Leibniz Centre for Tropical Marine Research, 28359, Bremen, Germany.
Rosenstiel School of Marine and Atmospheric Science, University of Miami, Miami, FL, 33149, USA.
Sci Rep. 2017 Jun 15;7(1):3555. doi: 10.1038/s41598-017-03715-8.
The reconstruction of pre-depositional cooking treatments used by prehistoric coastal populations for processing aquatic faunal resources is often difficult in archaeological shell midden assemblages. Besides limiting our knowledge of various social, cultural, economic and technological aspects of shell midden formation, unknown pre-depositional cooking techniques can also introduce large errors in palaeoclimate reconstructions as they can considerably alter the geochemical proxy signatures in calcareous skeletal structures such as bivalve shells or fish otoliths. Based on experimental and archaeological data, we show that carbonate clumped-isotope thermometry can be used to detect and reconstruct prehistoric processing methods in skeletal aragonite from archaeological shell midden assemblages. Given the temperature-dependent re-equilibration of clumped isotopes in aragonitic carbonates, this allows specific processing, cooking or trash dispersal strategies such as boiling, roasting, or burning to be differentiated. Besides permitting the detailed reconstruction of cultural or technological aspects of shell midden formation, this also allows erroneous palaeoclimate reconstructions to be avoided as all aragonitic shells subjected to pre-historic cooking methods show a clear alteration of their initial oxygen isotopic composition.
重建史前沿海居民在处理水生动物资源时使用的沉积前烹饪处理方法，在考古贝类垃圾场组合中往往很困难。除了限制我们对贝类垃圾场形成的各种社会、文化、经济和技术方面的了解外，未知的沉积前烹饪技术还会在古气候重建中引入很大的误差，因为它们会极大地改变贝类（如双壳类贝壳或鱼类耳石）碳酸钙质骨骼结构中的地球化学示踪剂特征。基于实验和考古数据，我们表明，碳酸盐团簇同位素热计量法可用于检测和重建考古贝类垃圾场中骨骼文石中的史前处理方法。由于文石碳酸钙中团簇同位素的温度依赖性再平衡，这允许区分特定的处理、烹饪或垃圾分散策略，如煮沸、烘烤或燃烧。除了允许详细重建贝类垃圾场形成的文化或技术方面外，这还可以避免错误的古气候重建，因为所有经历过史前烹饪方法的文石贝壳都显示出其初始氧同位素组成的明显改变。
