A Multi-Dimensional Approach to Investigate Use-Related Biogenic Residues on Palaeolithic Ground Stone Tools

Laura Longo, Simona Altieri, Giovanni Birarda, Clarissa Cagnato, Valerio Graziani, Theodor Obada, Irina Pantyukhina, Paola Ricci, Natalia Skakun, Giusi Sorrentino, Vera Terekhina, Luca Tortora, Lisa Vaccari and Carmine Lubritto

Environmental Archaeology, 2025, vol. 30, issue 2, 185-213

Abstract: Recent advances in the role played by dietary carbohydrates in human food webs during the Palaeolithic highlight that starchy foods were part of the diet well before crop domestication. Although certain plants can be eaten raw, intentional processing such as mechanical reduction using stone tools and thermal treatment readily increases the assimilation of nutrients for metabolic functions and for storing. We present a multi-techniques approach designed to combine micro to nanoscale analyses applied to percussive stones to identify their function using micro-wear traces and use-related biogenic residues. The starch grains extracted from functionally active areas of the ground stone tools were scanned using optical microscopy (OM) down to the nanoscale (SEM) and by applying different spectroscopic and spectrometric techniques like FTIR, ToF-SIMS, and IRMS. The combined analyses carried out at different resolutions – morpho-structural and molecular levels – contribute to an unprecedented methodological refinement regarding the intentional processing of starch-rich plants as early as 40,000 years ago at the boreal latitudes. Our preliminary data on pestles and grinding stones from Early Upper Palaeolithic sites of the Pontic steppe (Moldova and Russia) show the suitability of the analytical techniques involved and also the difficulties encountered in detailing authentication procedures of ancient starch candidates.

Date: 2025
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
http://hdl.handle.net/10.1080/14614103.2021.1975252 (text/html)
Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:taf:yenvxx:v:30:y:2025:i:2:p:185-213

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
http://www.tandfonline.com/pricing/journal/yenv20

DOI: 10.1080/14614103.2021.1975252

Access Statistics for this article

Environmental Archaeology is currently edited by Tim Mighall

More articles in Environmental Archaeology from Taylor & Francis Journals
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Chris Longhurst ().