The researchers found that, despite the onset and rapid move to farming and domestication, humans living in coastal areas still ate a diet rich in fish and other aquatic-based foods.


The cooking pots from these regions contained food residues abundant with a form of carbon commonly found in marine organisms.


Perhaps that isn’t surprising. However, what is interesting is that fish was also a popular food staple for those living further inland, too. Almost one third of the pottery found at sites further from the coast contained residue from aquatic organisms, probably freshwater fish.


“This research provides clear evidence people across the western Baltic continued to exploit marine and freshwater resources despite the arrival of domesticated animals and plants,” says study lead author Dr. Oliver Craig of the Department of Archaeology at York. “Although farming was introduced rapidly across this region, it may not have caused such a dramatic shift from hunter-gatherer life as we previously thought.”


The researchers say this is the <a style="color:black;" href="http://www.pnas.org/content/early/2011/10/19/1107202108.abstract" target="_blank" class="news_link" title="Ancient lipids reveal continuity in culinary practices across the transition to agriculture in Northern Europe">first large-scale study</a> to combine a wide range of molecular evidence and single-compound isotope data, which indicates whether the material processed in ancient ceramics was of terrestrial, marine and freshwater origin. They believe their work provides a template for future investigations into how people used similar cooking vessels in the past.




Source: Voice of America


This 6,000-year-old cooking pot and wooden spoon were recovered from the Amose Bog in Zealand, Denm. (Image courtesy of Anders Fischer)

Hunter-gatherers Stuck Around Longer Than We Thought