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 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.
