Paleoproteomic Perspectives on the Subsistence Decisions of Later Stone Age Herders in Namaqualand, South Africa

Summary

This is an abstract from the "Ancient Pastoralism in a Global Perspective" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

Ceramic-bound protein characterization, or paleoproteomics, can provide vital insight into the species-specific dietary decisions preserved in the pottery of past populations. This insight is particularly relevant for understanding the subsistence choices of Later Stone Age (LSA) herders living in the Namaqualand coastal desert of South Africa. In this region the sheer number of morphologically similar bovid species often found at archaeological sites, when fragmentary, are difficult to identify to species. However, a rich and under-utilized archaeological resource exists in abundance: ceramic sherds that preserve the biomolecular traces of ancient meals cooked in pottery. Although organic residue analysis (ORA) of ceramic residues is a powerful tool it can only characterize the preserved lipids of past meals into broad categories (dairy, ruminant, non-ruminant), lacking the taxonomic specificity often needed when both wild and domesticated ruminants of a similar size are present. To test the feasibility of paleoproteomic characterization of ancient pottery from Namaqualand, ~50 potsherds previously characterized through ORA were selected from four archaeological sites to investigate protein preservation. Proteomic analyses of ceramics will be integrated with previous ORA and faunal composition data to examine how LSA herders living in Namaqualand incorporated domesticated and other wild ruminants into their diet.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Ancient Pastoralism in a Global Perspective   •
• Society for American Archaeology 89th Annual Meeting, New Orleans, LA (2024)

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Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 40008.0