Regional and chronological trends in milk use in prehistoric Europe traced through molecular and stable carbon isotope signatures of fatty acyl lipids preserved in pottery vessels

The pottery excavated from archaeological sites contains information relating to food processing and storage in the form of absorbed organic residues, most commonly lipids. Such information can be accessed using chromatographic, spectrometric and, more recently, isotopic methods, to infer the source of the degraded fats that dominate lipid assemblages. Important distinctions can be made between different animal fats, such as non-ruminant and ruminant adipose fats and milk fats. Thus, the study of potsherds can provide insights into the economy and the management of animals within a site or region. One particularly productive avenue of investigation has been the emergence of dairying and the theory of the secondary products revolution. For example, it has recently been shown that the dairying practices were strongly dependent on the region and the presence of cattle in the South Eastern Europe and Near East by the 7th mil. BC (Evershed et al., 2008, Nature) and was a component of agriculture in Britain from the late 5th mil. BC (Copley et al., 2005, Antiquity). This new project is investigating the trends in milk use in less well-studied areas in mainland Europe, addressing questions raised by the latter studies, e.g. How is milk processing linked to the frequency of the lactase persistence gene? What spatial and temporal trends were there in milk use in western Europe? Can milk fats be detected at high frequencies at sites where ovicaprids are dominant in bone assemblages?