Lipid Residues in Ancient African Pottery Nadia Graham
- Slides: 20
Lipid Residues in Ancient African Pottery Nadia Graham 1, Robert Berstan 1, Kathleen Ryan 2, Karega-Munene 3, Diane Gifford-Gonzalez 4, Darla Dale 5 & Richard Evershed 1 Organic Geochemistry Unit, Bristol Biogeochemistry Research Centre, School of Chemistry, University of Bristol, Cantock’s Close, Bristol BS 8 1 TS, U. K 2 Museum Applied Center for Archaeology , University of Pennsylvania , 3260 South Street, Philadelphia, PA 19104, U. S. A 3 School of Arts and Sciences , United States International University, Thika Road Kasarani, Nairobi, Kenya, P. O. Box 14634 00800 4 Department of Anthropology, University of California Santa Cruz, 351 Social Sciences 1, Santa Cruz, CA 95064, U. S. A 5 Department of Anthropology, Washington University in Saint Louis, College of Arts and Sciences, St. Louis, MO 63130 -4899 1
Lipids in Archaeological Pottery n Present in all plants and animals n Lipids from foods are absorbed into the ceramic matrix during cooking n They remain trapped in the clay over archaeological time n Degrade into component compounds
African Archaeology n Split into geographical areas n Cultures and chronologies: reconstructed based mainly on pottery ware and linguistics n Knowledge of daily life based on artifacts recovered anthropological observations of modern equivalents n Vast areas still unexplored archaeologically n Lipid analysis yet to be applied to more than a handful of sites Frontispiece (Phillipson, 2005)
Sites
Gogo Falls West bank of the Kuja river n Pottery from c. 5000 – 1770 years before present n Laikipia Nature Conservancy Laikipia Plateau n E. of Lake Victoria n Occupation between 3000 BP to Iron Age n Pottery from 3000 BP – 1300 BP n
Adrar Bous Siror In western Kenya, 20 km from Lake Victoria n Dates of occupation at this site: c. 7700 bp – 2800 bp n Tenerian Kiffian Massif (large block of bedrock) n Edge of Tenerian desert (Niger) n Pottery from 9500 BP and 3900 BP n
Faunal Remains n Siror: Eight different kinds of fish n Laikipia: domestic cattle, sheep and goat n Adrar Bous: domestic cattle (Tenerian) and aquatic animals (Kiffian)
Questions n Given the abundance and diversity of wild faunal remains at these sites, what uses were the domesticates being put to? n Possible answers include: § Protein source § Dairy products § Blood n Were fish or terrestrial mammals the primary food source at Siror and Gogo Falls?
Methods
Lipids Present n East Africa: § Gogo Falls: 22/48 sherds (46%) § Laikipia: 3/13 sherds (23%) § Siror: 2/8 sherds (25%) n West Africa § Adrar Bous: 8/15 sherds (53%) n Total: 35/84 (42%) lipid-bearing
Results – Gogo Falls
Results - Laikipia
Results - Siror
Results – Adrar Bous
Gogo Falls Sherd #08
Results: GC-C-IRMS
Conclusions n 42% of sherds were lipid-bearing n Majority of lipids are animal fats, with some plant waxes n Source of lipids in one sherd (so far) may be aquatic fish n Source of C 16: 0 and C 18: 0 fatty acids may be non-ruminants (i. e. suids) with a high C 4 diet
Future Work n More sherds from various sites to be cleaned and extracted n GC-C-IRMS of fatty acids previously recovered n HTGC & GC-C-IRMS of reference fats n Base extraction of bound lipids n GC-MS of unknown compounds
Acknowledgements n Richard Evershed n Robert Berstan n Kathleen Ryan, Karega-Munene, Diane Gifford-Gonzalez, Darla Dale n Everyone in the Bristol OGU n This audience Questions?
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