This paper presents an integrated methodology for the analysis of archaeological remains of cereal meals, based on scanning electronic microscopic analyses of microstructures of charred food fragments from Neolithic Çatalhöyük (Turkey). The remains of cereal foods as ‘bread-like’ or ‘porridge-like’ small charred lumps of various amalgamated plant materials are frequently recovered from Neolithic and later archaeological sites in southwest Asia and Europe. Cereal food remains have recently attracted interest because the identification of their plant contents, the forms of food that they represent and the methods used in their creation can provide unique information about ancient culinary traditions and routine food processing, preparation and cooking techniques. Here, we focus on three methodological aspects: (1) the analysis of their composition; (2) the analysis of their microstructure to determine preparation and cooking processes; (3) the comparison with experimental reference materials. Preliminary results are presented on the botanical composition and cooking processes represented by the charred cereal preparations found at Neolithic Çatalhöyük (Turkey), for example cereals processed into bread, dough and/or porridge.

中文翻译：

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研究考古谷物食品的方法论方法：以ÇatalhöyükEast（土耳其）为例。

本文基于对新石器时代的Çatalhöyük（土耳其）烧焦的食物碎片的微观结构的扫描电子显微镜分析，提出了一种用于分析谷物粕考古遗迹的综合方法。谷物食品的残留物，如“面包样”或“粥样”小烧焦的各种混合植物材料的团块，经常从新石器时代及后来在西南亚和欧洲的考古现场中回收。谷物食品的残留物最近引起了人们的兴趣，因为它们的植物成分，它们代表的食品形式以及其使用的方法的鉴定可以提供有关古代烹饪传统以及常规食品加工，制备和烹饪技术的独特信息。在这里，我们集中在三个方法论方面：（1）对其组成的分析；（2）分析其微观结构，以确定制备和烹饪过程；（3）与实验参考资料的比较。在新石器时代的Çatalhöyük（土耳其）发现的烧焦谷物制品代表的植物成分和蒸煮过程的初步结果，例如加工成面包，面团和/或粥的谷物。