Recent research at a 5,500-year-old Neolithic site on the Danish island of Funen is challenging long-held assumptions about early agricultural diets. The site, associated with the Funnel Cup culture, has yielded a wealth of artifacts, including millstones and more than 5,000 roasted grains such as hulled barley, emmer, and durum wheat.

One of the 14 grinding stones discovered by archaeologists during excavations of a 5,500-year-old settlement on the Danish island of Funen. Credit: Niels H. Andersen, Moesgaard Museum

Traditionally, millstones were intended to be used as tools to produce flour for making bread. But recent research by an international team from Denmark, Germany and Spain, including archaeobotanist Dr. Welmoed Out and Moesgaard Museum principal investigator Dr. Niels H. Andersen, offers a different perspective. The researchers used advanced methods to analyze microscopic mineral remains of plants (phytoliths) and starch grains found in these millstones. Surprisingly, they found no evidence of grain grinding. In fact, the identified starch grains come from wild plants and not from grains.

"We have not identified the plants from which the starch grains came. We have simply ruled out the most obvious candidates, namely grains found at the site that were not ground, and also various vintages, including hazelnut," explained Dr. Fora. Dr. Andersen noted that the millstones did not show signs of normal use associated with grinding grain. Instead, these stones were probably used with presses to press materials, such as a gruel and pestle.The findings, published in Vegetation History and Archaeobotany, suggest that early Neolithic farmers at Frydenlund prepared cereals as porridge or grains rather than bread. This discovery is consistent with evidence collected at other funnel cup sites in Northern Europe, where remains of cooked grains, berries, nuts, roots and meat have been discovered. According to Dr. Andersen, "the first farmers did not live on bread and water, but rather on porridge and water, along with others. food collected and hunted. »

               Microscopies of archaeological starch granules from different grinding  stones from Frydenlund, magnified 400 times (the white bars represent 20 μm), each photographed in both plane-polarized (left) and cross-polarized light. Credit: Cristina N. Patús, HUMANE, Barcelona

In addition to cereals, researchers identified hazelnuts and blackberries as significant dietary components, reflecting a mix of agriculture and foraging. The grinding stones’ exclusive use for processing wild plants underscores the continued importance of foraged foods even as farming became more established.

If you’re curious about what the settlement on South Funen looked like in the early Neolithic period, here’s an informed guess in the form of a model displayed at Moesgaard Museum. Credit: Niels H. Andersen

This research is the first to apply phytolith and starch analyses to grinding stones from Northern Europe’s early farmers, offering unprecedented insights into Neolithic food preparation.

“This study involves only one settlement,” cautioned the researchers. “Different results might emerge when this method is applied to findings from other excavations.” Future research will extend this approach to other Northern European sites, providing a broader picture of early Neolithic dietary practices and their role in the neolithization process.