一项对古代陶器的研究提示，人类可能经历了从打鱼、狩猎和采集到农业的逐渐而非突然的转变。
Oliver E. Craig及其同事分析了保存在来自北欧的西波罗的海地区的132个陶质容器中的烹调残留物，从而确定这些残留物究竟来自陆地、海洋还是淡水生物。
这些作者研究了来自公元前4000年的15个遗址的陶锅， 公元前4000年是该地区驯化的动物和植物的首个证据出现的时间。这组作者发现，在农业和驯化动植物出现之后，打鱼仍然对人类饮食有贡献，来自沿海地区的锅含有一种见于海洋生物的碳富集的残留物。
此外，大约1/5的沿海锅还有其他的水生生物的生物痕迹，包括陆生动植物缺乏的脂肪和油。
在内陆遗址，28%的锅含有来自水生生物的残留物，它们看上去来自淡水鱼。
这组作者还报告了清晰的证据表明一旦农业到来，陶器在该地区被用于处理来自驯化动物的奶制品。这些发现提示，尽管农业的推广非常迅速，它当时可能没有导致从狩猎-采集生活到农业的急剧转变。(生物谷 Bioon.com)
doi:10.1073/pnas.1107202108
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Ancient lipids reveal continuity in culinary practices across the transition to agriculture in Northern Europe
Oliver E. Craig, Val J. Steele, Anders Fischer, Sönke Hartzd, S ren H. Andersene, Paul Donohoef, Aikaterini Glykoug, Hayley Saula, D. Martin Jonesf, Eva Kochh,2, and Carl P. Heronb
Farming transformed societies globally. Yet, despite more than a century of research, there is little consensus on the speed or completeness of this fundamental change and, consequently, on its principal drivers. For Northern Europe, the debate has often centered on the rich archaeological record of the Western Baltic, but even here it is unclear how quickly or completely people abandoned wild terrestrial and marine resources after the introduction of domesticated plants and animals at ∼4000 calibrated years B.C. Ceramic containers are found ubiquitously on these sites and contain remarkably well-preserved lipids derived from the original use of the vessel. Reconstructing culinary practices from this ceramic record can contribute to longstanding debates concerning the origins of farming. Here we present data on the molecular and isotopic characteristics of lipids extracted from 133 ceramic vessels and 100 carbonized surface residues dating to immediately before and after the first evidence of domesticated animals and plants in the Western Baltic. The presence of specific lipid biomarkers, notably ω-(o-alkylphenyl)alkanoic acids, and the isotopic composition of individual n-alkanoic acids clearly show that a significant proportion (∼20%) of ceramic vessels with lipids preserved continued to be used for processing marine and freshwater resources across the transition to agriculture in this region. Although changes in pottery use are immediately evident, our data challenge the popular notions that economies were completely transformed with the arrival of farming and that Neolithic pottery was exclusively associated with produce from domesticated animals and plants.
