*** Dataset of microfossil analysis of pottery foodcrust samples from Bronze Age sites in Estonia ***

Author: Kristiina Johanson
Department of Archaeology, Institute of History and Archaeology, University of Tartu
Contact information: Kristiina.johanson@ut.ee


***General introduction***

This dataset contains detailed analysis of microfossils from nine pottery foodcrust samples, taken from Iru Bronze Age fortified settlement and Bronze Age cemeteries in Iru, Muuksi and Jaani at Väo. The dataset accompanies the article "Segregated food culture? Bronze Age (1250–500 cal BCE) dietary practices in Northern Estonia", submitted for publication in the journal Archaeological and Anthropological Sciences. The authors of the article are Mari Tõrv (corresponding author), Shidong Chen, Agnes Unt, Kristiina Johanson, Eve Rannamäe, Liivi Varul, Sandra Sammler, Holar Sepp, Valter Lang, Andres Tvauri, Siim Salmar, John Meadows and Ester Oras. 


***Purpose of the data collection***

The purpose of the data collection was to obtain information on the microfossils (especially plants) from the foodcrust samples that would indicate at the plants that were used in diet but also record other microfossils that can be found from the foodcrust. The dataset was created in the frame of project PSG492 'Pots and bones, lipids and proteins: biomolecular archaeology for ancient dietary studies', supported by the Estonian Research Council.


***Description of the data in this dataset***

The dataset consists of three files:
'README.txt' - this file
'Table 1. The results_food crust_microremains.xlsx' - a table file that contains the numerical values of microremains of the food crust of nine potsherds from four Estonian Bronze Age burial sites and one settlement site.
'Report on the analysis of microremains from the food crust samples of the pottery from Estonian Bronze Age sites' - a text file that contains detailed analysis of the found microremains, comprising of the data description, methods and results.


***xlsx table - data description***

MICROFOSSIL - type of microfossiThe resuls found from the samples: phytoliths, starch grains, fungal remains, diatoms, calcium oxalate crystals, pollen grains, pieces of bone, wood tissue and pits, plant tissue (other than wood), flesh remains, oil bubbles. Phytolith morphotypes are described after ICPN 2.0 (Neumann et al. 2019).

SAMPLE ID - the name of the site and the collection number of the pottery sherd which foodcrust was sampled. 
The abbreviations used:
Iru_s - Iru fortified settlement
Iru_b - Iru stone grave
Mks - Muuksi stone grave
VJn - Jaani at Väo stone grave

AI - Tallinn University archaeological research collection (TLÜ arheoloogia teaduskogu) 

SUM - the number of identified microfossils