Program > By author > Tarifa-Mateo Nadia

In the early Neolithic period, a change occurred in the relationship between society and the environment, characterised by a transformation in the relations of management and exploitation of natural resources. Linked to the Neolithic origin, the appropriation and direct intervention on the reproductive rhythms of these resources show the scope of this new socioeconomic system. This fact not only marked a change in subsistence strategies, but also in the diet of the human groups involved in these changes. 

The biomolecular and isotopic characterisation of the organic residues preserved in pottery provides essential information to approach the acquisition, production and consumption of products. The following work presents a synthesis of the results of different Neolithic sites located in the Mediterranean coast of the Iberian Peninsula obtained by gas chromatography, mass spectrometry and isotopic analysis of the lipids eventually preserved in ceramic vessels. 

In a period as relevant in the evolution of food management as in the Neolithic period, the identification of meat products with a domestic and wild origin, dairy products and plant resources in different contexts of the Iberian Peninsula allows us to provide new data to the economy and the diet of the human groups that occupied the Iberian Peninsula more than 7000 years ago.