Hostname: page-component-8448b6f56d-42gr6 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-04-18T11:36:39.241Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Direct detection of maize in pottery residues via compound specific stable carbon isotope analysis

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  10 March 2015

Eleanora A. Reber ,
Stephanie N. Dudd ,
Nikolaas J. van der Merwe  and
Richard P. Evershed
Eleanora A. Reber
Affiliation:
Anthropology Program, UNC Wilmington, 601 S. College Rd, Wilmington, NC 28403, (Email: rebere@uncwil.edu)
Stephanie N. Dudd
Affiliation:
Waters Corporation, Atlas Park, Simonsway, Manchester, M22 5PP, United Kingdom
Nikolaas J. van der Merwe
Affiliation:
Archaeology Department, University of Cape Town, Private Bag Rondebosch 7700, South Africa Departments of Anthropology and Earth and Planetary Sciences, Harvard University
Richard P. Evershed
Affiliation:
Organic Geochemistry Unit, Biochemistry Research Center, University of Bristol, Cantock’s Close, Bristol BS8 1TS United Kingdom (Email: r.p.evershed@bristol.ac.uk)
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Discovering what was cooked in a pot by identifying lipids trapped in the potsherds has been a highly successful method developed in recent years. Here the authors identify a compound which shows the pots had been used to process maize – probably the most important foodstuff in later prehistoric North America. The uptake of maize is confirmed as coincident with the Mississippian fluorescence.

Keywords

North Americalipidextractionmaize
Type
Method
Information
Antiquity , Volume 78 , Issue 301 , September 2004 , pp. 682 - 691
Copyright
Copyright © Antiquity Publications Ltd. 2004

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Aillaud, S. 2001. Field and Laboratory Studies of Diagenetic Reactions Affecting Lipid Residues Absorbed in Unglazed Archaeological Pottery Vessels. Ph.D. Thesis, Organic Geochemistry Unit, Biogeochemistry Research Centre, University of Bristol.Google Scholar
Bianchi, G., Avato, P. & Salamini, F.. 1984. Surface waxes from grain, leaves, and husks of maize (Zea mays L.). Cereal Chemistry 61: 45–47.Google Scholar
Broida, M. 1984. An estimate of the percentage of maize in the diets of two Kentucky Fort Ancient villages, in Pollack, D.L. et al. (ed.), Late Prehistoric Research in Kentucky 68–82. Frankfort: Kentucky Heritage Council.Google Scholar
Buikstra, J.E., Bullington, J. Charles, D.K. Cook, D.C. Frankenberg, S.R. Konigsberg, L.W. Lambert, J.B. & Xue, L.. 1987. Diet, demography, and the development of horticulture, in Keegan, W.F. (ed.), Emergent Horticultural Economies of the Eastern Woodlands 67–86. Carbondale: Center for Archaeological Investigations, Southern Illinois University at Carbondale.Google Scholar
Buikstra, J.E. & Milner, G.R.. 1991. Isotopic and archaeological interpretations of diet in the Central Mississippi Valley. Journal of Archaeological Science 18: 319–329.Google Scholar
Condamin, J. & Formenti, F.. 1978. Detection du contenu d’amphores antiques (huiles, vin) etude methodologique. Revue d’Archeometrie 2: 43–58.Google Scholar
Condamin, J., Formenti, F. Metais, M.O. Michel, M. & Blond, P.. 1976. The application of gas chromatography to the tracing of oil in ancient amphorae, Archaeometry 18: 195–201.Google Scholar
Copley, M.S., Berstan, R. Dudd, S.N. Docherty, G. Mukherjee, A.J. Straker, V. Payne, S. & Evershed, R.P.. 2003. Direct chemical evidence for widespread dairying in prehistoric Britain, PNAS 100: 1524–1529.Google Scholar
Doebley, J. 1990. Molecular evidence and the evolution of maize, in Bretting, P.K. (ed.), New Perspectives on the Origins and Evolution of New World Domesticated Plants 44(3): 6–28. New York: New York Botanical Garden.Google Scholar
Dudd, S.N. & Evershed, R.P.. 1998. Direct demonstration of milk as an element of archaeological economies. Science 282: 1478–1481.Google Scholar
Dudd, S.N., Evershed, R.P. & Gibson, A.M.. 1999. Evidence for varying patterns of exploitation of animal products in different prehistoric pottery traditions based on lipids preserved in surface and absorbed residues. Journal of Archaeological Science 26: 1473–1482.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Eglinton, G. & Logan, G.A.. 1991. Molecular preservation. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London B 333: 315–328.Google Scholar
Evershed, R.P. 1993. Biomolecular archaeology and lipids. World Archaeology 25: 74–93.Google Scholar
Evershed, R.P. & Charters, S.. 1995. Simulating the degradation of animal fats in archaeological ceramics, in Grimalt, J.O. & Dorronsoro, C. (ed.), Organic Geochemistry: Developments and Applications to Energy, Climate, Environment and Human History. Donostia-San Sebastian: A.I.G.O.A.Google Scholar
Evershed, R.P., Dudd, S.N. Anderson-Stojanovic, V.R. & Gebhard, E.R.. 2003. New chemical evidence for the use of combed ware pottery vessels as beehives in Ancient Greece. Journal of Archaeological Science 30: 1–12.Google Scholar
Evershed, R.P., Dudd, S.N. Charters, S. Mottram, H.R. Stott, A.W. Raven, A. Van Bergen, P.F. & Bland, H.A.. 1999. Lipids as carriers of anthropogenic signals from prehistory. Philosophical Transcriptions of the Research of the Royal Society of London B 354: 19–31.Google Scholar
Evershed, R.P., Dudd, S.N. Copley, M.S. Berstan, R. Stott, A.W. Mottram, H. Buckley, S.A. & Crossman, Z.. 2002. Chemistry of archaeological animal fats. Accounts of Chemical Research 35: 660–668.Google Scholar
Evershed, R.P., Heron, C. Charters, S. & Goad, L.J.. 1992a. Chemical analysis of organic residues in ancient pottery: methodological guidelines and applications, in White, R. & Page, H. (ed.), Organic Residues in Archaeology: Their Identification and Analysis 11–26. London: Ukic Archaeology Section.Google Scholar
Evershed, R.P., Heron, C. Charters, S. & Goad, L.J.. 1992b. The survival of food residues: new methods of analysis, interpretation and application, in (ed.), New Developments in Archaeological Science: A Joint Symposium of the Royal Society and the British Academy, Feb 1991.Google Scholar
Evershed, R.P., Heron, C. & Goad, L.J.. 1990. Analysis of Organic Residues of Archaeological Origin by High-temperature Gas Chromatography and Gas Chromatography-Mass Spectrometry. Analyst 115: 1339–1342.Google Scholar
Evershed, R.P., Stott, A.W. Raven, A. Dudd, S.N. Charters, S. & Leyden, A.. 1995. Formation of long-chain ketones in ancient pottery vessels by pyrolysis of acyl lipids. Tetrahedron Letters 36: 8875–8878.Google Scholar
Evershed, R.P., Vaughan, S.J. Dudd, S.N. & Soles, J.S.. 1997. Fuel for thought? Beeswax in lamps and conical cups from Late Minoan Crete. Antiquity 71: 979–985.Google Scholar
Fritz, G.J. 1992. ‘Newer,’ ‘better’ maize and the Mississippian Emergence: a critique of prime mover explanations, in Woods, W.I. (ed.), Late Prehistoric Agriculture, Observations from the Midwest 8: 19–43. Springfield: Illinois Historic Preservation Agency.Google Scholar
Fritz, G.J. & Kidder, T.R.. 1993. Recent investigations into prehistoric agriculture in the Lower Mississippi Valley. Southeastern Archaeology 12: 1–14.Google Scholar
Gunstone, F.D., Harwood, J.L. & Padley, F.B. (ed.). 1994. The Lipid Handbook. London: Chapman and Hall.Google Scholar
Heron, C. & Evershed, R.P.. 1993. The analysis of organic residues and the study of pottery use, in Schiffer, M.B. (ed.), Archaeological Method and Theory 5: 247–284. Tucson: The University of Arizona Press.Google Scholar
Heron, C., Evershed, R.P. Goad, L.J. & Denham, V.. 1989. New approaches to the analysis of organic residues from archaeological remains, in Budd, P. et al. (ed.), Archaeological sciences 1989: proceedings of a conference on the application of scientific techniques to archaeology, Bradford, September 1989 9: 332–339. Oxford: Oxbow.Google Scholar
Kelly, J.E. 1992. The Impact of Maize on the Development of Nucleated Settlements: An American Bottom Example, in Woods, W.I. (ed.), Late Prehistoric Agriculture, Observations from the Midwest 167–197. Springfield: Illinois Historic Preservation Agency.Google Scholar
Kidder, T.R. 1992. Timing and consequences of the introduction of maize agriculture in the Lower Mississippi Valley. North American Archaeologist 13: 15–41.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kolattukudy, P.E. (ed.). 1976. The Chemistry and Biochemistral of Natural Waxes. Amsterdam: Elsevier Press.Google Scholar
Lambert, J.B., Szpunar, C.B. & Buikstra, J.E.. 1979. Chemical analysis of excavated human bone from Middle and Late Woodland sites. Archaeometry 21: 115–129.Google Scholar
Larsen, C.S. 2000. Reading the bones of La Florida, Scientific American June 2000: 80–85.Google Scholar
Larsen, C.S., Schoeninger, M.J. Van Der Merwe, N. Moore, K.M. & Lee-Thorp, J.. 1992. Carbon and nitrogen stable isotopic signatures of human dietary change in the Georgia Bight. American Journal of Physical Anthropology 89: 197–214.Google Scholar
Lynott, M.J., Boutton, T.W. Price, J.E. & Nelson, D.E.. 1986. Stable carbon isotopic evidence for maize agriculture in southeast Missouri and northeast Arkansas. American Antiquity 51: 51–65.Google Scholar
Malainey, M.E., Przybylski, K. & Sherriff, B.L.. 1999. The effects of thermal and oxidative degradation on the fatty acid composition of food plants and animals of Western Canada: implications for the identification of archaeological vessel residues. Journal of Archaeological Science 26: 95–103.Google Scholar
Malainey, M.E., Przybylski, K. & Sherriff, B.L. 2001. One person’s food: how and why fish avoidance may affect the settlement and subsistence patterns of hunter-gatherers. American Antiquity 66: 141–161.Google Scholar
Mottram, H.R., Dudd, S.N. Lawrence, G.J. Stott, A.W. & Evershed, R.P.. 1999. New chromatographic, mass spectrometric and stable isotope approaches to the classification of degraded animal fats preserved in archaeological pottery. Journal of Chromatography A 833: 209–221.Google Scholar
Reber, E.A. 2001. Maize Detection in Absorbed Pottery Residues: Development and Archaeological Application. Ph.D., Department of Anthropology, Harvard University.Google Scholar
Reber, E.A. & Evershed, R.P.. 2004. Identification of maize in absorbed organic residues: a cautionary tale. Journal of Archaeological Science 31: 399–410.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rindos, D. & Johannessen, S.. 1991. Human-Plant Interactions and Cultural Change in the American Bottom, in Emerson, T.E. & Lewis, R.B. (ed.), Cahokia and the Hinterlands, Middle Mississippian Cultures of the Midwest 35–45. Urbana: University of Illinois Press.Google Scholar
Van Der Merwe, N. & Medina, E.. 1991. The Canopy Effect, Carbon Isotope Ratios and Foodwebs in Amazonia. Journal of Archaeological Science 18: 249–259.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Van Der Merwe, N.J. & Vogel, J.C.. 1978. 13C content of human collagen as a measure of prehistoric diet in Woodland North America. Nature 276: 815–816.Google Scholar
Vogel, J.C. & Van Der Merwe, N.J.. 1977. Isotopic evidence for early maize cultivation in New York State. American Antiquity 42: 238–242.Google Scholar
Voigt, E.E. 1986. Late Woodland and Emergent Mississippian Plant Use. New World Paleoethnobotany 47: 197–232.Google Scholar
Wagner, G.E. 1986. The corn and cultivated beans of the Fort Ancient Indians. New World Paleoethnobotany 47: 107–135.Google Scholar
Walton, T.J. 1990. Waxes, cutin and suberin, in Harwood, J.L. & Bowyer, J.R. (ed.), Lipids, Membranes and Aspects of Photobiology 4: 105–158. London: Academic Press.Google Scholar
Watson, S.A. & Ramstad, P.E. (ed.). 1987. Corn: Chemistry and Technology. St. Paul: American Association of Cereal Chemists.Google Scholar