The analysis of organic residues associated with archaeological ceramic vessels has been at the forefront of the study of ancient cuisines, providing key insights into the identification of ingredients and how they were processed. Among these, starch analyses provide a unique opportunity to study the processing and consumption of starch-rich plants, offering a window into past culinary practices. When available, starch granules are analysed from charred food crusts attached to pottery vessels or from the sediment attached to the inner wall of unwashed vessels, while washed vessels are seldom sampled due to the complex (and often unknown) life history of curated artefacts. To address this issue, we designed a series of experiments with replica and archaeological ceramic vessels to assess whether it is possible to recover starch granules from powdered ceramic matrix, a sampling method commonly used when conducting chemical analyses. The results of our pilot study show that starch granules can indeed be recovered from powdered ceramic matrix, showing higher starch recovery rates than surface samples from the previously washed archaeological vessels analysed in this study. Moreover, this sampling method allows for the integrated recovery of samples for chemical and starch analyses in a single procedure, thus reducing the time and cost needed to collect these samples. In parallel, this study has identified gaps in our understanding of starch taphonomy, including the effect of lipids on the preservation and density of starch granules and the representativity of starch assemblages after multiple cooking episodes.
The Keshengzhuang Culture (2301–1708 BC), pivotal to the unbroken cultural trajectory of the Guanzhong Basin, offers a critical window into how prehistoric societies sustained themselves under increasingly cool and dry conditions. This study presents a systematic flotation analysis of 136 samples from the Yangjiagou site, with integrated AMS 14C dating (2133∼1884 BC) indicating that wheat had likely not yet become established as a component of Late Longshan agriculture in Guanzhong. Coupled with data from contemporaneous sites, the notable presence of rice—attested at Yangjiagou by 5.9% absolute quantity, 19.1% ubiquity, and 28.4% crop weight percentage—demonstrates that while millet agriculture constituted the subsistence base, non-millet crops, particularly rice, became increasingly widespread and intensified, consistent with broad-spectrum adaptive exploration under climatic pressure. A spatial binary pattern in rice exploitation is identified, with intensified use concentrated in the eastern region corresponding to the Kangjia subtype of Keshengzhuang culture, where rice ubiquity and weight percentages average approximately 30% and 10% higher, respectively, than in western Guanzhong. This differentiation likely reflects east–west contrasts in landscape and water availability, with the lower, better-watered eastern Guanzhong favoring greater rice exploitation, whereas the higher loess tablelands and poorer water access in the west favored millet-dominated dryland farming. Cultural connections may have further reinforced this pattern. The Guanzhong increase formed part of a broader Longshan-period peak in rice exploitation across the middle and lower Yellow River basin. Together, these findings suggest that agricultural broadening offered a potential means of spreading subsistence risks under climatic instability.
Cremated human remains are a primary source for reconstructing past funerary behaviour, but their analysis is slow and difficult to standardise. We examine whether a simple fragmentation index (FI) records the biological profile of the deceased and changes in funerary treatment through time. FI is defined as the mean bulk volume per counted fragment (cm3), so that lower values indicate more intense fragmentation. It was measured on 128 single and double cremation graves (142 individuals) dating from the Bronze Age to the Iron Age Golasecca sequence of north-western Italy. FI decreased consistently through time (Kruskal–Wallis H = 26.66, p < 0.001; Jonckheere–Terpstra z = −5.05, p < 0.001). Age at death was the main biological correlate, the remains of non adults being more fragmented than those of adults (p < 0.001), whereas sex had no effect (p = 0.12). The temporal decrease persisted among adults and after statistical control for age (H = 32.0, p < 0.001), and no robust difference emerged between the western and eastern sectors of the Golasecca area. We interpret this age-independent temporal association as a candidate 'cultural bite', a measurable trace of changing funerary practice whose underlying mechanisms remain to be identified. We also show that an automated imaging routine reproduces manual fragment counts to within 1% when fragments do not overlap, which offers a way to extend FI, and the analysis of fragment size, to larger samples.
The present study documents a substantial assemblage of cat skulls derived from Ancient Egyptian mummies and housed at the Natural History Museum in Vienna (Austria). Examination of the museum's archival correspondence clarified the collection's provenance and acquisition history during the 1880s. Morphological and osteometric analyses were conducted on 131 well-preserved skulls of small felids from Beni Hassan (Speos Artemidos/Stabl Antar). The assemblage includes a small number of jungle cat skulls (Felis chaus), while the marked size variation among the remaining specimens suggests that, in addition to domestic cats (Felis catus), African wild cats (Felis lybica) and possibly hybrids may also be present. Age-at-death estimates based on dental evidence indicate that the collection is biased towards adult and subadult individuals relative to the age profiles reconstructed from X-ray analyses of wrapped mummies. More than half of the felids exhibit pathologies, primarily dental anomalies, along with healed fractures, puncture marks, and deformations possibly linked to infectious or metabolic disorders. Notably, all but one of the jungle cats show pathological alterations, suggesting that all the felids were housed together and subjected to similar captive conditions. Radiocarbon dating was performed on a subsample of four jungle cats and five other small felids. With the exception of one specimen dated to the Third Intermediate Period, all individuals originate from the end of the Late Period and the beginning of the Ptolemaic era. Stable isotope analysis (δ13C and δ15N) of four Felis chaus and twelve Felis cf. catus reveals dietary or environmental differences, suggesting that the jungle cats likely did not reproduce in captivity.
