The molecules of meals: new insight into Neolithic foodways

Details of daily life such as food and drink can be difficult to capture in prehistory, especially on an island with a temperate climate and covered mainly by acidic soils: plant remains will only survive through charring or water-logging, whilst animal bone frequently dissolves unless calcined. At the molecular level, however, a host of biochemical and isotopic signatures exist indicating what our prehistoric antecedents ate and drank. The most robust of these biomarkers are lipids, commonly found absorbed into the clay matrix of pottery vessels—the residues of meals sometimes many thousands of years old. The wet, acidic conditions that accelerate the decay of so much prehistoric organic matter fortunately preserve these lipid residues exceedingly well. This paper details the results of a recent programme of molecular and compound-specific stable isotope analysis on lipids from nearly 500 Irish Neolithic vessels, providing unparalleled insights into the diet, and food procurement and processing activities of our earliest farming communities.