Human consumption of seaweed and freshwater aquatic plants in ancient Europe

Buckley, S., Hardy, K. , Hallgren, F., Kubiak Martens, L., Miliauskienė, Ž., Sheridan, A., Sobkowiak-Tabaka, I. and Subirà, M. E. (2023) Human consumption of seaweed and freshwater aquatic plants in ancient Europe. Nature Communications, 14, 6192. (doi: 10.1038/s41467-023-41671-2) (PMID:37848451) (PMCID:PMC10582258)

Abstract

During the Mesolithic in Europe, there is widespread evidence for an increase in exploitation of aquatic resources. In contrast, the subsequent Neolithic is characterised by the spread of farming, land ownership, and full sedentism, which lead to the perception of marine resources subsequently representing marginal or famine food or being abandoned altogether even at the furthermost coastal limits of Europe. Here, we examine biomarkers extracted from human dental calculus, using sequential thermal desorption- and pyrolysis-GCMS, to report direct evidence for widespread consumption of seaweed and submerged aquatic and freshwater plants across Europe. Notably, evidence of consumption of these resources extends through the Neolithic transition to farming and into the Early Middle Ages, suggesting that these resources, now rarely eaten in Europe, only became marginal much more recently. Understanding ancient foodstuffs is crucial to reconstructing the past, while a better knowledge of local, forgotten resources is likewise important today.

• Item Type: Articles
• Additional Information: Funding was provided by the I+D MICINN, (project code HAR2012-3537) and the Orkney Archaeology Society. The Kanaljorden excavation-project at Stiftelsen Kulturmiljövård, Sweden, provided funding for the analysis of the Kanaljorden-samples.
• Status: Published
• Refereed: Yes
• Glasgow Author(s) Enlighten ID: Hardy, Professor Karen
• Authors: Buckley, S., Hardy, K., Hallgren, F., Kubiak Martens, L., Miliauskienė, Ž., Sheridan, A., Sobkowiak-Tabaka, I., and Subirà, M. E.
• College/School: College of Arts & Humanities > School of Humanities > Archaeology
• Journal Name: Nature Communications
• Publisher: Nature Research
• ISSN: 2041-1723
• ISSN (Online): 2041-1723
• Copyright Holders: Copyright © 2023 The Authors
• First Published: First published in Nature Communications 14:6192
• Publisher Policy: Reproduced under a Creative Commons licence