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From Content to Context: a Food Residue Study of Ceramics of the Fourth Millennium BC in the Upper and Middle Thames Valley, UK

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From Content to Context: a Food Residue Study of Ceramics of the Fourth Millennium BC in the Upper and Middle Thames Valley, UK University of Southampton Research Repository ePrints Soton Copyright © and Moral Rights for this thesis are retained by the author and/or other copyright owners. A copy can be downloaded for personal non-commercial research or study, without prior permission or charge. This thesis cannot be reproduced or quoted extensively from without first obtaining permission in writing from the copyright holder/s. The content must not be changed in any way or sold commercially in any format or medium without the formal permission of the copyright holders. When referring to this work, full bibliographic details including the author, title, awarding institution and date of the thesis must be given e.g. AUTHOR (year of submission) "Full thesis title", University of Southampton, name of the University School or Department, PhD Thesis, pagination http://eprints.soton.ac.uk UNIVERSITY OF SOUTHAMPTON FACULTY OF HUMANITIES Archaeology From content to context: A food residue study of ceramics of the fourth millennium BC in the Upper and Middle Thames Valley, UK by Emilie Sibbesson Thesis for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy August 2014 UNIVERSITY OF SOUTHAMPTON ABSTRACT FACULTY OF HUMANITIES Archaeology Doctor of Philosophy FROM CONTENT TO CONTEXT: A FOOD RESIDUE STUDY OF CERAMICS OF THE FOURTH MILLENNIUM BC IN THE UPPER AND MIDDLE THAMES VALLEY, UK by Emilie Sibbesson This research explores the extent to which food residues from ceramics can contribute to archaeological understanding of the fourth millennium BC. Known archaeologically as the Early and Middle Neolithic, this prehistoric period is disputed among archaeologists and food-related evidence is especially contested. This research explores food-related evidence from new angles in that traditional approaches to diet are abandoned in favour of smaller- scale study of cookery practices. Food residues from Early and Middle Neolithic ceramic vessels were analysed by GC/MS and GC/C/IRMS. The techniques target the lipid (fats, oils, and waxes) component of foods that were cooked in the ceramic vessels in prehistory. The scientific datasets thus obtained were integrated with contextual information from the ceramic assemblages and the sites at which they were recovered. The sampled ceramic assemblages were recovered from archaeological sites made up primarily of pit features, which contain important evidence of life beyond the conspicuous monuments of the Neolithic. Several pit sites have come to light in the Upper and Middle Thames Valley during developer-funded excavation in the last couple of decades, and a new picture of everyday lives in the fourth millennium BC is emerging. This research contributes to this emerging picture in that it reveals local variation and regional consistency in foodways and pottery use. It demonstrates that pottery and food were closely connected during this period and that potters actively responded to the requirements of food preparation. This interplay between pottery and food has implications for more traditional typological studies of the ceramic record. It is argued that food residues from ceramics can be a source of information for material culture studies as well as for dietary reconstruction. For Alastair Aitken (1972-2009) Contents Introduction .............................................................................................................................. 1 Research context .................................................................................................................... 1 Research aims......................................................................................................................... 3 Organisation ........................................................................................................................... 3 Chapter 1. What’s cooking: food and the fourth millennium BC ....................................... 5 1.1 Introduction ...................................................................................................................... 5 1.2 The fourth millennium BC ............................................................................................... 6 1.2.1 The dispute ................................................................................................................. 6 1.2.2 Recent approaches to the British Neolithic ............................................................... 7 1.2.3 The stable isotope scenario ....................................................................................... 8 1.2.4 Seeds of contention .................................................................................................. 10 1.3 Tracing the Neolithic ..................................................................................................... 11 1.3.1 Arts of subsistence ................................................................................................... 11 1.3.2 Scales of analysis ..................................................................................................... 14 1.3.3 Implications for the fourth millennium BC .............................................................. 15 1.4 Food in archaeology ....................................................................................................... 17 1.4.1 Histories of food research ....................................................................................... 17 1.4.2 Food labels I: the animals and plants ..................................................................... 19 1.4.3 Food labels II: reconstructions ............................................................................... 23 1.4.4 Becoming food ......................................................................................................... 25 1.5 Conclusion ..................................................................................................................... 28 Chapter 2. The Upper and Middle Thames Valley ............................................................. 31 2.1 Introduction .................................................................................................................... 31 2.2 The region ...................................................................................................................... 33 2.2.1 Geography and bedrock .......................................................................................... 33 2.2.2 Superficial geology .................................................................................................. 33 2.3 History of archaeological research ................................................................................. 36 2.4 The late fifth and earliest fourth millennia BC .............................................................. 38 2.4.1 The inherited landscape ........................................................................................... 38 2.4.2 The turn of millennia ............................................................................................... 39 2.4.3 Life and death .......................................................................................................... 42 2.5 Early Neolithic prime time ............................................................................................ 43 2.5.1 Causewayed enclosures ........................................................................................... 43 2.5.2 The inhabited landscape .......................................................................................... 44 2.6 The Middle Neolithic ..................................................................................................... 47 2.6.1 The incised landscape ............................................................................................. 47 2.6.2 People and animals ................................................................................................. 49 2.7 Pits ................................................................................................................................. 51 2.7.1 Histories .................................................................................................................. 51 2.7.2 Content and deposition ............................................................................................ 52 2.7.3 The purpose of pits .................................................................................................. 55 2.8 Four pit sites in the Upper Thames Valley .................................................................... 56 2.8.1 South Stoke, Oxfordshire ......................................................................................... 56 2.8.2 St Helen’s Avenue, Benson, Oxfordshire ................................................................. 60 2.8.3 Horcott Pit, Gloucestershire ................................................................................... 61 2.8.4 Cotswold Community, Gloucestershire ................................................................... 65 2.9 Conclusion ..................................................................................................................... 68 Chapter 3. Ceramics of the fourth millennium BC ............................................................ 71 3.1 Introduction .................................................................................................................... 71 3.2 Histories of research ...................................................................................................... 72 3.2.1
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