Residues from four pottery fragments in southern India contain molecules consistent with plant foods and milk products. The peer-reviewed work offers material clues to food preparation at two ancient settlements. Chemical similarities help reconstruct those practices, although the food species and particular recipes cannot be established from these traces alone.
Pottery from Keeladi and Gottiprolu, two archaeological settlements in southern India, has yielded chemical signs compatible with plant processing and dairy use. The peer-reviewed investigation examined four unglazed fragments from contexts extending from the sixth to the first centuries BCE. Compounds surviving in the ceramics offer evidence of food practices even where the original ingredients have long disappeared.[1], [2]
The team used high-resolution chemical analysis to separate and identify molecules in the residues. Its liquid-based approach can examine large or heat-sensitive compounds that conventional gas-based analysis handles less readily. Findings included plant procyanidins, a family of plant compounds, and several classes of fats. X-ray imaging supplied a different view of the ceramics’ pores and structure; that imaging did not itself establish the identity of the foods.[1]
The milk interpretation draws on lipid similarities as well as cattle remains already known from the sites. It does not provide a molecular identification of a cattle breed. Likewise, plant-related molecules do not establish a recipe or one particular plant. The authors call for wider sampling, locally relevant reference comparisons and independent biomolecular checks to test their proposed food sources.[1]
