Transformation of cereal grains: Botanical and chemical analysis of food residues encrusted on pottery from the Funnel Beaker settlement of Oldenburg LA 77, northern Germany.

An integrated botanical and chemical approach is used to study surface residues on Funnel Beaker ceramics from the site of Oldenburg LA 77, in northern Germany. Organic residues were discovered adhering to fragments of thick-walled, undecorated ceramic vessels (n = 19) and ceramic discs (n = 2). The surface residues were studied using scanning electron microscopy (SEM), to examine remains of cereals and other plant tissues that survived food preparation and cooking, and using attenuated total reflectance Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (ATR-FTIR) and direct time-resolved mass spectrometry (DTMS), to chemically identify specific food components.

The origin of Neolithic copper on the central Northern European plain and in Southern Scandinavia: Connectivities on a European scale.

The production, distribution and use of copper objects and the development of metallurgical skills in Neolithic Northern Central Europe and Southern Scandinavia are linked to early centres of copper metallurgy of South East Central Europe and Southeast Europe. A total of 45 Neolithic copper objects, until now the largest sample of Early Neolithic objects from the Northern Central European Plain and Southern Scandinavia, were selected for new lead isotope analyses. They aided in the identification of the origin of the copper: These new analyses indicate that the copper ore deposits in Southeastern Europe, especially from the Serbian mining areas, were used for the Early Neolithic northern artefacts (ca.