Residue found in bowls reveals what Neolithic people in Europe ate 8000 years ago

Food is essential for survival, and people have long wondered about the diets of our ancient ancestors. With limited resources and fewer developed recipes, their meals were likely simple. According to Science News, protein and food residue from 8,000-year-old ceramic bowls have revealed the dinner menus of Neolithic people.

Agriculture was just beginning during this time. However, the residue indicates that these people knew about cultured dairy products. The analysis of ceramic bowls and jars from a settlement near Çatalhöyük, Turkey, shows they processed milk from sheep, goats, and cows, and ate meat from these animals and deer. They also consumed crops like wheat, barley, vetch, and peas. It's believed that food was often served as soup or porridge. This discovery, revealing that protein can be stored for millennia, offers the most detailed picture yet of ancient diets.

Even before this, researchers had some clue about the food people ate through waste bones, plant remains and the fat residue from vessels. However, the new technique to analyze the contents of the bowl gives far more detail than any other method used before. “Although bones from various animals have previously been found in the settlements as well as traces of milkfat in vessels, this is the first time we have evidence that all three ruminant species known from the bone finds—sheep, goats and cattle—were used for both meat and milk,” Eva Rosenstock from the Institute of Prehistoric Archaeology, Freie Universität Berlin, Germany and the lead researcher behind the study noted.

The study was published in Nature Communications. It has also revealed that people might have been aware of processes to convert dairy into other food items like cheese and yogurt. The conclusion was made based on traces of whey in one of the jars. “Here we have the earliest insight into people doing this kind of milk processing. Researchers have found milk in pottery in earlier times, but what’s exciting about this find and this technique is that we can see actually how people are processing their dairy foods, rather than simply detecting its presence or absence," Jessica Hendy, one of the authors of the study told Smithsonian Mag.

“We would love to use this technique to identify the diverse cuisines of past societies and how culinary traditions have spread around the world,” Hendy expressed. In 2008, protein analysis was used on protein residue in clay pots from the Inupiat of Alaska. There was evidence of seal muscle residue in the pots giving a hint about what the people ate. Rosenstock would like to know if certain food items were eaten together for their nutritional value. For instance, rice and beans are healthier together because of the combination of amino acids as per the outlet. The archaeologist has gotten really interested in ceramics after the finding. However, it is still unknown how long protein can survive on vessels and what facilitates its survival.