More than 1000 years earlier than expected: as early as the 2nd millennium BC In Greece, lignite was used in ovens, suggesting smoke traces in the tartar of skeletal finds. The fossil fuel apparently enabled the almost industrial production of bronze objects and ceramics in the workshops of the Mycenaean culture, say the scientists.
Impressive finds from Mycenae and other archaeological sites in Greece testify to a Bronze Age civilization, which is considered to be the first advanced civilization of mainland Europe. In addition to monumental buildings and art treasures, the Mycenaean era is also known for an astonishingly high level of productivity. Manufactured masses of bronze weapons and ceramics. So far, it was unclear what caused the temperatures required in the wood-poor region.
Initially, however, this question was not the focus of the archaeologists working with Philipp Stockhammer from the Ludwig Maximilians University in Munich: As part of their study, they actually wanted to research the eating habits of the Bronze Age people in the eastern Mediterranean. To do this, they looked for traces of food in fossil tartar from skeletal finds from mainland Greece via Crete to the Middle East and Egypt. As the team reports, in the course of their analyzes it became clear that the deposits on the teeth represented a richer source of information than initially thought:
Smoke traces in the tartar
“We have found that not only micro residues, fats and proteins from the respective food were embedded in the tartar and preserved over the millennia, but also all the soot and exhaust gases that came into the mouth through inhalation,” reports Stockhammer. As the scientists explain, based on certain chemical characteristics of the particles, it was also possible to draw conclusions about what exactly was used as fuel at the time.
Unsurprisingly, it initially appeared that in many cases they came across the signature of the smoke from pine, pine and oak wood in the tartar. Some people had also inhaled particles that result from burning dried animal manure – as is still common today in some wood-poor regions. But then the scientists discovered a surprising signature: “When we analyzed the data series from the Mycenaean castle of Tiryns on the southern Greek mainland and the western Cretan port of Chania, we could hardly believe it at first,” reports co-author Stephen Buckley from the University of Tübingen . “Half of all the individuals we examined from both locations – men and women – clearly had the chemical signature of lignite in the tartar in addition to the wood to be expected”.
Declaration for mass production
The characteristics of the brown coal traces were so specific that it was possible to draw conclusions about where the fossil fuel came from. In southern Greece, people apparently used a well-known deposit near Olympia – about 150 kilometers west of Tiryns. In Crete, on the other hand, a nearby deposit supplied the lignite for the residents of Chania. “With our results, we can now see the use of lignite as early as the 14th and 13th centuries BC. And thus a good 1000 years earlier than previously assumed, ”says Buckley. Because so far the earliest evidence of the use of this fuel came from the time of classical Greece, the scientists report.
According to them, the study now also sheds light on the question, as it did in the
Mycenaean culture over 3000 years ago mass production was possible. The researchers assume that people inhaled lignite smoke that flowed out of the kilns. “The findings of Mycenaean ceramics from Spain to Syria show that tens of thousands of vessels were produced annually in the workshops in southern Greece, especially for export,” says Stockhammer. In the densely populated and largely deforested region, this was probably only possible because the fossil fuel was used. “So we now have to rethink resource management in Mycenaean Greece,” says the archaeologist.
Source: Ludwig Maximilians University of Munich, specialist article: Scientific Reports, doi: 10.1038 / s41598-021-03544-w