Cereal product from the lakeshore settlement Twann, Lake Biel, dated to the Late Neolithic (Cortaillod culture, early to mid-4th millennium BCE). Excavated in 1974–1976 under the direction of Werner E. Stöckli and Alex R. Furger. First documented by Max Währen (1994, fig. 40). Part of Max Währen’s estate and property of the Museum Brot und Kunst – Forum Welternährung, Ulm, Germany (inventory number O4513). Analyses carried out within the framework of the ERC Project PLANTCULT (Grant Agreement No. 682529, Consolidator Grant 2016-2021, PI Soultana Maria Valamoti).

The freshly broken inner surface was analyed using a Hitachi TM4000Plus II tabletop SEM. Four SEM micrographs (all at magnification 500-fold) were used for the measurement of aleurone (double) cell wall thickness (lumen-to-lumen) in order to assess the possibility of the food remain to be in fact a charred mash residue using ImageJ, following the observations and Methods in Heiss et al. (2020).

Photogrammetric 3D model available by Danthine et al. (2023).

References:

• Danthine, B., Gail, N., Kurtze, C., & Heiss, A. G. (2023). Twann, Bielersee | Charred bread-like object. Österreichische Akademie der Wissenschaften. https://skfb.ly/oIXTV . DOI 10.13140/RG.2.2.19628.23681
• Heiss, A. G., Berihuete-Azorín, M., Antolín, F., Kubiak-Martens, L., Marinova, E., Arendt, E. K., Biliaderis, C. G., Kretschmer, H., Lazaridou, A., Stika, H.-P., Zarnkow, M., Baba, M., Bleicher, N., Ciałowicz, K. M., Chłodnicki, M., Matuschik, I., Schlichtherle, H., & Valamoti, S. M. (2020). Mashes to Mashes, Crust to Crust. Presenting a novel microstructural marker for malting in the archaeological record. PLOS ONE, 15(5), e0231696. DOI 10.1371/journal.pone.0231696
• Währen, M. (1994). Haushaltskonserven der Jungsteinzeit. Mit Neuidentifizierungen. Helvetia Archaeologica, 25(99), 90–115.