The earlier evidence of vino drink in the Americas may have been find in the leftover of fifteenth - century ceramic . Discovered on a small Caribbean island , the sherds also tell a story of changing culinary tradition of the area in the Wake Island of Spanish colonialism .
In a paper detailing their findings , researchers describe 40 clayware shard found on Isla de Mona and try out them using gas chromatography and mass spectrometry , making this the first study to use molecular analysis methods on 15th - C ceramics from the Puerto Rico neighborhood .
Among these fragments were those from a Spanish olive jarful dated between 1490 - 1520 CE – around the timeColumbusfirst noticed the island – and containing remainder of wine . Such jars were used in Europe at that fourth dimension to stack away food and swimming goods .
Ceramic samples from the six categories of pottery that were analyzed.Image credit: Briggs et al., Archaeological and Anthropological Sciences, 2023 (CC BY 4.0)
The remnants of the shock provide the early molecular grounds ofwinein the Americas we have to date , and the author have ripe rationality to believe that the imported wine-coloured was consumed on the island : the jar was discovered inside a cave , near a bell that may have been used in religious rites .
“ Whether wipe out by Europeans or members of the Indigenous population , this is direct grounds for the importation and drunkenness of European vino to a tiny island in the Caribbean shortly after the comer of Spanish colonialists , ” they indite .
The depth psychology also extend an intriguing insight into culinary practices on the island . Despite determine wad of Pisces off-white scattered around the excavation website , no traces of brute residues were find in sherds of preparation pots .
“ Put merely , it appears there was more than one way tocook a fish , ” the researchers conclude .
In Europe , sweat and casseroles were the preference , hence meat remnants are often obtain in cooking flowerpot from there . On Isla de Mona , however , the enquiry hint , the Indigenous Taino people may have choose for spit - roasting , infernal region - roasting , or the use of a “ barbacoa ” ( a heavy raised wooden grating , sort of like a barbecue ) to make fish . vegetable , meanwhile , were cook in ceramic quite a little . This would explain the absence seizure of marine biomarkers among the remnants .
“ It appears traditional foodways were maintained even after an influx of European colonialists arrived on the island with their sugarcoat ceramics and olive jar , ” writes the team .
There was also a distinct lack of dairy products – a staple of European cooking – in the cooking pile on Isla de Mona , further suggest that Indigenous culinary tradition persisted in spite of , and were perhaps even adopted by , Spanish colonialists .
“ Two culinary worlds collide in the Caribbean over 500 years ago , driven by the other Spanish colonial impositions . We really did n’t know much about the culinary heritage of this area and the influence of early colonialist on solid food traditions , so uncovering the uncovering have been really exciting , ” steer generator Dr Lisa Briggs enunciate in astatement .
“ The strong culinary traditions of the Taino people in creating the barbecue held firm despite Spanish colonialism , and influenced food right fill out the world . This continues today , as we are all intimate with a barbeque . I ’m really please that this research shines a light on the cultural inheritance of this community . ”
The study is published inArchaeological and Anthropological Sciences .
