GSTs and Foodscapes: Unfolding Homo sapiens’ Diet When Venturing the Eurasian Steppe

Summary

This is an abstract from the "Archaeogastronomy: Grocery Lists as Seen from a Multidimensional Perspective" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

The surfaces of lithic artifacts, namely of ground stone tools (GSTs), are a rich repository of structured use-related biogenic residues (SU-RBR) such as starch, revealing the mechanical processing of starch-rich organs, naturally biodegradable and therefore vulnerable. The recovery of SU-RBR on the surfaces of GSTs from a consistent number of MIS 3 sites across the Eurasian steppe reveals the emergence of the transformation of dietary carbohydrates that might have served as staple food by Homo sapiens (Hs). Examples from key sites will be discussed to support the reasoning on the complex interplay between biology, environment and technological strategies that brought the successful peopling of the Eurasian steppe. Hence, by approaching stone tools as bioarchives, it is possible to document perishable technologies highly informative of the foodscape(s) of early waves of Homo sapiens (Hs) when colonizing the Northern latitudes.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Archaeogastronomy: Grocery Lists as Seen from a Multidimensional Perspective   •
• Society for American Archaeology 89th Annual Meeting, New Orleans, LA (2024)

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Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 40080.0