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Scientists Discover Ancient Pottery Preserving 16,000-Year-Old Food

A clay pot is pictured at the Joya de Ceren archaeological site, in San Juan Opico, 35 km west of San Salvador, El Salvador. (AFP)
A clay pot is pictured at the Joya de Ceren archaeological site, in San Juan Opico, 35 km west of San Salvador, El Salvador. (AFP)
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Scientists Discover Ancient Pottery Preserving 16,000-Year-Old Food

A clay pot is pictured at the Joya de Ceren archaeological site, in San Juan Opico, 35 km west of San Salvador, El Salvador. (AFP)
A clay pot is pictured at the Joya de Ceren archaeological site, in San Juan Opico, 35 km west of San Salvador, El Salvador. (AFP)

A new international study found that ancient hunters in different areas in the Russian Far East created heat resistant pots so that they could cook hot meals. Those pots helped them survive the harshest seasons of the Ice Age. The study was published in the latest issue of the Quaternary Science Review journal.

During the study, the researchers extracted nutritious bone grease and marrow from meat that were preserved in the old pottery found between 16,000 and 12,000 years ago. Analysis proved that the inhabitants of some regions preferred salmon, while others cooked the meat of wild animals such as deer and goats.

The Osipovka people on the Amur River used pottery to process fish, most likely migratory salmon, and to extract aquatic oils. Such salmon-based hot pots remain a favorite even today.

For the late glacial period, such dishes were seen as an alternative food source during periods of major climatic fluctuation - for example when severe cold prevented hunting on land. An identical scenario was identified by the same research group in neighboring islands of Japan. Yet, according to scientists, the Gromatukha culture had other culinary ideas. They used pots to cook land animals, like deer and wild goat.

"They were probably used to extract nutritious bone grease and marrow during the hungriest seasons," the researchers suggested.

Peter Jordan, director of the Arctic Center at the University of Groningen in the Netherlands, senior author of the study, told the Siberian Times newspaper: "The findings are particularly interesting because they suggest that there was no single 'origin point' for the world's oldest pottery – we realized that very different pottery traditions were emerging around the same time but in different places, and that the pots were being used to process very different kinds of resources."

Oliver Craig, director of the lab where the analyses were conducted at the University of York, said: "The study illustrates the exciting potential of new methods in archaeological science. We can extract and interpret the remains of meals that were cooked in pots over 16,000 years ago."

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Danish Archaeologists Unearth 50 Viking Skeletons

Massacred 10th century Vikings found in a mass grave at St John’s College, Oxford. Photograph: Thames Valley Archaeological Services/PA
Massacred 10th century Vikings found in a mass grave at St John’s College, Oxford. Photograph: Thames Valley Archaeological Services/PA
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Danish Archaeologists Unearth 50 Viking Skeletons

Massacred 10th century Vikings found in a mass grave at St John’s College, Oxford. Photograph: Thames Valley Archaeological Services/PA
Massacred 10th century Vikings found in a mass grave at St John’s College, Oxford. Photograph: Thames Valley Archaeological Services/PA

The excavation of a large Viking-era burial site in Denmark has unearthed 50 unusually well-preserved skeletons that archaeologists expect will help shed light on the lives of the Nordic people best known for their seafaring exploits in the Middle Ages.

The skeletons, discovered near Denmark's third-largest city Odense, were kept intact by high water levels and favorable soil conditions that prevented them from decomposing, according to Michael Borre Lundoe, the excavation leader from Museum Odense, Reuters reported.

"Normally when we excavate Viking graves, we'd be lucky if there were two teeth left in the grave besides the grave goods. But here we have the skeletons fully preserved," said Lundoe.

"The skeletons are so amazing. They are so well preserved. There are five fingers, five toes. And that opens up a whole new set of possibilities for discoveries," he said.

Rare artifacts such as knives, glass pearls and brooches dated between year 850 to 970 were also found at the excavation, which began six months ago.

Lundoe said the grave gifts indicate most of the people were part of a small community of farmers, although a woman of higher status was buried with a silver-ornamented knife and a piece of glass which was rare in the Viking Age.

Archaeologists took soil samples to search for pollen to determine which season the person was buried in and what textiles they wore.

An x-ray of a soil block from the site revealed an oval brooch, an iconic Viking Age jewelry piece associated with women's garments, covered with wood and human remains.

On the back of another brooch with period-specific ornaments, mineralized woven textile fragments provided evidence of the type of dress worn in the Viking Age, the archaeologists said.

Most of the skeletons have been removed from the graves and packed in cardboard boxes at the museum to dry out before the examination and final cleaning.