Ancient proteins from ceramic vessels at \xc7atalh\xf6y\xfck West reveal the hidden cuisine of early farmers

Jessica Hendy,Oliver E Craig,Ricardo Fernandes,Alexandre Lucquin,Elizabeth Stroud,Camilla Speller,Rosa R Jersie-Christensen,David Orton,Andre C Colonese,Jesper V Olsen,Luke Spindler,Nicole Boivin,Roman Fischer,Jana Anvari,Matthew J Collins,Ingmar Franz,Meaghan Mackie,Eva Rosenstock,Peter F Biehl

doi:10.1038/s41467-018-06335-6

Abstract

The analysis of lipids (fats, oils and waxes) absorbed within archaeological pottery has revolutionized the study of past diets and culinary practices. However, this technique can lack taxonomic and tissue specificity and is often unable to disentangle signatures resulting from the mixing of different food products. Here, we extract ancient proteins from ceramic vessels from the West Mound of the key early farming site of Çatalhöyük in Anatolia, revealing that this community processed mixes of cereals, pulses, dairy and meat products, and that particular vessels may have been reserved for specialized foods (e.g., cow milk and milk whey). Moreover, we demonstrate that dietary proteins can persist on archaeological artefacts for at least 8000 years, and that this approach can reveal past culinary practices with more taxonomic and tissue-specific clarity than has been possible with previous biomolecular techniques.

Highlights

The analysis of lipids absorbed within archaeological pottery has revolutionized the study of past diets and culinary practices
Immunological detection of proteins has been attempted for ceramic artefacts[14,16,17]; this approach is confined to detecting pre-selected proteins of interest and requires the survival of specific target epitopes
Sherds derive from the West Mound (Fig. 1), radiocarbon dated to 6000–5600 cal BC28, a stage within a process of socio-economic change, including a shift from community to household-centred economies, changing patterns of landscape use and a greater diversification in pottery use[29,30,31,32,33,34]

Summary

Introduction

The analysis of lipids (fats, oils and waxes) absorbed within archaeological pottery has revolutionized the study of past diets and culinary practices This technique can lack taxonomic and tissue specificity and is often unable to disentangle signatures resulting from the mixing of different food products. Immunological methods have been superseded by liquid chromatographytandem mass spectrometry (LC-MS/MS), which has been increasingly applied to archaeological materials[18] Such ‘shotgun’ proteomic approaches are able to reveal a wide range of proteins in a sample, can detect fragmented and denatured proteins, and are less impacted by protein degradation. We apply a protein extraction methodology based on Gel-Aided Sample Preparation (GASP) to these deposits, as well as to samples of the inner and outer ceramic wall, and complement this with isotopic and molecular identification of extracted lipids These data reveal mixes of cereals, pulses, dairy and meat products, and a b

Methods

Results

Conclusion