Dietary C reservoir effects and the chronology of prehistoric burials at Sakhtysh, central European Russia.

We present a robust radiocarbon (C) chronology for burials at Sakhtysh, in European Russia, where nearly 180 inhumations of Lyalovo and Volosovo pottery-using hunter-gatherer-fishers represent the largest known populations of both groups. Past dating attempts were restricted by poor understanding of dietary C reservoir effects (DREs). We developed a DRE correction approach that uses multiple linear regression of differences in C, δC, and δN between bones and teeth of the same individuals to predict DREs of up to approximately 900 years.

The impact of farming on prehistoric culinary practices throughout Northern Europe.

To investigate changes in culinary practices associated with the arrival of farming, we analysed the organic residues of over 1,000 pottery vessels from hunter-gatherer-fisher and early agricultural sites across Northern Europe from the Lower Rhine Basin to the Northeastern Baltic. Here, pottery was widely used by hunter-gatherer-fishers prior to the introduction of domesticated animals and plants. Overall, there was surprising continuity in the way that hunter-gatherer-fishers and farmers used pottery.

Palaeogenomics of Upper Palaeolithic to Neolithic European hunter-gatherers.

Modern humans have populated Europe for more than 45,000 years. Our knowledge of the genetic relatedness and structure of ancient hunter-gatherers is however limited, owing to the scarceness and poor molecular preservation of human remains from that period. Here we analyse 356 ancient hunter-gatherer genomes, including new genomic data for 116 individuals from 14 countries in western and central Eurasia, spanning between 35,000 and 5,000 years ago.

The transmission of pottery technology among prehistoric European hunter-gatherers.

Human history has been shaped by global dispersals of technologies, although understanding of what enabled these processes is limited. Here, we explore the behavioural mechanisms that led to the emergence of pottery among hunter-gatherer communities in Europe during the mid-Holocene. Through radiocarbon dating, we propose this dispersal occurred at a far faster rate than previously thought.

Novel Deep Eutectic Solvent-Based Protein Extraction Method for Pottery Residues and Archeological Implications.

Proteomic analysis of absorbed residues is increasingly used to identify the foodstuffs processed in ancient ceramic vessels, but detailed methodological investigations in this field remain rare. Here, we present three interlinked methodological developments with important consequences in paleoproteomics: the comparative absorption and identification of various food proteins, the application of a deep eutectic solvent (DES) for extracting ceramic-bound proteins, and the role of database choice in taxonomic identification. Our experiments with modern and ethnoarcheological ceramics show that DES is generally more effective at extracting ceramic-bound proteins than guanidine hydrochloride (GuHCl), and cereal proteins are absorbed and subsequently extracted and identifiedat least as readily as meat proteins.

Correction to 'Organic residue analysis shows sub-regional patterns in the use of pottery by Northern European hunter-gatherers'.

[This corrects the article DOI: 10.1098/rsos.192016.

Organic residue analysis shows sub-regional patterns in the use of pottery by Northern European hunter-gatherers.

The introduction of pottery vessels to Europe has long been seen as closely linked with the spread of agriculture and pastoralism from the Near East. The adoption of pottery technology by hunter-gatherers in Northern and Eastern Europe does not fit this paradigm, and its role within these communities is so far unresolved. To investigate the motivations for hunter-gatherer pottery use, here, we present the systematic analysis of the contents of 528 early vessels from the Baltic Sea region, mostly dating to the late 6th-5th millennium cal BC, using molecular and isotopic characterization techniques.