A Neolithic without dairy? Chemical evidence from the content of ceramics from the Pendimoun rock-shelter (Castellar, France, 5750–5150 BCE)
Introduction
The arrival of farming in the Mediterranean and the nature of the earliest farming communities is a key theme in European prehistory. In the Central and Western Mediterranean, many prehistorians now dismiss simple models of demic diffusion (Ammerman and Cavalli-Sforza, 1973) in favour of a more complex mosaic where farming dispersed at a non-uniform rate (e.g. Binder et al., 2017, Guilaine and Manen, 2007, Manen et al., 2019). At the heart of understanding of the dispersal of farming is the need to characterise variation in the nature of the earliest Neolithic activity and subsistence practices, as well as interactions, if any, with indigenous hunter-gatherers. Recent analysis of Impresso-Cardial material culture in the Mediterranean reveals great diversity in this respect, for example, in the variety of ceramic decoration (Binder, 2013, Manen et al., 2010), shaping methods (Gomart et al., 2017), in the variability of domestic animal exploitation (Debono Spiteri et al., 2016, Rowley-Conwy et al., 2013) and harvesting technology (Mazzucco et al., 2020). The first Neolithic communities in the North-western Mediterranean settled as pioneer groups across the Liguro-Provencal arc and in Languedoc at the beginning of the 6th millennium BC (Fig. 1). While animal husbandry and cereal agriculture are well attested, exploitation of molluscs and wild fruits also appear to have been a part of the economy. Analyses of faunal assemblages obtained from the earliest well-dated sites of this region (Arene Candide, Pont-de-Roque-Haute), also show that domesticated animals were initially unlikely to have been heavily exploited for their milk (Debono Spiteri et al., 2016), in contrast to pioneer Neolithic settlers in other parts of Europe (Copley et al., 2005, Ethier et al., 2017). Such diversity of practice could be the consequence of multiple interactions between Neolithic populations originating from the Aegean and indigenous hunter-gatherers, but also between different Neolithic groups, as shown by the ancient DNA analysis (aDNA) of these populations (Rivollat et al., 2020).
Many questions are still outstanding. For example, to what degree was early Neolithic Mediterranean economy dependent on wild resources? Does this reflect strong interactions with the surrounding Mesolithic communities, or an adaptation of the pioneer Neolithic groups to the local environment? What was the nature of early animal husbandry practices? When was a fully agrarian economy established in this region?
Analyses of organic residues preserved in ceramics following their use provides an approach to address some of these issues. Organic residue analysis has revealed a strong association of early Neolithic pottery use for processing milk especially in Northern Europe (e.g. Copley et al., 2005, Cramp et al., 2014; Salque et al., 2013), a product that can be unambiguously assigned to animal domestication. More recently, this type of approach has contributed to deconstructing the overly simplistic model of sedentary European Neolithic societies relying solely on the economy of production. Recent work has shown that regional variation in the degree to which dairy products were processed in early Neolithic pottery (Cubas et al., 2020) and that other products that had no relation to the productive economy, such as fish, were also processed (Craig et al., 2011, Cramp et al., 2019). However, very little work has been carried on early pottery of the North-western Mediterranean.
The Pendimoun rock-shelter offers a unique opportunity to study the Neolithisation mechanisms in the North-western Mediterranean through the reconstruction of pottery use by organic residue analysis. Pendimoun is one of the few stratified sites that has yielded Impressa and Cardial material, witnessing both pioneering Neolithic incursions and the permanent establishment of farming communities. A new set of recent dates has provided a reliable and detailed sequence of these occupations (Binder et al., 2017). The Impresso-Cardial pottery assemblage, composed of >200 identified vessels, has recently been subjected to an in-depth interdisciplinary study leading to a very detailed understanding of the assemblage in terms of clay pastes, manufacturing method and decoration (Gabriele, 2014, Gomart et al., 2017). Finally, the site is conveniently situated to study the interactions between local Mesolithic populations, occupying the highlands, and Neolithic groups settling along the coast. Organic remains mainly support an agropastoral Neolithic economy, with the predominance of domestic sheep and domesticated cereals (Binder et al., 2020, Delhon et al., 2020, Rowley-Conwy et al., 2013). Excavation of the site also revealed the presence of rocky marine shellfish, fruits and nuts (e.g. acorns, hazelnuts) and some exploitation of wild animals; evidence that collection and hunting activities continued in parallel with the productive economy (Binder et al., 2020).
Since the Mediterranean area is known for poor preservation of organic matter associated with ceramic vessels (e.g. Debono Spiteri, 2012), the first aim of these investigations was to assess the degree of lipid preservation in the Impressa and Cardial pottery at the Pendimoun rock-shelter. Following this objective, we aimed to determine whether hunted, gathered or fished resources (mainly marine products, which are easily identified by organic residue analysis) were used in ceramics, or whether pottery was exclusively dedicated to processing produced foods (i.e. domesticated animal carcass fats, dairy products and cereals).
Section snippets
Archaeological site and pottery assemblage
The Pendimoun rock-shelter is located in the municipality of Castellar in the Alpes-Maritimes (France) at an altitude of about 690 m on a limestone massif, less than one kilometre from the Italian border (Barral, 1958, Binder et al., 1993). Its sedimentary sequence extends from the Epipalaeolithic to the historical periods, with a particularly well-developed stratigraphic sequence between the 6th and 3rd millennia BC.
The site was first excavated by L. Barral in 1955 and 1956 (Barral, 1958),
Results
Forty-six of the 52 pottery samples (88%) yielded enough lipids (>10 µg/g) to be interpreted. Fatty acids (palmitic, C16:0 and stearic, C18:0), probably from animal fats were the main compounds extracted, generally in similar amounts (C16:0/C18:0 was between 1 and 1.5 in more than half of the samples; Fig. 3). Small amounts of C16:1 and C18:1 were also present in many samples. Eight samples (AP_0002, AP_0011, AP_0015, AP_0029, AP_0037, AP_0039, AP_0053 and AP_0164) differed from the others in
Identification of products contained in Pendimoun rock-shelter ceramics
Molecular analyses of the content of Pendimoun pottery show a predominance of animal fats, in particular from ruminants (largely predominant saturated fatty acids, linear and branched odd carbon-numbered fatty acids, cholesterol and derivatives, %SSR <76%; Fig. 3a; Lucquin et al., 2016, Regert, 2011). These results are consistent with analyses of faunal assemblages that revealed the predominance of domestic sheep (Raven et al., 1997, Rowley-Conwy et al., 2013). Isotopic values also support the
Conclusion
Analysis of the contents of the early Neolithic ceramics from the Pendimoun rock-shelter demonstrated, on the one hand, that the pottery was mainly used to process and consume livestock products, particularly ruminants. The fish and shellfish do not appear to have been prepared in pottery, but a contribution of hunting game, such as wild boar, hare or deer, cannot be ruled out. The lack of pottery with a clear dairy signal during the earliest occupation phase of the site contrasts with findings
CRediT authorship contribution statement
Léa Drieu: Conceptualization, Methodology, Formal analysis, Investigation, Visualization, Writing - original draft, Writing -review & editing. Alexandre Lucquin: Investigation, Writing - original draft, Writing -review & editing. Laura Cassard: Investigation, Visualization, Writing - original draft, Writing -review & editing. Sabine Sorin: Investigation, Visualization, Writing - original draft, Writing -review & editing. Oliver E. Craig: Methodology, Resources, Writing - original draft, Writing
Declaration of Competing Interest
The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper.
Acknowledgement
This work is carried out within the framework of the ANR CIMO (ANR-14-CE31-009). We thank Pierre Pradier and Egidio Gonzales for providing us with the modern samples of cereals and animal fats. We are grateful to Marie Balasse and Juliette Knockaert for the fruitful discussion on the periods of birth of caprines and lactation season during the Neolithic. Finally, we would like to thank the two reviewers for their constructive suggestions which helped to improve the quality of this article.
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2023, Journal of Archaeological ScienceResinous deposits in Early Neolithic pottery vessels from the northeast of the Iberian Peninsula
2023, Journal of Archaeological Science: ReportsCitation Excerpt :This figure is in the range of the 30% of vases found at Pendimoun (Drieu et al., 2021), the 14% from studies in Greece and the Balkans (Garnier and Valamoti, 2016; Urem-Kotsou et al., 2018) and the 8% detected at Cueva del Toro (Tarifa-Mateo et al., 2019). Similar to the yields reported by Drieu et al (2021) and Hjulström et al. (2006), only small amounts of diterpenoids were recovered in the vessels, representing a maximum of 9% of the total lipid extract (CS11). Given their occurrence as mixtures and only in minor quantities, an archaeological interpretation of these results must carefully consider the possibility of soil contamination and the possible introduction of diterpenoids from softwood used in cooking fireplaces and kilns (Reber et al., 2018) given the availability of Pinaceae taxa in the Early Neolithic environment.
Pottery forming of the Cardial and Epicardial Neolithic wares: Analysis and systematisation of technological traces from the ceramic productions of Cova del Frare (NE Iberian Peninsula, 5200-4800 BCE)
2022, Journal of Archaeological Science: ReportsCitation Excerpt :Indeed, this technology has also been recognised in more recent chronologies such as the Cardial layers of Abri Pendimoun (5550–5150 cal. BCE) (Drieu et al., 2021), in several sites of the Epicardial horizon from southern France (Languedoc, c. 5200–4800 cal. BCE) (Caro, 2020) and in more remote sites, such as Cueva de El Toro (Málaga, 5280–4780 cal.