Human consumption of seaweed and freshwater aquatic plants in ancient Europe

• Published in: Nature communications Vol. 14; no. 1; pp. 6192 - 11
• Main Authors: Buckley, Stephen, Hardy, Karen, Hallgren, Fredrik, Kubiak-Martens, Lucy, Miliauskienė, Žydrūnė, Sheridan, Alison, Sobkowiak-Tabaka, Iwona, Subirà, Maria Eulalia
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: London Nature Publishing Group UK 17.10.2023; Nature Publishing Group; Nature Portfolio
• Subjects: 631/181/27; 631/45/287; 706/689/19/27; Algae; Aquatic plants; Biomarkers; Dental calculi; Dental calculus; Early Middle Ages; Famine; Farming; Food; Food resources; Freshwater plants; Humanities and Social Sciences; Land ownership; Marine resources; Middle Ages; multidisciplinary; Neolithic; Pyrolysis; Science; Science (multidisciplinary); Seaweeds; Stone Age; Europe
• ISSN: 2041-1723; 2041-1723
• DOI: 10.1038/s41467-023-41671-2

During the Mesolithic in Europe, there is widespread evidence for an increase in exploitation of aquatic resources. In contrast, the subsequent Neolithic is characterised by the spread of farming, land ownership, and full sedentism, which lead to the perception of marine resources subsequently representing marginal or famine food or being abandoned altogether even at the furthermost coastal limits of Europe. Here, we examine biomarkers extracted from human dental calculus, using sequential thermal desorption- and pyrolysis-GCMS, to report direct evidence for widespread consumption of seaweed and submerged aquatic and freshwater plants across Europe. Notably, evidence of consumption of these resources extends through the Neolithic transition to farming and into the Early Middle Ages, suggesting that these resources, now rarely eaten in Europe, only became marginal much more recently. Understanding ancient foodstuffs is crucial to reconstructing the past, while a better knowledge of local, forgotten resources is likewise important today. Marine food resources are commonly thought to have become marginal food or abandoned altogether with the spread of agriculture in Europe. Here, the authors use biomarkers in dental calculus to track widespread consumption of seaweed and aquatic plants through the Neolithic and into the Early Middle Ages.