Alexandre Lucquin

University of York · Department of Archaeology

Rice and millet arrived in Western Japan from Korea around 3,000 years ago and spread eastwards across the archipelago in the next 700 years. However, the extent to which agriculture transformed traditional Jōmon hunter-gatherer-fisher communities is debated. Central Japan is a key area of study as remodelling of radiocarbon dates shows a slowdown...

Biophysical conditions played a fundamental role in early human colonization of insular territories, particularly in food-producing societies dealing with limited resources and the challenges of maintaining a sustainable carrying capacity. Studies on past human colonization of small oceanic islands thus offer insights into economic plasticity, ecol...

This study reports the first comprehensive data on the dietary aspects of Gauja Livs in the 11th–12th century CE. This region is presently lacking in bioarchaeological material (human bones and ancient plant remains), which is typically used for decoding the ancient diet. To tackle this problem pottery fragments from Turaida hillfort and Pūteļi cem...

To investigate changes in culinary practices associated with the arrival of farming, we analysed the organic residues of over 1,000 pottery vessels from hunter-gatherer-fisher and early agricultural sites across Northern Europe from the Lower Rhine Basin to the Northeastern Baltic. Here, pottery was widely used by hunter-gatherer-fishers prior to t...

Understanding long-term dynamics of past socio-ecological systems is essential for their future management. The southern Atlantic Forest coast of Brazil with its biodiverse littoral zone and artisanal fishing communities, is a priority for conservation. Traditional maritime knowledge is thought to have a deep-history and indeed, marine exploitation...

The transition from foraging to farming was a key turning point in ancient socio-economies. Yet, the complexities and regional variations of this transformation are still poorly understood. This multi-proxy study provides a new understanding of the introduction and spread of early farming, challenging the notions of hierarchical economies. The most...

The ability to control and direct fire is a major evolutionary step in the human story. The development of aceramic cooking technologies is less well understood as they rarely survive in the archaeological record. However, inferential evidence such as fire-cracked rocks, earthen pits and heated bones suggest a variety of cooking methods were used p...

Ceramic technology makes an abrupt appearance in the New World Arctic at circa 2800 cal BP. While there is general consensus that the ultimate source of these Alaskan pottery traditions lay in continental NE Asia, the motivations for the adoption of pottery in Alaska have remained unclear. Through organic residue analysis we investigated the functi...

Unlabelled: Ceramic objects account for over 90% of the cultural material recovered from archaeological sites in the Caribbean. However, little research has been conducted on molecular evidence for past food production from these same vessels. Forty ceramic sherds from Isla de Mona have been analysed by GC-MS and GC-C-IRMS in order to address ques...

Until now, Šventoji in northwest Lithuania was considered the most northern site of the Neolithic Globular Amphora Culture (hereafter GAC; ca. 3400–2500 cal BC) in Europe. Recently, however, ceramics typologically resembling GAC ware were identified among the materials from the multi-period sites of Abora 1 and Iča in Latvia and further to the nort...

The detection of dairy processing is pivotal to our understanding of ancient subsistence strategies. This culinary process is linked to key arguments surrounding the evolution of lactase persistence in prehistory. Despite extensive evidence indicating the presence of dairy products in ceramics in the European Neolithic, questions remain about the n...

Human history has been shaped by global dispersals of technologies, although understanding of what enabled these processes is limited. Here, we explore the behavioural mechanisms that led to the emergence of pottery among hunter-gatherer communities in Europe during the mid-Holocene. Through radiocarbon dating, we propose this dispersal occurred at...

Artificial illumination is a fundamental human need. Burning wood and other materials usually in hearths and fireplaces extended daylight hours, whilst the use of flammable substances in torches offered light on the move. It is increasingly understood that pottery played a role in light production. In this study, we focus on ceramic oval bowls, mad...

The Bronze Age—Iron Age transition in Central Asia (ca. 800 BCE) was a period of significant cultural change that was heavily influenced by greater population interaction and mobility. Indeed, scholars have increasingly emphasized the role that “food globalization in prehistory” has played in defining this period. In the mountain foothills of Kazak...

The Eastern European steppe and forest-steppe is a key region for understanding the emergence of pottery in Europe. The vast region encompasses the basins of two major waterways, the Don and the Volga rivers, and was occupied by hunter-gatherer-fisher communities attracted to highly productive forest/aquatic ecotones. The precise dates for the ince...

The shell-midden site of Riņņukalns in northern Latvia offers a rare opportunity to study long-term trends in ceramic production and function at a European hunter-fisher-gatherer site. Riņņukalns was occupied from the sixth millennium BC, with the midden developing from the later fourth millennium. Here, the authors discuss the chaîne opératoire an...

The emergence of pottery in Europe is associated with two distinct traditions: hunter-gatherers in the east of the continent during the early 6th millennium BC and early agricultural communities in the south-west in the late 7th millennium BC. Here we investigate the function of pottery from the site of Rakushechny Yar, located at the Southern frin...

The Siwa archaeological culture (ca. 3350 and 2650 cal yr BP) has often been associated with the tribes referenced in textual sources as Qiang and Rong: prized captives commonly sacrificed by the Shang and marauding hordes who toppled the Western Zhou dynasty. In early Chinese writings, food plays a key role in accentuating the ‘sino-barbarian’ dic...

The early phases of Neolithic expansion in the Central and Western Mediterranean are relatively poorly understood with regards to the diversity in the subsistence economy and the degree of interaction with indigenous hunter-gatherers. Recent analysis of pottery manufacturing techniques also points to a surprisingly diverse range of practices across...

This paper focuses on the functional analysis of Swifterbant pottery (c. 5000-3800 cal BC) in the Lower Rhine-Meuse area (the Netherlands). It examines pottery use across the transition to agriculture and aims to assess temporal changes in human-animal relations during the 5th millennium BC in the Lower Rhine-Meuse area through lipid residue analys...

Long chain ω‐(o‐alkylphenyl)alkanoic acids (APAAs) derived from the heating of unsaturated fatty acids have been widely used for the identification of aquatic products in archaeological ceramic vessels. To date, little attention has been paid to the diagnostic potential of shorter chain (<C20) APAAs, despite their frequent occurrence. Here, a range...

The past decade has witnessed an intensification of research into the use of pottery by hunter-gatherers. Long viewed by Western scholars as a marginal practice among these groups, pottery production is now known to have been widespread among prehistoric hunter-gatherers, many of whom practised no other activities associated with agriculture. In em...

The goal of this contribution is to stimulate a wider reflection on the role of food consumption practices throughout prehistory. We focussed on the Jōmon communities of Hokkaidō Island in Northern Japan since these mobile foragers underwent a process of economic diversification and intensification, eventually leading to higher levels of sedentism...

In the early Holocene, Mesolithic hunter-gatherer communities inhabiting the Cis-Baikal region of Eastern Siberia were participating in a series of important cultural changes. These included the establishment of large cemeteries in the Angara Valley and on the Southwest shores of Lake Baikal, culminating in the formation of the distinctive Early Ne...

Pottery technology, originating in Northeast Asia, appeared in Alaska some 2800 years ago. It spread swiftly along Alaska's coastline but was not adopted on Kodiak Island until around 500 cal BP, as part of the Koniag tradition. While in the southeast pottery was used extensively, people on the northern half of the island did not adopt the technolo...

[This corrects the article DOI: 10.1098/rsos.192016.].

Between 2800 and 2400 cal BC pastoralists from Central Europe migrated into the eastern Baltic paving the way for the Corded Ware Culture (CWC), and a new type of economy, animal husbandry. Traditionally the CWC people were viewed as highly mobile due to the lack of substantial traces of dwellings and material culture at settlement sites; they were...

Between 2800 and 2400 cal BC pastoralists from Central Europe migrated into the eastern Baltic paving the way for the Corded Ware Culture (CWC), and a new type of economy, animal husbandry. Traditionally the CWC people were viewed as highly mobile due to the lack of substantial traces of dwellings and material culture at settlement sites; they were...

The introduction of farming had far-reaching impacts on health, social structure and demography. Although the spread of domesticated plants and animals has been extensively tracked, it is unclear how these nascent economies developed within different environmental and cultural settings. Using molecular and isotopic analysis of lipids from pottery,...

This paper focuses on the functional analysis of Swifterbant pottery from North-western Europe (ca. 4300–4000 BC) through lipid residue analysis. The main aim is to understand the role of pottery in terms of its relation to hunter-fisher-gatherer lifestyle, and the change in available food resources brought about by the arrival of domesticated anim...

The introduction of pottery vessels to Europe has long been seen as closely linked with the spread of agriculture and pastoralism from the Near East. The adoption of pottery technology by hunter-gatherers in Northern and Eastern Europe does not fit this paradigm, and its role within these communities is so far unresolved. To investigate the motivat...

Fat residue analysis in sherds has allowed in the last years to target the cooking practices of prehistoric groups. Lipids identified in several ceramic samples from diverse sites in Northern Iberia show that dairy products were already present during the early stages of the regional Neolithic, side by side with meat derived from ruminants.

Lipids preserved within the walls of ancient pottery vessels are routinely analysed to reveal their original contents. The provenience of aquatic lipids in pottery is generally connected to vessel function (e.g., for cooking or storing fish, shellfish and aquatic mammals). However, ethnographic reports from early‐historic Alaska mention the use of...

Lipid residue analysis has recently been applied to investigate the adoption of pottery by Early Woodland hunter-gatherers in north-eastern North America. Results, however, have proven contradictory, especially regarding the extent to which early ceramics were used for processing aquatic resources. Here, the authors argue that this inconsistency is...

The Neolithic expansion in the Iberian Peninsula is marked by the introduction of livestock and domesticated crops which modified subsistence strategies in an unprecedented manner. Bulk collagen stable carbon and nitrogen isotope analysis has been essential to track these changes, which have largely been discussed in relation to particular geograph...

With the arrival of the Early Neolithic Globular Amphora and CordedWare cultures into the southeastern Baltic, ca. 2900/2800–2400 cal BC, a new type of economy was introduced, animal husbandry. However, the degree to which this transformed the subsistence economy is unknown. Here, we conducted organic residue analyses of 64 ceramic vessels to ident...

The discovery of a partially preserved vessel in the course of the excavations carried out in Cova Eirós brings forth new data on the material culture of the regional Neo-lithic. The pot, both in its bottle-like shape and decoration (shell impressed), recalls strongly the cardial ware, so characteristic of the archaeological record in the Early Neo...

The Neolithization of Northern Eurasia is marked by the emergence of pottery among hunter-gatherer societies. The driving forces behind the adoption of ceramic cooking vessels among non-agricultural societies remain unclear, although previous research, mainly in North East Asia (e.g. Japan, Korea and the Russian Far East), suggests that it was adop...

Organic residue analysis of ancient ceramic vessels enables the investigation of natural resources that were used in daily cooking practices in different part of the world. Despite many methodological advances, the utilization of plants in pottery has been difficult to demonstrate chemically, hindering the study of their role in ancient society, a...

Organic residue analysis of ancient ceramic vessels enables the investigation of natural resources that were used in daily cooking practices in different part of the world. Despite many methodological advances, the utilization of plants in pottery has been difficult to demonstrate chemically, hindering the study of their role in ancient society, a...

Investigating the function of prehistoric stone bowls and griddle stones in the Aleutian Islands by lipid residue analysis – CORRIGENDUM - Marjolein Admiraal, Alexandre Lucquin, Matthew von Tersch, Peter D. Jordan, Oliver E. Craig

The analysis of lipids (fats, oils and waxes) absorbed within archaeological pottery has revolutionized the study of past diets and culinary practices. However, this technique can lack taxonomic and tissue specificity and is often unable to disentangle signatures resulting from the mixing of different food products. Here, we extract ancient protein...

Around 2900–2300 cal BCE, mobile stockbreeders introduced the Neolithic Corded Ware culture (CWC) into the Eastern Baltic. Here, a Central or Northern European Neolithic economy and ideology took hold despite differences in burial practices. Although around 90 CWC graves are known in the region their contents have not been intensively studied. Here...

The combined use of microscopy and organic residue analysis on stone tools from the Early Mesolithic site of Star Carr, England, has tentatively identified residues consistent with pine (Pinaceae family) tree compounds. Microscopic residues from nine stone tools, originating from several locations and dated between ca 9300–8500 cal BC, were found t...

Around 2900–2300 cal BCE, mobile stockbreeders introduced the Neolithic Corded Ware culture (CWC) into the Eastern Baltic. Here, a Central or Northern European Neolithic economy and ideology took hold despite differences in burial practices. Although around 90 CWC graves are known in the region their contents have not been intensively studied. Here...

In Northern Eurasia, the Neolithic is marked by the adoption of pottery by hunter-gatherer communities. The degree to which this is related to wider social and lifestyle changes is subject to ongoing debate and the focus of a new research programme. The use and function of early pottery by pre-agricultural societies during the 7th-5th millennia BC...

Supplementary Information for The impact of environmental change on the use of early pottery by East Asian hunter-gatherers

Significance The motivations for the widespread adoption of pottery is a key theme in world prehistory and is often linked to climate warming at the start of the Holocene. Through organic residue analysis, we investigated the contents of >800 ceramic samples from across the Japanese archipelago, a unique assemblage that transcends the Pleistocene–H...