Hostname: page-component-8448b6f56d-m8qmq Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-04-17T14:28:39.924Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Illuminating the Late Mesolithic: residue analysis of ‘blubber’ lamps from Northern Europe

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 January 2015

Carl Heron ,
Søren Andersen ,
Anders Fischer ,
Aikaterini Glykou ,
Sönke Hartz ,
Hayley Saul ,
Val Steele  and
Oliver Craig
Carl Heron
Affiliation:
1Archaeological Sciences, University of Bradford, Richmond Road, Bradford BD7 1DP, UK
Søren Andersen
Affiliation:
2Moesgård Museum, Moesgård Allé 20, DK-8270 Højbjerg, Denmark
Anders Fischer
Affiliation:
3The Danish Agency for Culture, H.C. Andersens Boulevard 2, DK-1553 Copenhagen V, Denmark
Aikaterini Glykou
Affiliation:
4Graduate School ‘Human Development in Landscapes’, Institute of Pre- and Protohistoric Archaeology, Christian-Albrechts-Universität, 24098 Kiel, Germany
Sönke Hartz
Affiliation:
5Archäologisches Landesmuseum, Stiftung Schleswig-Holsteinische Landesmuseen, Schloβ Gottorf, D-24837 Schleswig, Germany
Hayley Saul
Affiliation:
6ABioArCh, Biology, S Block, University of York, PO Box 373, York YO10 5YW, UK
Val Steele
Affiliation:
1Archaeological Sciences, University of Bradford, Richmond Road, Bradford BD7 1DP, UK
Oliver Craig
Affiliation:
6ABioArCh, Biology, S Block, University of York, PO Box 373, York YO10 5YW, UK
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Shallow oval bowls used on the Baltic coast in the Mesolithic have been suggested as oil lamps, burning animal fat. Here researchers confirm the use of four coastal examples as lamps burning blubber—the fat of marine animals, while an inland example burned fat from terrestrial mammals or freshwater aquatics—perhaps eels. The authors use a combination of lipid biomarker and bulk and single-compound carbon isotope analysis to indicate the origin of the residues in these vessels.

Keywords

BalticMesolithic–NeolithicErtebøllepottery‘blubber lamps’lipid analysismarine oils
Type
Research Article
Information
Antiquity , Volume 87 , Issue 335 , March 2013 , pp. 178 - 188
Copyright
Copyright © Antiquity Publications Ltd 2013

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Ackman, R. G. & Hooper, S. N.. 1970. Branched-chain fatty acids of four fresh-water fish oils. Comparative Biochemistry and Physiology 32: 117–25.Google Scholar
Andersen, S. H. 1987. Mesolithic dug-outs and paddles from Tybrind Vig, Denmark. Acta Archaeologica 57: 87–106.Google Scholar
Andersen, S. H. 2009. Ronæs Skov. Marinkæologiske undersøgelser af kystbiplads fra Ertebølletid (Jysk Arkæologisk Selskabs Skrifter 64). Højberg: Jysk Arkæologisk Selskab.Google Scholar
Andersen, S. H. 2010. The first pottery in south Scandinavia, in Vanmontfort, B., Louwe Kooijmans, L., Amkreutz, L. & Verhart, L. (ed.) Pots, farmers and foragers (Archaeological Studies University of Leiden 20): 167–76. Leiden: Leiden University Press.Google Scholar
Barnett, W. K. & Hoopes, J. W. (ed.). 1995. The emergence of pottery: technology and innovation in ancient societies. Washington, D. C.: Smithsonian Institution Press.Google Scholar
Bērzins, V. 2008. Sārnate: Living By A Coastal Lake During The East Baltic Neolithic (Acta Universitatis Ouluensis B 86). Oulu: Oulu University Press.Google Scholar
Birket-Smith, K. & Calvert, W. E.. 1929. The Caribou Eskimos: material and social life and their cultural position. Copenhagen: Gyldendal.Google Scholar
Colombini, M. P., Modugno, F. & Ribechini, E.. 2005. Organic mass spectrometry in archaeology: evidence for Brassicaceae seed oil in Egyptian ceramic lamps. Journal of Mass Spectrometry 40: 890–98.Google Scholar
Copley, M. S., Hansel, F. A., Sadr, K. & Evershed, R. P.. 2004. Organic residue evidence for the processing of marine animal products in pottery vessels from the pre-colonial archaeological site of Kasteelberg Deast, South Africa. South African Journal of Science 100: 279–83.Google Scholar
Copley, M. S., Bland, H. A., Rose, P., Horton, M. & Evershed, R. P.. 2005. Gas chromatographic, mass spectrometric and stable carbon isotopic investigations of organic residues of plant oils and animal fats employed as illuminants in archaeological lamps from Egypt. The Analyst 130: 860–71.Google Scholar
Craig, O. E., Forster, M., Anderson, S. H., Koch, E., Crombé, P., Miller, N. J., Stern, B., Bailey, G. N. & Heron, C. P.. 2007. Molecular and isotopic demonstration of the processing of aquatic products in Northern European prehistoric pottery. Archaeometry 49: 135–52.Google Scholar
Craig, O. E., Steele, V. J., Fischer, A., Hartz, S., Andersen, S. H., Donahue, P., Glykou, A., Saul, H., Jones, D. M., Koch, E. & Heron, C. P.. 2011. Ancient lipids reveal continuity in culinary practices across the transition to farming in Northern Europe. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, USA 108: 17910–15.Google Scholar
De Beaune, S.A. 1987. Palaeolithic lamps and their specialization: a hypothesis. Current Anthropology 28: 369–77.Google Scholar
Dudd, S. N. & Evershed, R. P.. 1998. Direct demonstration of milk as an element of archaeological economies. Science 282: 1478–80.Google Scholar
Evershed, R. P. 2008. Organic residue analysis in archaeology: the archaeological biomarker revolution. Archaeometry 50: 895–924.Google Scholar
Evershed, R. P., Vaughan, S. J., Dudd, S. N. & Soles, J. S.. 1997. Fuel for thought? Beeswax in lamps and conical cups from Late Minoan Crete. Antiquity 71: 979–85.Google Scholar
Evershed, R. P., Copley, M. S., Dickson, L. & Hansel, F. A.. 2008. Experimental evidence for the processing of marine animal products and other commodities containing polyunsaturated fatty acids in pottery vessels. Archaeometry 50: 101–13.Google Scholar
Fischer, A. 2002. Food for feasting? in Fischer, A. & Kristiansen, K. (ed.) The Neolithisation of Denmark: 150 years of debate: 343–93. Sheffield: J. R. Collis.Google Scholar
Fischer, A. & Gotfredsen, A. B.. 2006. Da landbruget kom til Nordvestsjælland - tidligt tamkvæg I Åmosen Fra Nordvestsjælland 2005-2006: 35–54.Google Scholar
Fischer, A. & Heinemeier, J.. 2003. Freshwater reservoir effect in 14C dates of food residue on pottery. Radiocarbon 45: 449–66.Google Scholar
Garnier, N., Rolando, C., Høtjec, J. M. & Tokarski, C.. 2009. Analysis of archaeological triacylglycerols by high resolution nanoESI, FT-ICR MS and IRMPD MS/MS: application to 5th century BC-4th century AD oil lamps from Olbia (Ukraine). International Journal of Mass Spectrometry 284: 47–56.Google Scholar
Glykou, A. 2011. Neustadt – ein submariner Fundplatz des späten Mesolithikums und frühesten Neolithikums in Schleswig-Holstein. Untersuchungen zur Subsistenzstrategie der letzte Jäger, Sammler und Fischer an der norddeutschen Osteseeküste. Unpublished PhD dissertation, Universität Kiel.Google Scholar
Hansel, F. A. & Evershed, R. P.. 2009. Formation of dihydroxyacids from Z-monounsaturated alkenoic acids and their use as biomarkers for processing of marine commodities in archaeological pottery vessels. Tetrahedron Letters 50: 5562–64.Google Scholar
Hansel, F. A., Copley, M. S., Madureira, L. A. S. & Evershed, R. P.. 2004. Thermally produced ω-(-o-alkylphenyl)alkanoic acids provide evidence for the processing of marine products in archaeological pottery vessels. Tetrahedron Letters 45: 2999–3002.Google Scholar
Hansel, F A., Bull, I. D. & Evershed, R. P.. 2011. Gas chromatographic-mass spectrometric detection of dihydroxy fatty acids preserved in the ‘bound’ phase of organic residues of archaeological pottery vessels. Rapid Communications in Mass Spectrometry 25: 1893–98.Google Scholar
Hellgren, L. I. 2010. Phytanic acid-an overlooked bioactive fatty acid in dairy fat? Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences 1190: 42–49.Google Scholar
Heron, C., Nilsen, G., Stern, B., Craig, O. E. & Nordby, C.. 2010. Application of lipid biomarker analysis to evaluate the function of ‘slab-lined pits’ in Arctic Norway. Journal of Archaeological Science 37: 188–97.Google Scholar
Hulthén, B. 1977. On ceramic technology during the Scanian Neolithic and Bronze Age (Theses and papers in North-European archaeology 6). Stockholm: Akademilitt.Google Scholar
Jordan, P. & Zvelebil, M. (ed.). 2009. Ceramics before farming: the dispersal of pottery among prehistoric Eurasian hunter-gatherers. Walnut Creek (CA): Left Coast.Google Scholar
Kimpe, K., Jacobs, P. A. & Waelkens, M.. 2001. Analysis of oil used in Late Roman oil lamps with different mass spectrometric techniques revealed the presence of predominantly olive oil together with traces of animal fat. Journal of Chromatography A: 937: 87–95.Google Scholar
Mathiassen, T. 1935. Blubber lamps in the Ertebølle culture? Acta Archaeologica 6: 139–52.Google Scholar
Meurers-Balke, J. 1983. Siggeneben-Süd: ein Fundplatz der frühen Trichterbecherkultur an der holsteinischen Ostseeküste (Offa-Bücher 50). Neumünster: Wachholtz.Google Scholar
Morgan, E. D., Titus, L., Small, R. J. & Edwards, C.. 1984. Gas chromatographic analysis of fatty material from a Thule midden. Archaeometry 26: 43–48.Google Scholar
Morgan, E. D., Edwards, C. & Pepper, S. A.. 1992. Analysis of the fatty debris from the wreck of a Basque whaling ship at Red Bay, Labrador. Archaeometry 34: 129–33.Google Scholar
Mottram, H. R., Dudd, S. N., Lawrence, G. J., Stott, A. W. & Evershed, R. P.. 1999. New chromatographic, mass spectrometric and stable isotope approaches to the classification of degraded animal fats preserved in archaeological pottery. Journal of Chromatography A 833: 209–21.Google Scholar
Nielsen, P. O. 1985. De første bønder: Nye fund fra den tidligste tragtbægerkultur ved Sigersted I. Aarbøger for nordisk oldkyndighed og historie 1984: 96–126.Google Scholar
Olsson, M. & Isaksson, S.. 2008. Molecular and isotopic traces of cooking and consumption of fish at an early medieval manor site in eastern middle Sweden. Journal of Archaeological Science 35: 773–80.Google Scholar
Patrick, M., De Koning, A. J. & Smith, A. B.. 1985. Gas liquid chromatographic analysis of fatty acids in food residues from ceramics found in the southwestern Cape. Archaeometry 27: 231–36.Google Scholar
Solazzo, C. & Erhardt, D.. 2007. Analysis of lipid residues in archaeological artifacts: marine mammal oil and cooking practices in the Arctic, in Barnard, H. & Eerkens, J. W. (ed.) Theory and practice of archaeological residue analysis (British Archaeological Reports international series 1650): 161–78. Oxford: Archaeopress.Google Scholar
Tanimoto, S., Stacey, R., Varndell, G. & Sweek, T.. 2011. Grimes Graves revisited: a new light on chalk ‘lamps’. British Museum Technical Bulletin 5: 39–47.Google Scholar
Troels-Smith, J. 1982. Vegetationshistoriske vidnesbyrd om skovrydninger, planteavl og husdyrhold i Europa, specielt Skandinavien, in Sjøvold, T. (ed.) Introduktionen av jordbruk i Norden: 39–62. Oslo: Universitetsforlaget.Google Scholar
van Diest, H. 1981. Zur frage der ‘lampen’ nach den ausgrabungsfunden von Rosenhof (Ostholstein). Archäologisches Korrespondenzblatt 11: 301–14.Google Scholar