Relationships Between Lipid Profiles and Use of Ethnographic Pottery: an Exploratory Study

Abstract

Investigating the organic content of archaeological pottery has largely focused on identifying food commodities, but their use and mode of processing still need to be thoroughly investigated. The present study aims to explore the diversity of organic residue absorption patterns, over a wider range of functions than previously studied by experimentation, by analysing ceramics still in use today. A field survey in Bedik Country, Senegal, where the use of pottery is still alive, was conducted to document the uses of ceramics and to interview potters and users of the vessels. As a preliminary study, nine ceramics whose use was recorded were investigated through 59 samples for their absorbed molecular profiles, lipid concentrations, and the preservation of triglycerides and C18 unsaturated fatty acids. The interpretations were first carried out as a blind test and then compared with the actual use. Lipid concentrations and molecular profiles indicated a diversity of contents, and the comparison of samples taken along the vertical transects of the vessels resulted in pottery function hypotheses that were broadly aligned with the actual uses. Cooking pots for fat-rich products were successfully identified, but the various documented patterns showed that lipid accumulation in ceramics is more complex than expected. Although caution is required to adopt this approach for archaeological pots, the vessel for fermenting plant products has been identified. Last, this work pointed out that ceramics can be used for a wider range of purposes than those usually considered for archaeological pottery, such as steaming or cooking non-food products.

The impact of cooking and burial on proteins: a characterisation of experimental foodcrusts and ceramics

“…We note that there was a surprising level of variation in lipid concentration between replicates of identical input ingredients and weight. This revealed that in addition to the impact of cooking practice and frequency of use [50], even identically processed foodcrusts are not homogenous. However due to the small sample size it was not possible to reveal the impact of lipid content on protein detection (supplementary text S5).…”

“…Compared to proteomics, there is a diversity of published experiments exploring how lipids derived from different ingredients respond to a range of cooking and deposition practices [for example 44,[45][46][47][48][49][50]. For instance, Miller et al [44] demonstrate that absorbed lipids extracted from ceramics represent a long period of use, while surface deposits represent the most recent cooking events.…”

Domestic food practice and vessel‐use at Salūt‐ST1, central Oman, during the Umm an‐Nar period

“…Lipid concentrations from fragments belonging to the same vessel were compared to (1) assess the reliability of lipid concentration values obtained and (2) measure the gradient of lipid concentration across the vessel profile to make inferences about vessel use, if possible (Table 3). Such work has previously been carried out on ethnographic ceramic vessels from Senegal (Drieu et al, 2022). Table 3 shows that fragments belonging to the same Indus BSJ demonstrate a relatively constrained range of values for lipid yields.…”

Investigating grandmothers’ cooking: A multidisciplinary approach to foodways on an archaeological dump in Lower Casamance, Senegal

“…; e.g. [12][13][14][15]). Very detailed information is sometimes obtained by microscopic observation of charred residues on the surfaces of ceramic vessels (e.g.…”