Molecular Archaeology: investigating diet, food and cuisine from Stonehenge to the Jōmon?
Dr Oliver Craig, BioArCh, Department of Archaeology, University of York
For millennia the enigmatic monument of Stonehenge has stood alone on Salisbury plain in Southern
Britain. Only now, following a new series of excavations, are we beginning to understand the
monument in its wider context, through its relationship to a much broader landscape packed with
other ceremonial spaces, houses and the debris of large-scale feasting. New scientific techniques are
at the forefront of this ‘new wave’ of Stonehenge archaeology. From the pots and soils still smeared
with soot and grease to the animal teeth which contain chemical ‘passports’ betraying their
geographical origin, I will show how advances in archaeological science have revolutionised the
study of prehistoric food, cuisine and consumption to provide a window into the daily lives and ritual
activities of Late Neolithic Britain. By using these same technologies, I will then show that we can go
back a further 10,000 years, to study cooking practices in early Japanese prehistoric societies. These
highly specialised hunter-gatherers developed creative ways of adjusting to warmer climates and
new environments, which included the production of pottery. Remarkably, remnants of food still
survive in these ceramic vessels, amongst the earliest in the world, providing the first clues to why
pottery was invented and became such an enduring and important technology.