Ancient Organic Residues as Cultural and Environmental Proxies: The Value of Legacy Objects

Abstract

Often treated as an accessory science, organic residue analysis (ORA) has the capacity to illuminate otherwise hidden aspects of ancient technology, culture, and economy, and therein can play a central role in archaeological inquiry. Through ORA, both the intact vessel freshly excavated from a tomb and the sherd tucked away in a museum storage closet can offer insights into their contents, their histories, and the cultures that created them-provided the results can be carefully calibrated to account for their treatment during and after excavation. The case study below presents ORA data obtained from a range of artifacts from Late Bronze Age Crete, setting results from freshly-excavated and legacy objects alongside one another. Although legacy objects do tend to yield diminished results from both a quantitative and qualitative perspective, our comparative work has demonstrated both their value and untapped potential when their object biographies are carefully considered. It also sheds light on biomarker degradation processes, which have implications for methodologies of extraction and interpretation of legacy objects. Comparative studies such as these broaden the pool of viable ORA candidates, and therein amplify ORA's ability to reveal patterns of consumption as well as ecological and environmental change. They also highlight the role and value of data-sharing in collaborative environments such as the OpenARCHEM archaeometric database.Sustainability 2019, 11, 656 2 of 20 chemical, environmental, and anthropogenically-induced degradation that affect them; it also has significant implications for future methodologies of sample collection and interpretation.In the comparative case study below, we present, in parallel, ORA results taken from artifacts excavated at Mochlos and Tourloti, both Late Bronze Age (LBA) sites in East Crete (Figure 1). We offer some preliminary comments on their ramifications for the variable expression of compounds, the significance of vessel topography, and the overarching value of legacy data in ORA studies as a whole. This is the second in a series of short studies undertaken with the ARCHEM library of samples integrated into the OpenARCHEM archaeometric database, a new open-access repository, resource, and publication outlet for archaeometric data [2].Sustainability 2019, 11 FOR PEER REVIEW 2

Shared technologies for pottery and acorns processing? Multidisciplinary and functional approach to modular kilns

“…Although it is impossible to determine the origin of the vegetable oils due to the wide variety of plants that contain them, we can nevertheless hypothesise about their provenance from other archaeobotanical evidence and the context of the kilns. The most common interpretation of the presence of oleic acid in ceramic vessels is olive oil (Kimpe et al 2001;Koh and Birney 2019;Romanus et al 2009;Sacchi et al 2020); however, during the 1st millennium BCE, oil production was limited to the Mediterranean and southern areas of Iberia (Pérez-Jordà et al 2021). Only from the Roman period onwards did it frequently reach the northern regions and local production is likely (Teira-Brión 2022).…”

Morpho-chemical characterization of individual ancient starches retrieved on ground stone tools from Palaeolithic sites in the Pontic steppe

“…of starch-rich plants before consumption are not well-documented across the Late Pleistocene, although these activities may leave behind use-related biogenic residues 2 (U-RBRs) on the active surfaces of the pebbles used as ground stone tools (GSTs). Proving the intentional processing of carbohydrate-rich plants through the analysis of potential GSTs is still controversial and often limited by the object biography and possible contamination that may be due to modern starches occurring during activities carried out in the field (excavations), throughout conservation procedures in museum settings, and even in laboratory settings 3 , 4 .…”

Analysis and control of fungal deterioration on the surface of pottery figurines unearthed from the tombs of the Western Han Dynasty

“…The research and protection of underground historical relics is of great significance. Underground historical relics and their burial places (such as caves, necropolises, monuments, catacombs, tombs, and crypts) are valuable heritage of human civilization (Koh and Birney, 2019;Botticelli et al, 2020;Luo et al, 2021).…”

“…The research and protection of underground historical relics is of great significance. Underground historical relics and their burial places (such as caves, necropolises, monuments, catacombs, tombs, and crypts) are valuable heritage of human civilization ( Koh and Birney, 2019 ; Botticelli et al, 2020 ; Luo et al, 2021 ). To analyze and study the fungal deterioration on the surface of the pottery figurines and determine the appropriate control measures for them, we visited the warehouse the pottery figurines were stored in for on-site observation in July 2021 and took some samples for analysis.…”