New insights from Neolithic pottery analyses reveal subsistence practices and pottery use in early farmers from Cueva de
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ORIGINAL PAPER
New insights from Neolithic pottery analyses reveal subsistence practices and pottery use in early farmers from Cueva de El Toro (Málaga, Spain) N. Tarifa-Mateo 1 & X. Clop-García 1 & A. Rosell-Melé 2,3 & M. D. Camalich-Massieu 4 & P. Comes-Bordas 2 & D. Martín-Socas 4 & A. Nonza-Micaelli 5 & F. J. Rodríguez-Santos 6 Received: 27 November 2018 / Revised: 15 May 2019 / Accepted: 23 May 2019 # Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature 2019
Abstract Archaeological potsherds have become a valuable source of information about diet and economic practices of past societies. We have studied the organic residues in prehistoric pottery from the Neolithic rock shelter of La Cueva de El Toro (Málaga, Spain) that was continuously occupied from the second quarter of the sixth millennium to the second millennium cal BC. The site of Cueva de El Toro is remarkable because it contains evidence that its inhabitants possessed a high technological level and complex subsistence practices based on the exploitation of livestock and agriculture. By applying gas chromatographic-mass spectrometry (GC-MS) and isotopic analysis (GC-IRMS), the goal was to determine the nature and origin of preserved lipids, and thereby provide new insights into food preparation and pottery function. Detection of fatty acids and traces of diterpene compounds originating from plants suggested a consumption of meat, dairy products and plants, as well as the pine resin utilisation. Furthermore, this work allows extending the data on faunal management and exploitation in Cueva de El Toro. Keywords Neolithic . Andalusia . GC-IRMS . Pottery . Dairy products . Lipids
Introduction The application of chemical analysis techniques to accurately determine the origin of the organic residues of prehistoric pottery has allowed to considerably expand our knowledge Electronic supplementary material The online version of this article (https://doi.org/10.1007/s12520-019-00874-9) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users. * N. Tarifa-Mateo [email protected] 1
Department of Prehistory, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, 08193 Bellaterra, Catalonia, Spain
2
Institut de Ciència i Tecnologia Ambientals (ICTA-UAB), Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, Bellaterra, Catalonia, Spain
3
Institució Catalana de Recerca i Estudis Avançats (ICREA), Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain
4
Department of Geography and History, University of La Laguna, 38200 San Cristóbal de La Laguna, Spain
5
University Pascal Paoli of Corse-UMR CNRS 6240, Lisa, 20250 Corte, France
6
International Institute of Prehistoric Research of Cantabria, University of Cantabria, 39005 Santander, Spain
both on the consumption of different types of food products and on the use of different substances for various purposes. In the last 35 years, an increasing number of studies on pottery residues have shed new light into the daily life of Neolithic farmers in Europe (Regert et al. 1999; Craig 2004; Evershed et al. 2008; Mitkidou et al. 2008; Craig et al. 2011; Ogrinc
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