture the periods before and after the appearance of livestock. We have mapped the organic materials for the period 800 cal BC to cal AD 1500 and explored the subsistence base of those who used them. This distribution is compared to that of pottery and livestock remains–conventionally the two archaeological markers of pastoralists. The paper interrogates what this might add to the vexed question of how the practice of livestock-keeping and pottery-making spread into and through the region (the hunter-herder debate). Our analysis suggests that ostrich eggshell containers can be used as a proxy for hunter-gatherers. By comparing areas of bead manufacture with those that have evidence only of bead use, we show the areas to which items may have travelled, along already established hunter-gatherer exchange networks. Our results suggest that hunter-gatherers widely and quickly adopted pottery across southern Africa in a process of cultural diffusion and local innovation, and that this was possibly the main mechanism for the dispersal of livestock at 2100 years ago.
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Affiliation(s)
- Faye Lander
- School of Geography, Archaeology and Environmental Studies, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa
| | - Thembi Russell
- School of Geography, Archaeology and Environmental Studies, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa
- * E-mail:
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