Food cultures: Interdisciplinary studies of early farming food technology and palaeodiet in Southeastern Europe

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The shift from foraging to farming is arguably one of the pivotal events in human prehistory. This project explores the relationship between palaeodiet, food technology and the spread of agriculture (the 'neolithisation') in Southeastern Europe. The Balkan Peninsula is a zone of transition from semi-arid to temperate environments and therefore a key region for the adaptation of Near Eastern farming technology and its spread into the European continent. It is proposed that nutrition was of primary importance for the survival and success of early agricultural societies and the spread of agriculture was made possible by fast adaptations in food acquisition strategies, diet and food processing technology to new environments. To test this hypothesis, the project will carry out interdisciplinary research in three geographic areas with distinct ecosystems, different histories of transition to agriculture and crossroad positions in the farming dispersal: Thrace in the southern Balkans (Karanovo I period), Schumadija in the central Balkans (early Starcevo period) and Transdanubia in the western Carpathian Basin (Linear Pottery period). The conventional methods of osteological and macrobotanical analysis do not provide the detail and precision that are necessary to answer the main research question of the proposed project. Therefore, archaeological studies of artefacts and their contexts will be combined with organic residue analysis of ceramics, identification of plant microfossils preserved on stone artefacts, and studies of high-resolution intra-enamel carbon and oxygen isotope profiles of domestic herbivore teeth to reconstruct and compare the food technology and the strategies of food acquisition in these three case studies. The results of the interdisciplinary research on early Neolithic food technology and diet in the Balkans and the Carpathian Basin will provide crucial implications for understanding the success of the farming conquest in Europe in the long term.