Morning session - part 1 11:15-12:45
5 A Day: The Role of Plant Substances in the Ancient Diet of Corsica during Protohistory
Maïlys Turini (1) - Léa Drieu (1) - Alex Malergue (1) - Maxime Rageot (2) - Hélène Paolini-Saez (3) - Kewin Peche-Quilichini (4) - Thomas Perrin (5) - Martine Regert (1)
CEPAM (UMR 7264 CNRS), Université Côte d'Azur, Nice, France (1) - Institut für Archäologie und Kulturanthropologie, Universität Bonn, Bonn, Germany (2) - Laboratoire Régional de l'Archéologie, TRACES (UMR5608 CNRS), Ajaccio, France (3) - Collectivita di Corsica, Musée de l'Alta Rocca, Livia, France (4) - TRACES (UMR5608 CNRS), Université Toulouse II Jean-Jaurès, Toulouse, France (5)
Keywords: Lipids, Plants products, Corsican protohistory
The Mediterranean area is known for its poor preservation of organic matter, particularly plant products, which are under-represented due to the predominance of lipids in organic residue analyses and the low lipid content of plants. However, recent analyses of organic residues have revealed excellent preservation of organic molecules in Corsican pottery (Drieu et al., 2018; Rageot et al., 2016), offering new research perspectives on foodways in the Mediterranean.
In this work, we focused on the identification of plant substances using an innovative method (Garnier and Valamoti, 2016) that allows, from a single sample, the detection of lipids (including triacylglycerols) and short-chain acids present in plants via GC-MS and LC ESI-MS/MS methods. Fifty samples from three protohistoric sites were analysed.
The results show that organic compounds were well preserved, depending on the archaeological sites, with a wide range of molecules identified, from triacylglycerols to short-chain acids. These data highlight the diversity of plant substances used in culinary practices during the Bronze and Iron Ages (grapes, vegetable oils and waxes). LC ESI-MS/MS analyses allowed us to determine the origin of the oils (olive). Other plant substances identified include birch bark tar and conifer resins and tars, which appear to have been used repair ceramics.
This new approach expands the range of molecules studied, including a more detailed study of triacylglycerols, provide new insight into the consumption of plant products and the early domestication of plants such as olives and vines on the island.
