Biomolecular analyses reveal grape-based beverages, dairy processing, and pottery function in Kura–Araxes culinary practices

Abstract

The Kura–Araxes culture emerged in the South Caucasus in the mid-4th millennium BCE as an expression of small-scale, household-based communities. It subsequently expanded across the highlands, becoming the most widespread cultural tradition of the early to mid-3rd millennium BCE Bronze Age Southwest Asia, clearly distinct from the contemporaneous urban trajectories of early state societies in Mesopotamia. Ceramics were among the most distinctive expressions of the Kura–Araxes tradition and key markers of its expansion. They played an important role in the dynamics of social integration as well as in the material and cultural reproduction of the Kura–Araxes communities over space and through time. By adopting an integrated methodological approach combining technological, morphological, use-wear, and biomolecular analyses of pottery from the settlement of Qaraçinar (Azerbaijan), this study sheds light on the functions of ceramics within the framework of Kura–Araxes foodways. The results reveal a diverse diet supported by a mixed subsistence economy, and emphasize the cultural importance of grape-derived beverages, alongside the central role of dairy products and ruminant carcass fats in Kura–Araxes cuisine. Novel markers of culinary practices are identified, including thermal processing of carcass fats and dairy, as well as preliminary evidence of food transformation and preservation techniques that may have involved the use of fruits and conifer-derived plant products. A functional distinction is also observed between the versatile Monochrome Ware and Red-Black Burnished Ware, the latter likely dedicated to fruit- or grape-based and dairy beverages, suggesting the existence of codified cultural behaviors related to food preparation and consumption.