Looking through human eating in prehistoric and protohistoric Campania: Bio-archaeological remains of a cereal soup cooked in a turtle carapace from Acerra (NA), Southern Italy

Abstract

During the archaeological excavation campaign of June 2018, in the course of the construction works of the Naples - Bari High-Speed Rail Line (route to the NapoliCancello section) in Acerra (NA) a silo and a combustion pit were found inside an abandoned village of the Eneolithic age with abundant carpological remains. In the same area, but dating back to the Middle Bronze Age II, some fragments were found of osteological burnt animal bones, coming from the sieving of the flling of a pit of the Bronze Age; among them a unicum, consisting of a fragment of burned costal plaque, belonging to a Testudo hermanni, to which charred remains were stuck, composed of some caryopses of medium spelled (Triticum dicoccum), fragmentary caryopses of barley (Hordeum vulgare) and lumps of agglutinated organic substance. This discovery made it possible to reconstruct the fragment of a pot with residues of a cereal-based soup. Furthermore, dating to the Early Bronze Age II, two fragments of whole-meal bread rich in bran and cereal seeds were also found.