Abstract

The Late Neolithic palafitte site, Ustie na Drim, in the northern part of Lake Ohrid (North Macedonia), excavated in 1962, offered ceramic fragments of large, flat, elongated pans. These artifacts could be dated by relative chronology to roughly around 5200–5000 BC. According to their shape and technological traits, the ceramic pans were probably used for baking. The attached materials on the surface of studied pan fragments were sampled for consequent chemical and microscopical analyses (i.e., analyses of starch, phytoliths, and microscopic animal remains). An immunological method revealed the presence of pork proteins in samples. The presence of organic residues of animal origin was, moreover, confirmed by the detection of cholesterol using gas chromatography coupled to mass spectrometry. Analysis of detected microscopic botanical objects revealed starch grains of several plants (i.e., oak, cattail, and grasses). An interesting find was the hair of a beetle larva, which could be interpreted contextually as the khapra beetle, a pest of grain and flour. Based on our data, we suppose that the ceramic pans from Ustie na Drim were used for the preparation of meals containing meat from common livestock in combination with cereals and wild plants.

Highlights

  • Introduction distributed under the terms andOne of the major topics in the contemporary bioarchaeology of artifacts is the investigation of archaeological vessels using the latest instrumental methods of chemical research and the recent tools of archaeobotanical, genetic and microbiological investigation

  • The gas chromatography/mass spectrometry of organic residues attached on the surface of ceramic pans KE1–KE7 revealed a cholesterol signal (Table 1, Figure 1)

  • The presence of cholesterol in all samples was confirmed by the authentic cholesterol standard, retention time, and fragmentation spectrum (Figure 2)

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Summary

Introduction

One of the major topics in the contemporary bioarchaeology of artifacts is the investigation of archaeological vessels using the latest instrumental methods of chemical research and the recent tools of archaeobotanical, genetic and microbiological investigation. Ceramic vessels from the Iron Age in Central Europe have been subjected to chemical research that has revealed the presence of several compounds indicating food remains [7]. Special interest has been focused on analyzing the content of bronze vessels where organic residues could be ‘trapped’ in corrosion products [8,9]. The aim of the research on archaeological vessels is to identify their original function in society and contribute to an understanding of the subsistence principles as well as ritual customs of past human populations [2,10]

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