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New Technology ‘Tastes’ Food Cooked 3,000 Years Ago

May 24, 2004

Archaeologists at the University of New England are analysing traces of food
from 3,000-year-old cooking pots to help them understand population changes
in prehistoric Asia Minor.

Todd Craig, a postgraduate archaeology student at UNE, said the remains of
cooking pots unearthed at Gordium in central Turkey could help
archaeologists to date the arrival of a new population, eating different
kinds of food, some time between 1,200 and 1,000 BC. These new arrivals were
the Phrygians, who made Gordium the capital of their Anatolian kingdom.

Todd is using a technique that can analyse the molecular composition of tiny
traces of food (mainly fats) preserved on and within potsherds. Called
“liquid chromatography- mass spectrometry” (LC-MS), it uses a liquid solvent
to separate the molecules in a sample of material, and then classifies the
molecules according to their mass and polarity. The project has been made
possible by UNE’s purchase of new LC-MS equipment last year, at a cost of
$340,000, with the help of a $260,000 grant from the Australian Research
Council.

“This technology is allowing a new focus on the food people were eating as
an indicator of prehistoric population changes,” Todd said. “It can detect
the presence, thousands of years ago, of things like olive oil and wine that
don’t survive archaeologically. I’m hoping to find a significant difference
between what people were cooking in the Late Bronze Age and in the early
phases of the Iron Age.” Archaeologists believe this transition in Asia
Minor reflects the arrival of a new population (the Phrygians), rather than
a cultural evolution within a single population.

Todd’s project is part of an international research effort. His supervisor
at UNE, Dr Peter Grave, is undertaking a research project on Iron Age trade
and exchange in Anatolia.

The LC-MS equipment is installed in Chemistry at UNE. Chemistry’s Associate
Professor Stephen Glover said it gave UNE a capacity for this kind of
analysis equivalent to that of any leading university in Australia. “Todd’s
research is a good example of the diversity of problems, in a wide range of
disciplines, that it can help to solve,” Dr Glover said.

As part of its program of events marking National Archaeology Week, UNE’s
School of Human and Environmental Studies will present a banquet, “King
Midas’ Feast”, this Friday evening [21 May] at 6.30 pm, inspired by findings
in the tomb of that Phrygian monarch. At the feast, Dr Peter Grave will give
a talk about archaeology in Asia Minor. For tickets, contact Carmel Velleley
on (02) 6773 2145.

Media contact: Todd Craig, School of Human and Environmental Studies (SHES),
UNE (02) 6773 3527, Dr Peter Grave, SHES, UNE (02) 6773 2062, or Jim
Scanlan, Public Relations, UNE (02) 6773 3049. A photograph of Todd Craig in
the laboratory is available. Please contact Jim Scanlan on (02) 6773 3049.

Posted by lcreedy at May 24, 2004 04:02 PM