Airborne Starch Granules as a Potential Contamination Source at Archaeological Sites

Laurence, Andrew R.; Thoms, Alston V.; Bryant, Vaughn; McDonough, C. M.

doi:10.2993/0278-0771-31.2.213

Cited by 40 publications

(38 citation statements)

References 49 publications

(62 reference statements)

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“…Likewise, starch granules extracted from residues inside ancient pots used for cooking have been suggested to originate from starchy foods [36,76,77]. However, some concerns have been raised regarding the integrity of the evidence based on such findings of starch granules and their use to infer plant species of origin [78][79][80].…”

Section: Residues From Grinding Stones and Potsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Archaeological Starch

Copeland

Hardy

2018

Agronomy

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Abstract:This article reviews evidence of how starch granules associated with archaeological artefacts provide an insight into the use of plants by our ancestors for food, medicines and cultural activities. The properties of starch relevant to archaeological contexts, methods for examining ancient starch and the types of environmental conditions that would promote survival of starch granules over hundreds of thousands of years as part of the archaeological record, are considered. Starch granules identified in dental calculus are clear indicators of the individual having consumed starchy food as part of the diet. However, surviving starch granules may be only a tiny fraction of those consumed over a lifetime and not necessarily representative of foods that were in the diet. A hypothesis, based on a combination of archaeological, physiological and genetic evidence, that plant foods containing high quantities of digestible starch were essential for the evolution of the modern human phenotype, is discussed.

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Section: Residues From Grinding Stones and Potsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Archaeological Starch

Copeland

Hardy

2018

Agronomy

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“…Starch contamination can originate in soils, air currents, and on laboratory and human surfaces (46)(47)(48)(49), so precautions were taken to minimize contamination of the samples. In this study, sources of contamination were linked to slide preparation rather than laboratory processing.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Starch granule evidence for the earliest potato use in North America

Louderback

Pavlik

2017

Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.

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The prehistory of wild potato use, leading to its domestication and diversification, has been well-documented in, and confined to, South America. At least 20 tuber-bearing, wild species of Solanum are known from North and Central America, yet their importance in ancient diets has never been assessed from the archaeological record. Here, we report the earliest evidence of wild potato use in North America at 10,900–10,100 calendar years (cal) B.P. in the form of well-preserved starch granules extracted from ground stone tools at North Creek Shelter, southern Utah. These granules have been identified as those of Solanum jamesii Torr. (Four Corners potato), a tuber-bearing species native to the American Southwest. Identification was based on applying five strictly defined diagnostic characteristics (eccentric hilum, longitudinal fissure, lack of fissure branching, fissure ratio, and maximum granule size) to each of 323 archaeological granules. Of those, nine were definitively assigned to S. jamesii based on possession of all characteristics, and another 61 were either likely or possibly S. jamesii depending on the number of characteristics they possessed. The oldest granules were found in substratum 4k (10,900–10,100 cal B.P.). Younger deposits, dating to ∼6,900 cal B.P., also contained tools with S. jamesii granules, indicating at least 4,000 y of intermittent use. Ethnographic and historical accounts extend the period of use to more than 10,000 y. The question then arises as to whether some S. jamesii populations could have undergone transport, cultivation, and eventual domestication over such a long period of time.

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“…small recovered assemblages, 2. high contamination risk in both the field (Hart 2011;Laurence et al 2011;Dozier 2016;Mercader et al 2017) and the laboratory (Loy and Barton 2006;Crowther et al 2014;García-Granero et al 2016), 3. poor understanding of how plant-derived biomolecules and their often complex diagenetic products adsorb onto surfaces, 4. disparity in reporting standards,…”

Section: New Taphonomic Criteria and Authenticationmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…It remains problematic to excavate archaeological artefacts under field conditions that cannot assure the systematic avoidance of contamination (Laurence et al 2011). Mercader et al (2017 recommended that field archaeologists characterise the starch contamination landscape that is specific to their study area and utilise dedicated excavation tools that can be cleaned frequently with a solvent or starch gelatinising agent.…”

Section: Authentication Proceduresmentioning

confidence: 99%

Exaggerated expectations in ancient starch research and the need for new taphonomic and authenticity criteria

Mercader¹,

Bundala²,

Collins³

et al. 2018

Preprint

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Document VersionPublisher's PDF, also known as Version of record Citation for published version (APA):Mercader, J., Akeju, T., Brown, M., Bundala, M., Collins, M. J., Copeland, L., ... Xhauflair, H. (2018). Exaggerated expectations in ancient starch research and the need for new taphonomic and authenticity criteria. FACETS, 3, AbstractAncient starch research illuminates aspects of human ecology and economic botany that drove human evolution and cultural complexity over time, with a special emphasis on past technology, diet, health, and adaptation to changing environments and socio-economic systems. However, lapses in prevailing starch research demonstrate the exaggerated expectations for the field that have been generated over the last few decades. This includes an absence of explanation for the millennial-scale survivability of a biochemically degradable polymer, and difficulties in establishing authenticity and taxonomic identification. This paper outlines new taphonomic and authenticity criteria to guide future work toward designing research programs that fully exploit the potential of ancient starch while considering growing demands from readers, editors, and reviewers that look for objective compositional identification of putatively ancient starch granules.

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Airborne Starch Granules as a Potential Contamination Source at Archaeological Sites

Abstract: BioOne Complete (complete.BioOne.org) is a full-text database of 200 subscribed and open-access titles in the biological, ecological, and environmental sciences published by nonprofit societies, associations, museums, institutions, and presses.

Cited by 40 publications

References 49 publications

Archaeological Starch

Archaeological Starch

Starch granule evidence for the earliest potato use in North America

Exaggerated expectations in ancient starch research and the need for new taphonomic and authenticity criteria

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