Review article
https://doi.org/10.33254/aia.19.1.9
Organic residue analysis of pottery and sampling procedure for Croatian sites proposal
Mateja Hulina
orcid.org/0009-0007-6026-6707
; Institute of Archaeology, Zagreb, Croatia
Abstract
Organic residue analysis (ORA) of pottery is a frequently used and important part of archaeological research today. It can provide information about the diet or the use of pottery and many other aspects of daily lives of archaeological populations, which would otherwise be lost. The chemical compounds that are most often preserved in ceramics and are therefore very suitable for this type of analysis are lipids (e.g. fatty acids, triglycerides, alcohols, alkanes, wax esters, ketones). There are several methods of extracting lipids from ceramics, depending on what we want to find out; those most commonly used are direct acid extraction and solvent extraction. After the extraction, analyses are performed by gas chromatography (GC), gas chromatographymass spectrometry (GC-MS) and, when possible, 13C isotope analysis from palmitic and stearic acid (GC-C-IRMS). This paper briefly describes the mentioned methods, the chemical background, and the possibilities and examples of the already conducted research including ORA. Organic residue analysis begins with sampling, where it is very important to avoid contamination; therefore, a proposal is made for the procedure of sampling pottery sherds for ORA, with the emphasis on adequate sample packaging (aluminium foil). It is also important to note that the researcher should be provided with as much contextual information as possible. Also, a proposal for a sampling form for ORA is provided.
Keywords
organic residues; lipids; pottery; chemical analyses; sampling; contamination
Hrčak ID:
312522
URI
Publication date:
28.12.2023.
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