Deciphering diet and dairy consumption in Recent Prehistoric Communities from Southern Iberia – An ICArEHB, FCT and Perdigões – Archaeological Complex collaboration
The domestication of dairy ruminants in the Neolithic provided a novel food source, milk, that once transformed revolutionised human diets. Notwithstanding, the origins, spread, extent and role of dairy products in prehistoric communities are still fiercely debated topics in Archaeology. Our current knowledge in Iberia is very limited, with the only evidence being provided by organic residue analysis of the use of dairy in cooking since the Early Neolithic. Paleoproteomic analysis of ancient human dental calculus has emerged as a powerful tool that provides direct detection of dairy consumption on an individual level.
A new PhD research project, developed by Adriana Leite and funded by FCT (Grant: 2022.13780.BD), will integrate bioarchaeology, paleoproteomic analysis of human dental calculus and stable isotope analysis to tackle these current knowledge gaps by examining directly the diet of Prehistoric communities, focusing primarily in dairy consumption, spanning from the Neolithic to the Bronze Age in Southern Portugal. Adriana Leite is a Ph.D. candidate in Archaeology at the University of Algarve and affiliated to The Interdisciplinary Center for Archaeology and the Evolution of Human Behaviour (ICArEHB). This research project will investigate Portuguese archaeological contexts, including Perdigões, to understand dairy consumption and its species-specific origin, diet, populational trends, and animal herding practices across Recent Prehistory.